Public Service and Administration Minister, Noxolo Kiviet, says it is government’s duty to do all in its power to free the potential of each person and improve the quality of life of South Africans in line with the Batho Pele Principles.
“The approval of the Professionalisation Framework for the public sector has been a game changer for government’s pursuit of priority 1 of the 6th Administration,” Kiviet said.
Priority 1 speaks to building a capable, ethical and developmental state.
Delivering her department’s Budget Vote in Cape Town earlier today, Kiviet said the collaborative manner ably led by the NSG (National School of Government) delivered a ground-breaking framework that requires full implementation by all sectors including the 10 legislatures, local governments, national and provincial departments and all government owned entities.
“The department is leading national and provincial departments to appoint professionalisation champions as we integrate deliverables in the performance agreements, annual performance plans and annual operational plans to ensure that there is ownership and accountability which is accompanied by the appropriate allocation of resources for the full implementation of the Framework,” Kiviet said.
Kiviet said the DPSA budget allocation for the 2023/24 financial year is R553,460 million which is an increase of 1% from the final allocation for the 2022/23 financial year.
“Compensation of employees constitutes R300 million or 54% of the total budget allocation. Goods and Services is R194 million and Capital budget is R6 million.
“Transfer payments is R52 million of which R45.8 million will be transferred to the Centre for Public Service Innovation as budget allocation for their activities for the 2023/24 financial year,” the Minister said.
Kiviet said government is committed to leading the integration of government plans, and functionality in the delivery of public goods and services as we pursue the constitutional mandate of improving the quality of life of all citizens and freeing the potential of each person.
Professionalisation Framework
“One of the fundamental objectives of the Professionalisation Framework is to ensure that only qualified and competent individuals are appointed into positions of authority. In pursuit of a transformed, professional, ethical, capable, and developmental public administration, the Department of Public Service and Administration is championing the effective implementation of the Professionalisation Framework,” the Minister said.
Kiviet explained that the Public Service Commission’s role is to promote good governance through investigations and research and reports directly to Parliament.
“The PSC is a critical partner in the implementation of the Professionalisation Framework as it plays an oversight and guiding role in ensuring that the public service is ethical in recruitment, employment and governance management, amongst others.
“The Public Service Commission Amendment bill was presented today to a Cabinet Committee for publication and public comments. We aim to secure the enactment of the Bill into law within the current financial year,” Kiviet said.
National School of Government
Kiviet said training programmes provided by the NSG, now target members of boards of state-owned entities, public representatives, members of the executive and traditional leaders to undertake the much-required capacity building.
For the 2023/24 financial year, the NSG has been allocated a budget of R229.018 million of which R115 million is transferred to the Training Trading Account.
The School has made some notable achievements since its establishment in 2013, and these include the following:
- Training more than 526 000 learners through all forms of training interventions and delivery modes (such as eLearning).
- Receiving unqualified and clean audit outcomes on both the Vote and the Training Trading Account – which points to efficient corporate governance and compliance.
- Designing and delivering courses such as Nyukela, Compulsory Induction Programme, Project Khaedu, Ethics in the Public Service, Economic Governance School and other executive education courses.
- Over the last three years alone, there has been eLearning enrolments of more than 194 000 learners.
– SAnews.gov.za
