Short-listing of candidates for interviews to serve as National Public Services Commissioners (postponement)

Meeting report

Postponement in short-listing of Candidates
The Chairperson apologised for arriving late. She informed Members that she was held up in a teleconference call with the Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation who was coordinating between the Committee and the Appropriations and Cooperative Governance committees.

The Chairperson noted that in the previous strategic planning session, the Committee had failed to discuss how to redesign the structure of the Department so that it could have an overarching approach in terms of issues affecting public service as a whole. The Committee would be presenting its proposals on this matter to the Chair of Chairs for debate.

The Chairperson welcomed everyone that was present and outlined the meeting agenda. Thereafter, she explained that the present structure was not a fully fledge committee but a sub-committee that was mandated by the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration to short-list candidates to be interviewed for vacancies on the Public Service Commission (PSC). The Portfolio Committee would then interview the candidates and forward its recommendation to the President in terms of the Public Service Commission Act.

The advert calling for nominations had expired on 20 May 2011. It had therefore been difficult on the side of the administration to compile all the CVs so that Members could receive them on time. As a result, Members were only seeing the CVs for the first time at the meeting and could not apply their minds properly. Members needed to reflect on the CVs before putting names forwards.

In terms of the procedure that had to be followed, the Committee would utilise the rest of the day to ensure that all Members had received copies of the CVs. The criteria to be followed would be outlined and discussed at the next meeting. This meant that 1 June 2011 would be set aside for finalising the short-list in terms of the programme. The short-list would then be handed to the support staff for them to do the organisational work of calling short-listed candidates for the interviews. Two days had been set aside for the interviews- 7 and 8 of June 2011.

The Committee had previously discussed the merits about conducting the short-listing and interviews in open. However, the prevailing view was that this should take place in closed sessions.

Members were encouraged to contact the Chairperson or the support staff if they wanted to raise any issues before the meeting next week.

The Members who would be part of the panel conducting the short-listing and interviews were named:

•Ms M Moloi-Moropa (ANC)
•Ms M Mohale (ANC)
•Mr L Suka (ANC)
•Ms H Van Schalkwyk (DA)
•Prof C Msimang (IFP)

Discussion
Mr H Gaum (ANC) enquired whether the interviews conducted on 7 and June would be at the same venue.

The Chairperson replied that the support staff would look into this matter and communicate to Members in due course via e-mail.

The meeting was adjourned.