The Public Service Rules and the Conduct of Civil Servants in Imo State

Abstract

Many people in Imo State view the state Civil Service as a fraudulent body which squanders the resources of the state without making any appreciable returns to the coffers of the state. This perception is aggravated by the lack of accountability among civil servants. However, the Imo State Public Service Rules (PSR) prescribes sanctions for such lapses in the service. This work, therefore, assessed the extent to which the PSR held civil servants accountable for different acts of wrongdoing in the period 2011-2023. The Public Choice Theory was the framework of analysis for the work. The questionnaire and the interview were the main sources of data collection, while the data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The findings show that the PSR had no significant effect on the conduct of civil servants. To forestall this trend, the researcher recommended that workers indicted of wrongdoing should be sanctioned as provided for in the PSR and the Financial Instructions (FI).