The Public Service Commission has commended public institutions for improvement in terms of their compliance.

According to a report released by the Commission, the overall compliance index of various public institutions for the 2021/2022 financial year was 41.7%.

Public universities were ranked the best performing public sector having scored highly in performance management and allocation of adequate and equal opportunities. The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector on the other hand scored low in many of the thematic areas.

According to PSC, this is a moderate performance, and hence efforts need to be put in place to improve the compliance level to at least 50% and above.

Further, the report indicates that while the public service is rendering service to citizens in many quarters, there is non-observance to the national values and principles of governance in Article 10; and the values and principles of public service in Article 232.

The status of compliance of the various institutions was determined through a survey conducted by the Commission using a questionnaire.

However, there is an improvement in compliance of 1.7% from the previous financial year (2020/2021).

 “It is therefore recommended that this upward trajectory be maintained with higher momentum. It is incumbent on each institution to increase the level of compliance at the micro-level because that is where the citizens make contact with government service delivery,” the report read.

Further, this trend was attributed to an increase in performance in three thematic areas, namely service delivery improvement, performance management, and equitable allocation of opportunities and resources.

 “Five sectors improved by posting a medium improvement of over 40%. The Ministries and State Departments recorded the highest increase of 11.7% while the best-performing service sector was public universities. The performance index in Service Delivery Improvement was determined using seven indicators. The overall performance index was 56.3%. Public Universities had the highest performance index at 68.4%%,” the report read.

Further, the report attributed the performance of public universities to the transcription of their service charters into Braille. Constitutional Commissions and Independent Offices had the lowest performance index at 43.9%.

 Regarding public participation, the majority of the policies developed by government institutions seemed to have satisfied the requirements of public participation.

 Under the good governance, transparency, and accountability thematic area, three indicators determined the performance index.  The overall performance index was 29%. Constitutional Commissions and Independent Offices had the highest performance index at 55%. This was informed by high scores in the management of gift registers and the publication of annual reports by institutions in this sector.