A total of 22 departments at national and provincial levels, including the Presidency, snubbed an inquiry conducted by the Public Service Commission (PSC) into the qualifications of senior managers in the public service.
This emerged in a PSC report after it conducted an inquiry that was sparked by parliamentary questions into alleged unqualified senior managers.
The departments of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Communications and Digital Technologies, Co-operative Governance, Correctional Services, Government Printing Works, Health, Home Affairs, Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Military Veterans, Mineral Resources and Energy as well as the Presidency did not provide the required information.
The report said the public service had 5 417 senior management service (SMS) members at national department level in September 2023 and 2 047 participated in the inquiry in November. At least 96% of the SMS were found to be qualified for the posts they occupied and a total of 86 (4%) members did not meet requirements.
Commissioner Vusumuzi Mavuso said the requirements for SMS appointments were clearly articulated in the department’s 2015 directive and 2016 public service regulations.
He said the commission was alerted to inaccurate and outdated information from the Personal and Salary (Persal) system.
“Due to the shortcoming in the Persal, the PSC decided to conduct an inquiry by approaching departments directly to request detailed information about qualifications of their senior managers...” Mavuso said.
The PSC report said all departments were invited to participate in the inquiry and that letters were sent to all department heads to provide information on their SMS members.
“The report is based on responses from 85% (that is 126 of 148) of national and provincial departments.
“While 103 (93% of 111) provincial departments, including the Office of the Premier in each province, responded to the PSC’s inquiry, at the national level responses were received from only 23 (62%) of the 37 departments.”
The commission said non-cooperating departments constituted 15% of the total number of departments.
“There were instances where departments omitted crucial information which resulted in difficulties during the data analysis phase,” the report said, The commission stated that due to capacity constraints it did not conduct follow-up engagement with all departments that did not comply with applicable directive and public service regulations.
The PSC’s report said the Department of Defence, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment and the National Treasury submitted unsigned documents.
“Unsuccessful follow-ups were made to obtain signed documents...”.
Cape Times