Rapid turnover of directors-general worries commission

The high turnover of directorsgeneral in national government departments was undermining stability as well as service delivery, the Public Service Commission said in Pretoria.

The commission on Thursday released its quarterly bulletin on the state of the public service. Its warning could not have come at a more opportune time. Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize placed longserving director-general Mkuseli Apleni on suspension early this week.

Apleni’s lawyers said they would challenge his suspension, arguing that they had no evidence that President Jacob Zuma had mandated Mkhize to suspend the director-general.

While directors-general are usually expected to serve a department for five years, the commission found that the average stint does not last much longer than two years.

Public Service Commissioner Michael Seloane said while directors-general were usually expected to have contracts as long as their ministers’ terms in office, few could hope to stick around for longer than half of a government administration.

“By 2015, the amount of time it took a director-general to serve was 2.7 years and the contracts are almost twice as long. Heads are not staying. They come and they go.

“In 2016, it improved to 2.9 years. We want the average [to] be five years because if you are contracted to serve five years, you should be allowed to serve it out,” said Seloane.

He stressed that his view on the stability of positions did not seek to condone any impropriety by a director-general or head of department, but said the term of office for too many directorsgeneral was cut too short.

More than half the employees in the public service whose expressed grievances made it to the commission are at odds with their superiors over “unfair treatment” and payment problems, according to the report.

“We are concerned with the number of directors-general being moved around. We are not saying that they should be suspended, but we are worried about the political and administrative interface and the effect this could have. The buck stops with the minister and if the relationship is in bad shape, it is bad for the department,” he said.

Seloane said the overwhelming majority of corruption cases referred to the commission’s anti-corruption hotline related to cases in public entities rather than in a national or provincial government department. Of the 187 grievances the commission got from employees in the public service, 66 were about unfair treatment, 57 related to salary problems and 35 had to do with performance assessments.