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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Towards a Culture of Good Governance: The Presidential Review Commission and Public Service Reforms in South Africa
Author:Bardill, John E.ISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:Public Administration and Development
Volume:20
Issue:2
Period:May
Pages:103-118
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:civil service reform
Politics and Government
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
External link:https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-162X(200005)20:2<103::AID-PAD116>3.0.CO;2-4
Abstract:The leaders of the new South Africa were quick to appreciate that their commitment to democratization, nationbuilding and reconstruction and development could not be realized without a fundamental restructuring of the postapartheid bureaucracy from an instrument of discrimination and domination to an agency which serves and empowers in an accountable and transparent way. The framework for this policy was set out in a White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service (WPTPS), published in November 1995. A Presidential Review Commission (PRC) was established in March 1996 to examine the operation, transformation and development of the public service and to make recommendations for improving the reform processes in line with the WPTPS. This article reviews the findings and recommendations of the PRC report (March 1998) with regard to the transformation of the structures and functions of government, including human resources development, budgeting and financial management, and information management, and assesses the prospects for their successful implementation. The institutional reform package proposed by the PRC should be attended by a reorientation of values, attitudes and power relations. Tensions and contradictions inherent in the dual transition to political and economic liberalization must be resolved. The PRC's findings are based on the belief that the weaknesses of public sector transformation are caused by problems of implementation rather than formulation. This belief overlooks that political and administrative policy processes are intertwined. Bibliogr., notes, sum.
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