PARI, the Public Service Accountability Monitor, the Ethics Institute, and Corruption Watch have made a joint submission to Parliament on the Public Service Amendment Bill. The Bill is currently before the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration. The Bill includes some important and positive provisions for better delineating the powers and responsibilities of political leaders vis-a-vis senior administrators, and provides for prohibitions on senior public servants holding political office. The proposed amendments do not go far enough, however, to bring into reality the vision of the NDP and the Professionalisation Framework. Both policies outline further initiatives to stabilise the political-administrative interface, and better insulating the public administration from patronage politics. These policy proposals have not found their way into the draft legislation. We argued that stronger checks and balances in the appointment and dismissal process for senior administrators still need to be created – and the Public Service Commission (PSC) has a vital role to play here.
