While the public service has done much in forming legislative and regulatory frameworks and policies, it needs to put this into practice, the Public Service Commission said on Thursday.
Releasing the fifth annual state of the public service report, Professor Stan Sangweni, chairperson of the commission, said it focused on the capacity of the public service to deliver on its programmes.
”What is important now is to systematically and on a sustained basis strengthen the operational ability of the public service to translate the policies into fruitful activities.”
He said there were some ”serious questions” about capacity in the public service that needed to be addressed.
”These include the capacity for optimal utilisation of human resources, the capacity for more consistent policy implementation, and the capacity to fully achieve a citizen-centred public service and improve the management of performance.”
Sangweni said monitoring and evaluation was yet to be effectively used within government departments as a management tool.
”What currently exists in and across departments of the capacity to do this is far from developed,” he said.
The commission also had questions about service delivery, saying it was yet another plan that still needed to be implemented.
”In most departments the capacity to adhere to the Batho Pele principles has not fully developed beyond merely displaying the posters bearing them on the walls,” Sangweni said.
The report also raised questions about the qualified audit opinion in most provincial departments of education, health and social development. It stated that it was especially worrying since those departments received the largest share of the budget.
On employment equity, the report states that progress was made in numeric targets but the low representation of women in management and people with disabilities remained a concern.
Sangweni said the report would be brought to the attention of Cabinet to take further action.
”The commission will continue to monitor the performance of the public service and through its reporting generate a broader discussion and debate in the service-delivery discourse,” Sangweni said. — Sapa