FINAL ONLINE SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

PROGRAMME Bachelor of Public Administration

MODULE Public Administration 1B

YEAR One (1)

INTAKE January 2022 Semester 2

DATE 01 November 2022

TOTAL MARKS 100

Section A [100 Marks]

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow.

Service delivery

The state has a vital role in the delivery of a wide array of public services from justice and security to
services for individual citizens and private enterprises. Besides traditional public services, such as health
care or education, there are administrative services, such as delivery of licences and permissions, which
are subject to regulation of administrative proceedings. Service delivery can be defined as any contact
with the public administration during which customers – citizens, residents or enterprises – seek or
provide data, handle their affairs or fulfil their duties. These services should be delivered in an effective,
predictable, reliable and customer-friendly manner by competent public officials. Due to rapid expansion
of the use of information and communication technologies, electronic service delivery is an effective
means to reduce costs, both in time and money, for the customer as well as the government.

Good service delivery requires that the government understands the need to promote citizen-oriented
administration. Good administration is a policy objective put into practice coherently, through various
regulatory and other mechanisms, to ensure quality public services.

The public interacts with public administration in several roles: as client, customer, contractor, regulatee,
participant, and litigant as well as in street-level encounters. Public administration penetrates the
economy and society. The public's evaluation of public administration, explored in this chapter, is
complex. As citizens, people tend to find government wasteful, untrustworthy, and unresponsive. As
clients and customers, they find it satisfactory; as regulatees, they are less favourable. The managerial,
political, and legal perspectives offer different views of the public. Participation is emphasized by the
political per spective and offers some possibilities for strengthening the "public" in public administration.
The new public management, by contrast, views the public primarily as customers. The perspectives can
be synthesized to a certain extent by applying them to different areas of public administration, such as
service and therapy. There is also broad agreement that paperwork reduction, plain language, and e-
government can improve the relationship between public administration and the public. The development
and growth of the contemporary administrative state have myriad ramifications for the public. Certainly,
the public has benefited greatly from public administration. Public administrators are concerned with the
provision of public goods and quasi-public goods, such as defence of the political community, roads, and
recreational and cultural facilities. They are also actively involved in providing justice, safety, economic
security, health, education, and other benefits to the public or segments of it. But the provision of these
benefits has not been without important social, political, and economic costs. Too often in the past, public
administration texts failed to address the place of the "public" in the public administrative state. Today,
by contrast, the new public management (NPM) puts relationships with the public at the forefront of public
administrative practice

Adapted from (https://www.sigmaweb.org/ourexpertise/service-delivery.htm)

Answer ALL the questions in this section.

Question 1 (20 Marks)

As can be deducted from the narrative, every person in a country is affected by some public
administrative actions all the time. The public interacts directly with public administrators in several
contexts. For the sake of analysis, these can be placed into six main overlapping categories. By alluding
your answer with examples discuss these categories.

Question 2 (20 Marks)

The individual's role in the political system also undergoes major transformations with the rise of the
administrative state. First, voters' impact on government is accentuated because they have inadequate
mechanisms for controlling administrative agencies and holding them accountable. Today the delivery of
so many government services by "third parties," through privatisation and devolution, removes the
electorate even further from exercising direct control over public administration. Discuss the role that
individuals can, and should play in the economy and in a political system.

Section B
ANSWER ANY THREE (3) questions in this section.
Question 3 (20 Marks)
Bureaucracy is a word more often used as a term of abuse than as a description. To many people it
signifies delay, `red tape', coldness, impersonal attitudes and inefficiency. Write critical notes on the
concept “Bureaucracy” and elucidate the strengths and weaknesses of bureaucracy.
Question 4 (20 Marks)
There are a wide range of theories about the reasons for establishing governments. They do not always
fully oppose each other - it is possible for a person to subscribe to a combination of ideas from two or
more of these theories. Discuss the FOUR (4) major theories that has been formulated to explain the
origins of government.

Question 5 (20 Marks)

The New Public Management (NPM) views the public primarily as customers. The term "customer” is
used to denote almost all encounters with public agencies. It includes service and regulatory relationships
as well as public employment. Elaborate on this new approach to public management.

Question 6 (20 Marks)

The new system of democracy instituted in South Africa has a bright future in offering its citizens a fair
and just governmental system that is committed to addressing their needs and aspirations. Chapter 3 of
the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa contains the Bill of Rights. By making use of practical
examples to illustrate your understanding critically discuss the rights of every South African citizen that
is guaranteed in this Chapter.

END OF PAPER