Public corporations are bussinees organisations which are directly under the control of government. They are not set up for profit making though they are expected to be able to to provide their own running expenses. They are expected to run as statutory corporations.
The importance of the nationalised industries in west Africa and elsewhere cannot be over- emphasized. They provide many of the basic necessities for in Nigeria these statutory corporations include:
A) SOCIAL SERVICES e.g
1) Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (J.A.M.B.)
2) Federal radio corporation.of Nigeria (F.R.C.N.)
3) National Telecommunication limited (NITEL)
4) National Electric Power Authority (N.E.P.A)
5) Nigerian Television Authority (NT.A)
6) Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST)
7) Nigerian Police Force ( N.P.F.)
8) State water Corporations
9) State Radio Houses
B) BUSINESS VENTURES e.g
1) Nigerian National petroleum Corporations
2) Nigerian National Supply Company (N.N.S.C)
3) Nigerian Railway Corporations (N.R.C)
4) Nigerian Airport Authority (N.A.A.)
5) Central Bank of Nigeria (C.B.N)
6) Nigeria Ports Authority (N.P.A)
7) River Basin Authority
Note- At the time of this Publication, there is an ongoing debate as at to whether Privatization could be effected for some of these public corporations.
NATIONAL CORPORATIONS
MANAGEMENT- After the creation of a National Corporation by the Government for some specific need of the general public,a board of directors is appointed. The Chairman and the board of directors then appoint professionals who are responsible for running the corporation. The progress (otherwise) of the corporation is made known to the Government through is administrative head, i.e the permanent secretary of the ministry in charge of the corporation.
ADVANTAGES
Capital: no single person or handful of person can provide the huge amount of capital needed by a national corporations.for example To run the railways the amount of fixed capital, working capital and manpower needed could not be adequately handled by a few people. If a private company were left to run this sort of undertaking it would have to charge the public very high prices to meet it's running costs.
Public interests: Many of these industries, for example transport, water and light, are key industries and their efficiency must be guaranteed. A private company might be unable to do this.
Efficiency: an industry that is composed of many separate units, each requiring large amount of capital investment, can be controlled more efficiently if it is brought under one central control. This create a monopoly in the industry which should be controlled by the government NIPOST and NITEL are good example of this.
Non-profit making: some services, e.g NIPOST and NITEL, may not attract private companies. Those which are attracted may find they are operating at a heavy loss. The government may subsidise the services for the benefit of the public. A private company could not do this.
Loan: public corporations can get loans at cheaper rates than private companies because the loans are guaranteed by the Government.
DISADVANTAGES
political inteference: there is the danger that whichever party is in power will interfere with bussinees decisions. Political appointment feature prominently in public corporations.
Impersonal relationship: due to the highly centralised nature of the public corporations, the top management is usually very remote from the employees.
This could lead to discontent among the employees.
Lack of Independence: though public corporations are not government departments, their managers are under pressure from both the government and the public.
Careless attitude: members of the public and employees of public corporations.
THE CIVIL SERVICE
The civil service is the executive arm of the government. This is because all the policies formulated by the ministers and enacted by the legislature (or the edicts and decrees in the case of a military regime) are put into practice by the body of workers known as civil servant. All members of the civil service are employee of the government though appointment can be on a permanent or contract basis. Civil servant are grouped into various ministries within which are also various divisions Each ministry deals specifically with a particular brach of government business.it should be noted that these officials ( Administrative officers, Executive Officers, Secretarial and Registry staff) are of various grades of seniority and in many ministries there are also numerous grades of professional and technical staff. Most Administrative and Executive posts in the services are created so that each particular subject can be dealt with by an officer scheduled for such duties, for example executive officer account, Executive Officers Administration, etc They are classified as scheduled officers.
ADVANTAGES
1) solid packages- The government jobs offer is the solid salary package. Although, it is believed that the private sectors offer more than the government sectors, but it is true to limited spheres only.
2) Allowance- Government job offers allowance that makes inflation hardly affect
3) enough vacation and leave- Government job will still pay you if you are offered a large numbers of day as holiday and still enjoy more days as holiday than the private job.
DISADVANTAGES
1) Slow salary growth: Government employee don't enjoy salary adjustment according to the rate of inflation
2) control: Civil service workers often get frustrated by the amount of bureaucracy and the low level of control their position offers.
Nice write up