The Working People's Control Committees (Wpccs)

After the creation of the WPE in 1984, the regime turned to the partisan politicization model by establishing a wide array of government institutions that radiated from the center out to the regional and local levels. Leadership positions in these new institutions were used as patronage by the regime to reward loyal supporters or to co-opt potential adversaries in the military. The inauguration of the WPE resulted in a blurring of the lines between party and state. Party operatives tended to interject themselves freely into the areas of administration and government policy. For example, party cadres had important political and intelligence gathering roles in the workplace. The Working People’s Control Committees (WPCCs), created in 1981, and had come to serve as a somewhat threatening “watchdog” over productive activities.
WPCCs also could audit the accounts of any government institution, mass organization, or private individual. By 1984 the regime was crediting WPCCs with having uncovered numerous incidents of fraud, corruption, waste, and counterrevolution. In conclusions, the Dergue regime was put in disarray by the fusion of the institutions of party, state and government that gave various attributes of politicization in the administrative system. It also encouraged the proliferation of parallel structures by appointing party functionaries to key decision-making civil service positions. Hence duplication and fragmentation of public functions and the downplaying of merit and professionalism became the order of the