The Department of Public Service and Administration is striving for digitally transformed public service in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, says Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu.
Delivering his maiden Budget Vote Speech in Parliament, Minister Mchunu said: “in consultation with the Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies, we will continue to strive for digitally transformed public service in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
In responding to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan of a high-tech economy country, Minister Mchunu said his Department analysed information and Communication Technology audit information and found inadequate governance of ICT by government departments; poor co-ordination of investment in Cloud-based technology and service; ageing ICT infrastructure, compromising service delivery; and inadequate management of ICT-related risks.
Going forward the DPSA will continue to work with the Auditor-General of South Africa in prioritising areas needing urgent intervention. This year, he said they would finalise the following:
- The review of the corporate governance of ICT Policy Framework.
- The development of Information Security Standards; and
- The Cloud Policy.
In collaboration with Government Information Technology Officers Council, National Treasury and the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), we will continue to focus on more efficient and effective returns in respect of ICT expenditure.
The Public Service Commission
The Public Service Commission (PSC) will also establish strategic partnerships with stakeholders such as the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs as well as other government departments with oversight responsibility over public entities, with a view to strengthen the promotion of the values and principles in local government and public entities, which are not part of the public service.
Minister Mchunu said the PSC would be implementing a programme of evaluating departments against the public administration values and principles and developing solutions to current public administration challenges.
The Commission aims to change public administration from the current compliance culture to innovative and responsive public administration in line with the call of President Ramaphosa to make government create an enabling environment, use public resources wisely and invest in developing the country’s human potential.
“These evaluations move away from the compliance focus of the discontinued Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) to evaluation against the higher norm of the values and principles themselves,” he said.
