EXPLAINER | What the new Public Service Commission Act means

A week ago President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Public Service Commission Bill into law, strengthening the commission’s role in holding government departments and other public institutions accountable for administrative practices, ethical conduct and service delivery failures.

The PSC is mandated to monitor and evaluate a wide range of practices in the public service. It can investigate maladministration, poor service delivery and other failures in the administration of government.

According to Ramaphosa, the constitution requires the commission to be independent and impartial and to exercise its powers and perform its functions without fear, favour or prejudice.

“The new law strengthens the independence of the commission as a constitutional institution and extends the commission’s mandate to include local government and public entities,” Ramaphosa said.

The new Public Service Commission Act repeals the Public Service Commission Act of 1997. The president’s assent forms part of the government’s stated focus on building a capable and ethical state, one of the three priorities of the seventh administration.

PSC commissioner Anele Gxoyiya said one of the key changes is that the legislation formally separates the commission from government.

“The first thing that maybe one would like to say is that in relation to the work of the commission, the act now separates the commission from government,” Gxoyiya said.

He explained that commissioners were previously supported by the Office of the Public Service Commission, which was structured as a government department.

“Now the legislation separates that from being a government department, and then it gives us enough independence from being a government department,” he said.

Another change is the status of the commission’s recommendations.

“The second thing is that the recommendations of the commission are now made to be compelling. The government departments will not just willy-nilly ignore the recommendations of the commission,” Gxoyiya said.

“The third thing is that the mandate itself is now broadened to include institutions like your state-owned entities and companies, your local government. So the commission now will have a broad oversight on the public sector in general, including the entities and the persons,” he said.

The PSC also deals with complaints from businesses and contractors who have not been paid by government departments.

Gxoyiya said the commission follows up on complaints involving unpaid invoices, though it does not have a single daily figure for the amount owed by government departments.

“There are people who come out to say government departments are owing me so much, and we chase the payments of the invoices,” he said.

The commission investigates whether an invoice is correct and whether the amount claimed is accurate before pursuing payment.

“We investigate the correctness of the invoice, the accuracy in terms of the figures, and then on the basis of that, we demand the payment because it’s in line with the contract between the government department and the employee,” Gxoyiya said.

He said the commission receives information from the National Treasury on outstanding payments quarterly, while individual complaints are also received daily.

Businesses and contractors can approach the PSC through its provincial offices or use the National Anti-Corruption Hotline.

Gxoyiya said complaints received through the toll-free number are referred to the relevant province for follow-up.

“The National Anti-Corruption Hotline … can also raise their complaints there because we use that toll-free number to get all complaints from the members of the public, including the business people,” he said.

In simple terms, the commission provides oversight over government departments and public institutions to ensure they maintain professional and ethical standards, use public resources efficiently and respect the rights of public servants.

“The responsibility of the Public Service Commission is to ensure that all public entities and government departments maintain a high standard of professional ethics, to the high levels of professionalism in the public service,” Gxoyiya said.

The commission also oversees the efficient and economic use of public resources and monitors human-resource practices in government.

“We have an oversight responsibility to ensure that all government departments perform their duties the way they are supposed to, and also the employees, in terms of their human resource management, the employees’ rights are not trampled upon in the government departments, now including the municipalities as well as the state-owned entities,” he said.