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submitting to this type of review underscores the sensitivity of the exercise.

Data Collection and Computerization of Personnel Management Functions For most countries surveyed, data about employment numbers and structure, pay and non-wage compensation systems, and career promotion patterns are often unavailable, inaccessible or unreliable. Frequently, only rough estimates can be obtained for numbers of civil service employees. Still less is known by central governments about employment numbers in the public enterprise sector as a whole. (Even where the Bank has tied SAL conditionality to employment reductions, as in Costa Rica, data were reported to be very approximate for the civil service and not available at all for the public enterprises.) In some countries, such as Senegal, data on pay systems are incomplete due to the absence of adequate information about the elaborate non-wage allowance system. Some data problems stem from the reluctance of governments to surrender to the Bank sensitive information about employment and pay. But in general, governments themselves are unable to access information within their own personnel management systems, many of which are still administered manually. In some instances, the mechanized payroll records are not linked to personnel recruitment records kept in the civil service ministry. This is one reason why there are phantom employees receiving paychecks. Thus several Bank operations, such as those in Mauritania, Ghana and the Central African Republic, have financed the computerization of the personnel management system and the reconciliation of personnel records with those of the payroll. For several countries where ghost elimination has been significant, mechanization and reconciliation of payroll appears to have been crucial. Moreover, the usefulness of censuses in ghost elimination is enhanced by subsequent payroll and personnel record automation.

# Diagnostics and Studies

In an attempt to fill the data gaps discussed above, the Bank has financed studies of various aspects of employment and pay issues. Through its sector work, the Bank has also conducted diagnostic studies of various issues in public administration, with attention to public pay and employment questions, as part of project preparation for several T.A. projects. Two such studies were carried out in Mauritania and Senegal. The Mauritania diagnostic was reportedly useful in gathering essential information about the personnel system as well as in facilitating Bankgovernment communications in this area. In Senegal, initial ambiguity about the purpose of the Bank's diagnostic work caused the government some concern at first, but the information gathered helped lay a more solid foundation for the preparation of a Development Management Technical Assistance Project and helped broaden government views on key issues. The degree to which such diagnostic tools may be useful in preparing and in building country support for operational activities is worth further exploration.

# Institutional Arrangements

The institutional arrangements under which pay and employment reform takes place influence its outcome. In a number of countries, reform