Pretoria - A lasting and sustainable solution is needed to improve the capacity of the public service to advance service delivery, says Acting Public Service and Administration Minister Mildred Oliphant.
"We require lasting and sustainable solutions in order to improve the capacity of the public service, particularly at provincial and municipal levels, to effectively address the challenges of service delivery," said the acting minister.
Delivering the department's Budget Vote before the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday, Oliphant said for the public service to deliver quality services, what was needed was a well-functioning, modernised public service with a sufficient number of adequately skilled and motivated public servants with the correct attitudes and service ethos.
It was also necessary to have efficient, modernised systems and processes supported by an enabling policy and legislative framework.
"There is a need for an improvement in human resource management and development, achievement of labour peace, and improvement of business processes, systems, decision rights and accountability management," the minister said.
Oliphant said as part of improving internal efficiency of the public service, the ministry would continue to strengthen single window service delivery nodal points and integrate service delivery as part of building a Single Public Service.
"Already the department has been able to draw valuable lessons from this project in order to integrate service delivery across the three spheres of government," she said, adding that an effective and responsive public service was only possible through dedicated public servants.
With regard to vacancies in the public service, Oliphant said this year the Public Service and Administration Department would improve the average period it takes to fill vacancies so that institutions such as hospitals had the requisite capacity, and that it was able to meet people's expectations and increasingly realise the ideal of a better life for all.
