South Africa’s National Planning Commission (NPC) says constant criticisms of a “bloated” Public Service are not helpful and make no contribution to ensuring the bureaucracy meets its primary goal of service delivery.
The NPC was holding a webinar discussing its report on a review of economic progress towards the National Development Plan’s 2030 vision.
The Commission’s report found that there was an imbalance in the Public Service, with shortages of professionals, specialists and front-line services.
Commissioner, Miriam Altman (pictured) admitted the findings were hardly new as unions had spent the past few years stressing this point in answer to increasing criticism that the 1.5 million State employees were weighing too heavily on the wage bill.
Ms Altman said the problem was rather that personnel costs were not aligned to budgeting, which was critical.
“This has to propel longer-range personnel strategy around sustainable remuneration, staffing structures aligned to delivery and performance benefits,” Ms Altman said.
“There is also a need to change how wage negotiations are conducted with a strengthening of the State’s capacity to negotiate and align with budget processes,” she said.
The NPC report recommended that the Government restore confidence in the budget process and committed to a fiscal framework that improved the health of the economy.
Ms Altman said this was critical if South Africa was to realise the goals it set out in the National Development Plan that now has a timeline of nine years.
“We tend to have a very scattered discussion on this set of issues,” the Commissioner said.
“It goes like this: We need to cut spending, or we need to raise taxes, but we know very well that there are so many other opportunities,” she said.
Ms Altman suggested the Government could begin by taking a firm stand against corruption.
Pretoria, 23 January 2021
