Amendment Bill
9 November 2006
On 9 November 2006, the Public Service and Administration Minister,
Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, led a debate on the first reading of the Public
Service Amendment Bill [B31-2006] in the NA, Parliament. The Bill proposes
amendments to the Public Service Act of 1994. The Bill proposes to address
various organisational and human resource areas that directly or indirectly
hamper service delivery in national and provincial departments, constituting
the public service.
The amendments in the Bill include provisions to improve staff mobility
arrangements within and to the public service, allowing for deploying staff
where they are most needed. These staff transfer and secondments require prior
consultation with affected employees and must enhance service delivery or
otherwise be in the public interest.
Some government functions are provided via departments and not close to the
point of service delivery and without direct accountability and decision-making
by the functionaries tasked with such delivery. On the other hand some
government functions are provided via entities outside the public service,
without the direct oversight by the relevant political head. To enable direct
service delivery through a focussed, fully ring-fenced entity, a new
institutional form, called a government agency, to be accommodated within the
public service is proposed in the Bill.
With the aim of enhancing organisational and human resource practices and of
limiting legal disputes, compliance with the Public Service Act prescripts as
well as collective agreements of its bargaining councils are to be
strengthened. The Bill proposes a number of mechanisms to improve compliance
with the Public Service Act, such as compulsory reporting of transgressions and
disciplining of transgressors.
The Bill proposes a prohibition on the re-employment in the public service
of employees dismissed for misconduct involving corrupt acts, and other kinds
of misconduct to be specified in regulations. If adopted, the prohibition on
re-employment will be for a stipulated period and different periods may be
determined for different kinds of misconduct.
Draft legislation to create a single legal framework for human resource and
management arrangements in national, provincial and local governments, viz. a
single public service, is envisaged to be submitted to the Cabinet in the near
future for approval, to publish for comment. The envisaged date of commencement
of such legislation is in 2009. The Public Service Act is now proposed to be
amended since some technical amendments and policy interventions are regarded
as urgent and should not await the legislation for a single public service.
Enquiries:
Clayson Monyela
Tel: (012) 336 1167
Cell: 082 806 7405
E-mail: claysonm@dpsa.gov.za
Issued by: Ministry for Public Service and Administration
9 November 2006
