Question NW1607 to the Minister of Public Service and Administration
12 August 2020 - NW1607
Schreiber, Dr LA to ask the Minister of Public Service and Administration
Whether the Government is considering introducing legislation aimed at creating a single Public Service to extend the national Government’s control over the Public Service in the municipal sphere; if not, why not; if so, (a) on what date will the draft legislation be introduced in Parliament and (b) what are the further relevant details?
Reply:
Around 2002 the vision for a Single Public Service was conceived and since then work has been done towards the realisation thereof. The objective of this Single Public Service (now referred to as the Single Public Administration) was underpinned by the need to improve service delivery through harmonisation of norms and standards to align human resource, Governance, Information Communication Technology and related arrangements in all three spheres of government i.e national, provincial and local government, taking into account the constitutional imperatives. To this extent the Public Administration Management Act, 2014 was enacted which, to a limited extent, addressed some of the objectives of the Single Public Administration such as-
A) The mobility of staff between the spheres of government- sections 5 and 6 of the Public Administration Management Act make transfers and secondments across spheres of government possible;
b) The provision of service centres to provide services of the 3 spheres of government at one place is provide for in section 18 of the Public Administration Management Act;
c) The creation of a common ethos and culture of public service- principles of section 195 of the Constitution is recognised in section 4 of the Public Administration Management Act;
d) The provision for an anti-corruption strategy and standards of conduct- provided for in section 15 of the Public Administration Management Act;
e) Ensuring the creation of norms and standards for e-government governance, information and communication technology throughout the public administration- section 14 of the Public Administration Management Act; and
f) Providing for the professionalisation of the public administration through training and development- Chapter 4 of the Public Administration Management Act.
We are currently focused on the full implementation of the Public Administration Management Act, which includes promulgation of relevant regulations and may include amendments to address areas where there have been challenges experienced in its implementation or where new policy is required to be introduced. Once the work required to be done to inform such an amendment is completed, we will be better placed to indicate the details thereof.