By Luyanda Makapela

PRETORIA, Oct 17 (NNN-BUANEWS) -- African Ministers of Public and Civil Service have recommitted themselves to improving service delivery while encouraging transparency and accountability on the continent.

The three-day 6th African Conference of Ministers of Public and Civil Service, which ended here Wednesday, sought to establish a set of values and principles to guide the governments as they deal with day-to-day challenges of public service.

The conference saw countries as members of the African Union (AU) coming together to deliberate on ways to improve government administration throughout the continent.

Addressing delegates at the closing ceremony of the conference, South African Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi said the conference was able to reach its objectives.

"As we come to the end of this conference, we have finally emerged with a clear and solid draft programme of action which will guide us on what we have done so far going forward," said Baloyi.

During the conference, the countries, which are member states of the AU, tabled a Charter which comprises various articles which the countries have committed to implementing in their own countries.

The Draft African Charter on the Values and Principles of Public Service and the Administration Charter, Baloyi said, indicated the way forward for the ministers and the recommendations will be tabled to the AU Commission.

The charter was tabled by Algeria, which took over as Chair of the African Public and Civil Service Ministers from South Africa.

The draft charter will now be sent to the AU where member states will make a decision to adopt the document or make further recommendations. It encourages governments to modernize their administrations as well as skill and develop their public servants among others.

The ministers further agreed on a long-term strategy which will see improvements in human resource management, information communication technology in public service, and monitoring and evaluation, among other things.

Baloyi said the greatest challenge for government administrations was to overcome constraints of implementation and match good intentions with visible impact. He said he appreciated those countries which served as champions on the work of the ministers.

"We express our appreciation to all member states for the time taken to engage with the programme and its content," said Baloyi. -- NNN-BUANEWS