Baloyi: Are public servants doing jobs?

2011-02-18 14:10

Pretoria - Public Service Minister Richard Baloyi questioned whether there would be service delivery protests if public servants upheld constitutional values.

"We have indicated in our Constitution that there are values that we expect our public administration to uphold and if those values, and those values only, were to be upheld as indicated in the legislation, would we be having today what we refer to as service delivery-related protests and challenges?" Baloyi told delegates at a conference on public administration.

He said the country has excellent policies and a good legislative framework governing the public sector but fell short when it came to officials complying with rules and implementing policies.

He said good governance was needed and demanded by South Africans.

"They don't expect anything less than good (governance)," he said.

Servants sign deal with Zuma

He said the key issue was one of public servants complying with regulations and policies, and monitoring whether they had in fact complied with the policies.

"If you have a good policy and this good policy is not being implemented, what is good about it?"

He said the recent service delivery agreements that ministers had signed with President Jacob Zuma was indicative of how the government was making sure that there was compliance with policies that were set down by government.

He said that in the public sector there needed to be a policy of zero tolerance to corruption and maladministration.

"There is no good government without accountability," he said.

One of the measures being implemented to ensure accountability was the establishment of a register for public servants which would be unveiled on June 23.

The register will disclose, among others, public servants' business interests and remuneration sources outside the public sector as well as citizens' opinions of the public servants.
 

- SAPA