THE ROLE OF GOVERNANCE IN IMPROVING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN LIBERIA: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Governance is widely recognized as a critical determinant of effective personnel administration and public sector performance. In developing countries, particularly Liberia, governance reforms have been implemented to strengthen accountability, transparency, merit-based recruitment, institutional capacity, and service delivery. Despite these efforts, personnel administration continues to face challenges, including political interference, corruption, weak accountability systems, and inadequate institutional capacity. This review synthesized existing empirical literature on the role of governance in improving personnel administration in Liberia and identified key governance factors influencing public sector human resource management. The study adopted a systematic review approach guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. 30 relevant literature sources were identified through Google Scholar, JSTOR, ResearchGate, Springer, government publications, and institutional reports. After the review, six major themes influencing personnel administration were identified as: accountability, transparency and ethical leadership, merit-based recruitment and promotion, institutional capacity, performance management, and decentralization. The findings indicate that good governance enhances employee productivity, organizational efficiency, professionalism, and public service delivery. However, corruption, political patronage, nepotism, weak monitoring systems, inadequate resources, and poor implementation of governance reforms continue to undermine personnel administration in Liberia.