Professionalism is one of the cornerstones that enables government to deliver on its mandate of an effective and efficient public service, says Public Service and Administration Deputy Minister, Dr Chana Pilane-Majake.
Deputy Minister Pilane-Majake was speaking at the opening of the three-day public service compliance and Human Resources conference in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg on Wednesday.
“For government to deliver its mandate, it must be professional, effective, and efficient in the use of resources. Public service must be development-oriented, impartial in the provision of services, responsive to the needs of the people, accountable, transparent and be representative of the people of South Africa.
“With the dawn of democracy, public service needed to change and adapt to the key values and principles of transparency and inclusivity as spoused in the Constitution of RSA.
“It is these values and principles based on the spirit of ubuntu together with high powered state capacity that should enable public service to perform effectively and efficiently in delivery of basic services to the people of SA,” she said.
During his State of the Nation Address earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “A professional public service, staffed by skilled, committed and ethical people, is critical for an effective state and ending corruption, patronage and wastage”.
He further said that in line with the State Capture Commission response, a framework for professionalisation of the public service has been developed with the sole mandate of, integrity assessments as a requirement for recruitment to the public service.
In 2014, government introduced in Parliament, the Public Administration Management Act (PAMA) which was adopted as an implementation mechanism for minimum norms and standards.
The Office of Standards and Compliance is established in accordance with Section 17 (1) of PAMA. The key objective of the Office is to improve compliance with minimum norms and standards in government institutions.
The Minister for Public Service and Administration monitors compliance to minimum norms and standards in all three spheres of government noting the distinctive, inter-dependent and interrelated character of government. The Office of Standards and Compliance has developed two Compliance Monitoring reports over the last two years.
“We are building on the significant improvements that have been made over the last three decades, whilst building state capacity to face emerging challenges which require public administration to think and work differently.
“I implore on you to work together to find solutions to improve policy implementation and look for areas where we can collaborate and come up with implementation plans which can change people’s lives,” she said.
