Marion Edmunds
THE Presidential Review Commission, created a year ago to help in the reform of the public service, was set up for failure and should be abolished, one of its own members says.
Professor Fanie Cloete, of the School of Public Management at the University of Stellenbosch, has accused the government of manipulating the commission, which is supposed to be independent. The commission was created to recommend ways to shake up the country’s public service, long regarded as bloated and inefficient. It was to present its report in August, but has been derailed by internal problems.
In a hard-hitting letter to the Mail & Guardian, Cloete writes that “the only way in which the commisssion could succeed with its important mandate to advise the government about the medium-term to long- term strategic direction of the public service is if it gets full and public political and administrative support from the government without attempts to manipulate its activities.
“International experience has proved that real public-service reform can only happen if it is driven independently from outside but with input from within the bureaucracy.”
Cloete also accuses Dr Paseko Ncholo, Director-General of Public Works and Administration, of trying to redirect a portion of the R14,5-million committed to the commission by the British, Canadian and Swedish governments to his department to pursue his own reform initiatives.
Cloete says he will resign from the commission if steps are not taken to secure its financial and administrative independence. His threat comes in the wake of the resignation of the commission chair, Professor Bax Nomvete, although the departure of Nomvete has not yet been officially acknowledged.
Cloete suggests the job of reforming the public service be taken over by the newly created Public Service Commission, which is to be set up before the middle of the year in accordance with the new Constitution.
He also confirms there was an attempt by the government late last year to close the commission, which was reported by the M&G last year but was recently dismissed as unfounded rumour by the Minister of Public Works and Administration, Zola Skweyiya.
Ncholo declined to comment on Cloete’s accusations and reconfirmed the government’s support for the commission this week.