The purpose of this paper is to outlinestrategic options for the reform of the public sector. Thestrategic options will be based upon an analysis of thepublic sector emerging from the civil war, and a longerperiod of deterioration and decline. The strategy will beexpressed in very broad-brush form; detailed planning willonly be possible once the basic strategic decisions havebeen taken. Years of corrupt, and ineffective government,causing - as well as compounded by - civil war, have leftSierra Leone with poor access to basic services, especiallyoutside Freetown, with substantial dependence on NGOs.Expenditure management is weak; there is no effectiveaccountability; human capacity is weak throughout the publicservice; and, the management of policy, and programs ishighly centralized in Freetown, and in the Office of thePresident, and the Ministry of Finance. Nonetheless, thereis now a strong consensus in favor of reforming the policyprocess, expenditure management, and accountability. And,there is an ever stronger determination to decentralize thedelivery of basic services. The "options" concernthe rate of decentralization. But, there is little worldwideexperience to suggest that rapid devolution can work interms of improving service delivery. Sierra Leone will needto be creative about the capacity issue: capacity does nothave to be produced by the public sector, but capacityexisting elsewhere can be effectively utilized by the publicsector. So the recommended option is to act aggressively tobuild capacity to support the soon-to-be newly elected localcouncils. And to be sure to allocate the funds needed tosupport their responsibilities for basic service delivery,which would be expanded as the councils demonstrate theircapacity to perform.
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