ETHICS IN NIGERIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICE DELIVERY

Abstract

Absence of ethical conduct and moral value in public administration in Nigeria has been a major source of corruption and monumental decay in public infrastructure development and public service delivery. Despite attempts to uphold ethical standards in public service through the promotion of ethics infrastructural and establishment of institutional mechanism tocheck mate the ugly trend, unethical practice and corruption appears to be on the increase with its attendant negative effect on general economic outlook. This paper examines the ethical issues in public administration to encourage the application of ethics in public administration and ensure efficient and effective public service delivery. In this regard the paper relies extensively on secondary source of data collection method and use content analysis for data analysis. The study found out that the introduction of ethics infrastructure and institutions for arresting unwholesome practices and misconduct in public service could not yield the desired result. The high level of corruption exhibited by public office holders in service delivery is due to lack of transparency in its conduct of public duty. The paper therefore suggested election of a political leader with political will that will enforce high level of ethical standard which in turn will stimulate overall development in the society.