It is apparent that the ANC has largely ignored a study on the cost benefit analysis of the Single Public Service (SPS) when drafting the relevant legislation. The report would determine if the idea is viable or not. Without it, it is impossible to properly determine whether or not the idea of the SPS will work. Indeed, if it hasn't been properly costed, the legislation itself could be impossible to implement.

This is all the more disturbing, in light of the recent promises, by the Minister of Public Service and Administration Richard Baloyi, to reintroduce the shelved Public Service Management Bill, which will effectively create a SPS.

According to a parliamentary reply sent to the DA by former Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi at the end of 2007, a study on the cost-benefit analysis of the SPS was due for completion on 30 March 2008 which would suggest the cost implications of the SPS as far as remuneration and conditions of service are concerned.

The outcomes of this study are crucial seeing as the cost-effectiveness of the creation of a SPS is highly questionable due to the dramatic difference in salary scales between the national and local levels of government. It is therefore vital that these outcomes be properly taken into account when considering the draft bill as it is clear that achieving pay parity will be a difficult and expensive exercise.

However, the draft Public Service Management Bill was published in the government gazette during the first week of April 2008 which means the ANC failed to take this study into account when drafting this legislation as it was only completed a few days before the bill was published.

Furthermore, the ANC has also failed to release the findings of this cost benefit analysis to the public despite the fact that the study was completed over a year ago.

It is vital that this cost benefit analysis be taken into account and that the public is informed of and included in this legislative process at all times. The DA will therefore be posing parliamentary questions to the Minister of Public Service and Administration asking whether he will release the outcomes of this study as well as how his department has incorporated the findings of this cost benefit analysis into the draft Public Service Management Bill.

The DA's has been vocal in the past over how the creation of a SPS is nothing more than an attempt by the ANC to centralise its power further, to erode the voter's rights to be governed by the political party they voted for, and to erode further the already blurred lines between the governing party and the state.

The ANC's desperate attempts to hang on to power while it loses municipalities and provinces to other political parties is evident by the fact that it has failed to properly take account of both the far reaching implications the creation of a SPS will have on the public service at all three spheres of government andalso the financial burden that will be created by a SPS, which the taxpayer will largely bear the brunt of.

The DA will continue to do everything in its power to stop the ANC using Parliament to force through its own unconstitutional and unaffordable policies, under the guise of legislation, that will not only threaten the functional and institutional independence of provincial and local government but will also do nothing to solve the current skills and accountability crisis that is plaguing government at all levels.