Question NW718 to the Minister of Public Service and Administration
17 March 2023 - NW718
Nothnagel, Dr J to ask the Minister of Public Service and Administration
(1) With reference to the State of the Nation Address on 9 February 2023, during which the President, Mr M C Ramaphosa, announced that integrity assessments will become a mandatory requirement for recruitment into the Public Service along with entry exams to professionalise the Public Service by appointing ethical public servants, what prohibits her department from rolling out integrity testing for all public servants who are already in the system and new recruits; (2) whether the integrity test should not be an exercise over a certain period in the Public Service in order to establish integrity in the Public Service; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. The DPSA has already appointed a service provider to identify and pilot appropriate Integrity Psychometric Assessment tools to be included in the existing SMS assessment battery. This project has already commenced and will be concluded on the second quarter of 2023/24 Financial year. This project is mainly for SMS members and does not include all public servants for now. Lessons learnt from the pilot will guide and inform the way forward in as far as other public servants, outside the SMS, are concern.
2. The Integrity Psychometric Assessment tools will serve as a vehicle for advancing the notion of an ethical state and also as a tool towards professionalising recruitment and may be a permanent feature of the public service going forward and not subjected to specific timelines.
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