The Public Service Commission is required by section 196 (4) (e) of the Constitution to provide an evaluation of the extent to which the values and principles in section 195 are complied with in the Public Service. The PSC therefore uses the nine values as the frame for its analysis.
The PSC publishes every year its State of the Public Service Report based on the 9 principles as provided in Chapter 10 of the Constitution:
7.1. Maintenance of High Standard of Professional Ethics
Fighting corruption is a major focus on this principle. In its fight against corruption, the government has promulgated legislation and put in place measures- an integrity infrastructure to try and discourage the scourge of corruption. The indicators were identified to assess the state of the integrity infrastructure which includes: minimum anti-corruption capacity, feedback on the National Anti-corruption hotline, compliance with disclosure of financial interest policy, number
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of cases for financial misconduct, the PSC M&E system scores and the State of Professional Ethics in North-West Province (The 2011 State of the Public Service Report).
7.2. Promotion of Efficient, Economic and Effective Use of Resources
This principle requires the PSC to assess whether the government is performing efficiently, economically and effectively. This is a difficult task because it must be linked to departmental strategic plans, budgeting, performance monitoring and evaluation, and service delivery. This principle implies a relationship between the inputs, outputs and outcomes with the Public Service system (The 2011 State of the Public Service Report).
7.3. Developmentally-oriented Public Administration
The National Planning Commission in its diagnostic overview asserted that the developmental state model positions the state at the centre of efforts to transform the society.
This implies that the state and the Public Service need to play a crucial role in building the necessary capacity to drive the development process. In this principle, the following indicators are used to assess the performance of the public Service: impact of social grants, access to basic services, unemployment, job creation under the EPWP, the PSC monitoring and evaluation system and assessing development capabilities (The 2011 State of the Public Service Report).
7.4. Impartial, Fair, Equitable and Unbiased Services Provision
This principle deals with the most important function of government that of delivering services to the people. The PSC uses the following indicators in assessing government:
compliance with the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, equity in district-level per capita primary health-care expenditure, equity in municipal per capita spending by province and equity in education outcomes (The 2011 State of the Public Service Report).
7.5.Responsiveness to People’s Needs and Public Participation in Policy-making This principle is looking at the strides the government has taken to involve the citizens in policy-making and also the important issue of addressing the needs of the citizens. The government is still faced with a lot of challenges with regards to effective public participation especially in policy-making. In his State of the Nation address, the President highlighted the importance of citizen feedback and participation through using modern media such as twitter and face-book. At National level, the Cabinet approved the new Public Participation programme outreach initiative previously known as IZIMBIZO which is an executive mechanism to engage the public. This is an important outreach campaign for communities especially remote rural areas where the executive directly engages with the public. In this principle, the work of the Community Development Workers is also assessed as they play an important role in extending government
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services to the people. The indicators used in this principle include: PSC’s M&E system, the effectiveness of the ward committee system on local government level and the PSC’s citizen satisfaction surveys score-cards(The 2011 State of the Public Service Report).
7.6. Accountable Public Administration
Accountability is an important principle since it requires that the Public Service opens its business or operations for public examination. It can be argued that this principle is perhaps much more relevant than it was in the past because more and more South Africans are demanding that the government accounts for its actions and in particular how it serves the citizens and how it spends its resources. In this principle the indicators used are: the proportion of HODS who were evaluated as against those who qualified to be evaluated, the filing of performance agreements, the PSC M&E system scores and the audit outcomes of departments and municipalities (The 2011 State of the Public Service Report).
7.7. Fostering Transparency and Public Access to Timely and Accurate Information Transparency promotes openness and includes the principle of accountability. In its mandate to monitor and determine whether the departments promote transparency the PSC assesses the quality of departmental annual reports as well as compliance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No. 2 of 2000). The annual report is the key accountability mechanism but must be written in such a manner that it is simple and clear to the reader. The report must also cover the key strategic objectives and how they were achieved and reached.
The key requirement for annual reporting comes from the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No. 1 of 1999) which requires in section 40(3)(a) that Accounting officers must report on performance against predetermined objectives. The National Treasury has also issued guidelines in this regard. The intention is to make sure that the subjects covered by the annual reports are standardized. The M&E system of the PSC and the international Open Budget Index are the indicators which were used in this principle (The 2011 State of the Public Service Report).
The 2011 report further shows that the capability of the HRM support function in the entire Public Service is very low. It is very much necessary that the HRM divisions be staffed by HR Professionals who have the skills and the knowledge to put their unit as a strategic nerve of the Department. These HR professionals must acquire the necessary skills and knowledge.
7.8.Maximization of Human Potential and Cultivation of Good Human Resources Management and Career Development Practices
This is an important principle which ensures that the Public Service is practicing excellent HR practices, policies and procedures. This principle also requires that the Public service must recruit the best skills available in the country. This principle must also enhance high morale and
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productivity within the Public Service. The HR Planning is a tool to predict the demand for all categories of skills in the future, compare demand to the envisaged supply of skills and develop strategies that will ensure that the Public Service will be able to employ the staff it needs to achieve its strategic goals. The indicators used here include: submission of HR Plans by department, the scores of the PSC M&E system, the time-frame for filling the vacant posts as well as recruitment and selection practices in respect of section 57 managers and Municipal managers. This principle requires that the HR requirements be met by the Departments (The 2011 State of the Public Service Report).
7.9.Representative Public Administration, Employment and Personnel Management Practices: Ability, Objectivity, Fairness and Redress
The National Planning Commission’s review report has opened discussed issues and complexities surrounding South African institutions and its workforces on issues of representivity.
New policies were introduced with the aim of addressing the imbalances of the past. The value and relevance of the Affirmative policy in the Public Service has also been reviewed. Although the Department of Labour annually publishes the statistics in terms of the Equal Employment Act of 1995, it is important to check the composition of the Public Service in terms of this principle.
The indicators in this principle includes: achievement of representivity targets and the M&E system of the PSC scores. In terms of the 2011 Fact Sheet on the State of Public Service, there is still a lot to be done in implementing principle No. 9 ( 2011 Annual State of the Public Service Report).