A Directive outlining control measures to support Executive Authorities to effectively manage the public sector wage bill during the process of creating and filing of funded vacant posts in the public service space.
The Directive issued by Public Service and Administration Minister, Ms Noxolo Kiviet will be effective immediately.
Few weeks ago, the National Treasury issued guidelines regarding costing and budgeting for compensation of employees because of the current challenging fiscal environment.
As a result, Minister Kiviet has issued a Directive outlining control measures to support executive authorities in effectively managing fiscal sustainability during the process of creating and filling vacant posts in the public service space.
The Directive is issued to elucidate regulations 25 (2)(a), (b) and 40 of the Public Service Regulations, 2016.
In a circular to all Heads of national departments and provincial government administrations, DPSA Director-General, Ms Yoliswa Makhasi said the motivation for creating or filling certain vacant posts on PERSAL or PERSOL must be submitted for concurrence with the Minister for the Public Service and Administration in the case of a national department or national government component.
She further said the relevant Premier in the case of a provincial department or provincial government component.
Chief Financial Officers are expected to advise their departments on the financial implications of creating or filling certain critical posts and confirm the availability of funding for the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
To assist national departments and national government components in this process of concurrence, Ms Makhasi said the DPSA has established a secure platform for sharing, guiding, and prescribed documents for this purpose.
“This platform can also be made available to Offices of the Premier in the case of provincial departments and provincial government components. In this instance, assistance to Offices of the Premier is available from the DPSA,” she said adding that access to the platform can be obtained by sending an email with the name, designation, and email address of the relevant departmental representative to Oscar.Tshivhase@dpsa.gov.za and RonelleB@dpsa.gov.za.
The DPSA and Offices of the Premier will be responsible for guiding and monitoring the implementation of the Directive in the Public service.
According to Ms Makhasi, they will do this through providing advice, guidance, and support services to departments regarding the requirements of the Directive as well as assessing motivation for creating or filling certain critical posts in line with the criteria in the Directive.
She says they will also verify the availability of funding over the MTEF period with national or provincial treasury budget analysts.
Together with the Offices of the Premier, we will also maintain a register of requests for concurrence and issuing unique authorisation numbers for creating or filling concurred vacant posts as well as monitor compliance with the Directive.
