The new public service

The government has published a bill that has been in the offing for a number of years. It is being entitled 2007 Public Administration Bill, which owes its origin to a document published in 2003, entitled A Public Service for the 21st Century. The precursor to the 2003 document was the report prepared by the Public Service Reform Commission set up at the end of the 1980s. In between this first document and 2003, a number of initiatives have been taken to render the public service more accountable, more transparent, more cost effective, more customer friendly, more modern, in other words provide better value for money to the taxpayer.

These measures have included the setting up of the Ombudsman Office, the strengthening of the National Audit Office, the setting up of the Public Accounts Committee as an arm of the House of Representatives, an element of performance related pay, the setting up of the Financial Monitoring and Management Unit as an overseer of the way public funds are being spent, the setting up of the Internal Audit and Investigations Directorate, the strengthening of the top management structures, term contracts for the senior management of the public service, an intensive effort to train staff.

The Public Administration Bill will give the public service a regulatory law, apart from entrenching a number of principles that had been put together in a Code of Ethics published 13 years ago. It also takes the bold step of incorporating within its remit the wider public sector, thereby including the agencies, corporations, entities, companies that are government controlled and are therefore making use of public funds, either through a subvention financed through the Budget or through fees and other forms of revenue, charged as a result of some regulation, law, legal notice, etc.

In fact, I strongly believe that this bill is really about governance in the public sector, and should be viewed as such. I fear that the title of the bill does not go far enough in explaining what the objectives of government are because the word "administration" has certain connotations that have little to do with governance. Given that one of the key tasks of the public sector is the governance of the country, then we should be calling a spade a spade and call this bill "Public Governance Bill" to match the requirement of the private sector when they speak of corporate governance.

The public sector requires governance rules as much as private companies do, and some entities or departments are doing a disservice to the rest of the public sector when they display an attitude that their actions and decisions cannot be challenged. In fact some entities act as if they were not part of the public sector and were not accountable to anyone. Conflicts of interest abound, coupled with favouritism, misuse of resources and lax management practices.

There is one critical economic reason why the country needs a well-managed public sector. Total government expenditure represents 45.8 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. It provides employment to 30.8 per cent of the gainfully occupied population. The public sector contributes to 19.7 per cent of the wealth created by the country. With such a significant impact on the economy, any inefficiencies are bound to impact very negatively on productive activities and will not allow the economy to realise its full potential. Our economy cannot afford to have a dysfunctional relationship between the private sector and the public sector.

However, a law does not render the public sector more efficient or capable to provide value for money. The law can only serve as an enabler and it will eventually always come down to people. The problems that the public sector faces are not much different from those of a large business corporation.

Personal intrigue, organisational politics, interference, slowness in decision making, waste of resources and lack of quality service are all features that are found both in private companies and in the public sector. A new public service requires professionalism, enthusiasm and integrity to make it succeed, and it is up to the public servants to ensure that they have such qualities.