WAMU countries simply spend too much on the state payroll. This causes a heavy dependence on foreign financing. These states should spend less on wages without reducing average wages, since low average wages result in absenteeism, a bad quality of public services, and the departure of the most competent employees. Second, there are institutional and organizational problems. Thirdly, there are problems of morale.
Morale is low in all levels of public service in Africa.
This diagnosis is based on economic considerations, management defects, and institutional factors. The last category of problems are the political difficulties because of excessive political interference. Politicization of the central administration turns away potentially better candidates, exacerbates economic and social inequalities, and creates conflict. One of the overall characteristics of the civil service in the industrialized countries is the choice of civil servants on a competitive basis. In Japan the contemporary public bureaucracy has become one of the smallest, least expensive, best co-ordinate and most efficient systems in the world.