Furthering new public management principles through financial reforms in post-1999 South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this research is to describe how the reform of public finance undertaken in SouthAfrica since 1999 has furthered the principles of new public management (NPM).The first part of the research outlines the history of public sector reform in South Africa in general,with particular emphasis on public finance. It also discusses how reform was initiated andsupplemented by the principles of new public management with the adoption of the Public FinanceManagement Act, No. 1 of 1999 (PFMA, 1999). This is followed by a deep analysis and detaileddiscussion of key indicators and the mode of their collection. The final phase consists of adescription of how new public management principles have impacted public finance managementsince 1999. The study concludes with recommendations for further research and for practice andpolicy.The results tend to show how some principles of NPM have furthered public finance reform in someareas while others are still lacking. However the lack of sufficient data results in gaps in thefindings: this lack of data makes it difficult to portray a clear picture of the extent to whichprinciples of NPM have been fully implemented. Thus one of the recommendations is that certainindicators should be investigated further to understand the phenomenon better; it is probable that ina few years sufficient data will be available to allow for trend assessments.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University