By Busisiwe Mavuso
The professionalisation of the civil service is a key matter for organised business in our effort to support improved service delivery.
The good news is that some important steps have been taken by the government to improve performance, including the signing into law last week of the Public Service Commission (PSC) Act.
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This will extend the function of the PSC to cover municipalities and public entities, and give it some real teeth to enforce improved practices across government. It comes after several other new laws and amendments that will help create competent and clean public service delivery.
The PSC Act enables the PSC to direct executive authorities in public entities to report back on progress in implementing decisions. Previously, its decisions could be largely ignored with no consequences.
Now obstruction of the PSC is a criminal offence carrying up to 12 months in prison or a fine of up to R50,000, or both. The PSC will have the power to robustly impose changes to improve service delivery. No longer will it be a body that just writes reports that gather dust.
Of course, as with any legislation, the laws mean nothing if they aren’t implemented. The PSC will need the capacity to be able to investigate and monitor performance. To help, the new legislation creates a secretariat to support its operations, while the commissioners will now be appointed through a process that ensures its constitutional independence.
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But the PSC has in the past seen resources diverted away from it, forcing it to cut back staff even while its workload was growing. It was already struggling to monitor national and provincial government; the addition of 257 municipalities and several other public bodies will stretch its resources even further.
I cannot see the PSC becoming effective without meaningful increases in its budget. Let us see if the next budget delivers the necessary resources.
It will also need the National Prosecuting Authority to act on cases of obstruction of the PSC if its teeth are to have any bite. So, while the legal architecture is stronger, we still need to see whether it will be able to make a difference at the coalface of municipal service delivery.
The new act follows several others, including last year’s Public Service Amendment Act (PSA), which removed politicians’ power to appoint civil servants below the head of department level, moving the authority to directors-general and heads of department.
That effectively ends political meddling in civil servant appointments below the most senior appointments and empowers the heads of departments to appoint and hold accountable their own teams.
Of course, DG appointments will remain political decisions, so we do need our politicians to make good choices. But that is as a democracy should be. Beyond senior appointments, however, the managers are now left to get on with doing the job.
Public Administration Management Amendment
A third key piece of legislation was the Public Administration Management Amendment (PAMA) Act that focuses on the ethical conduct of public office bearers. It prohibits public servants from conducting business with the state or being directors of companies that do.
It introduces a 12-month cooling-off period preventing those involved in assessing tender bids from providing any services to an awarded provider. It also formalises the National School of Government as a national department with a mandate to train civil servants.
Together, these three pieces of legislation amount to a significant overhaul of the rules governing the civil service. The PSA removes patronage and the cadre deployment approach to civil service appointments, the PAMA closes out conflict of interest problems such as civil servants conducting business with the state and the PSC Act provides for oversight and consequences for those who do not act appropriately.
These are all very good and credit belongs to the Department of Public Service and Administration, and specifically to former minister Mondli Gungubele and his successor, Inkosi Buthelezi, who drove this legislation through.
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It is a great achievement and represents the Government of National Unity at its best, especially considering the two key ministers are from different parties.
But the hard work now lies ahead to turn these powers into real effectiveness. And that cannot be done by one department alone – it needs all the state monitoring and oversight machinery as well as the criminal justice system to be effective. That is why, ultimately, we cannot succeed until we get all of government working effectively.
Busisiwe Mavuso is the CEO of Business Leadership South Africa.
