Higher Civil Service Grade 5 Admin key terms

The principle that government action must be authorized by law, applied equally to officials and citizens, and subject to independent judicial review rather than personal discretion.

A Latin phrase meaning beyond the powers; an administrative act is invalid when it exceeds the authority granted by statute or the constitution, even if well intentioned.

Minimum procedural fairness owed by decision-makers: the right to be heard (audi alteram partem) and the rule against bias (nemo iudex in causa sua).

A court's power to examine whether an administrative decision was lawful, rational, and procedurally fair, without substituting its own view of the merits.

Rules, regulations, or orders made by the executive or a body under authority granted by a parent statute, subject to parliamentary scrutiny and judicial review.

The allocation of legislative, executive, and judicial functions to distinct institutions, with checks and balances intended to prevent concentration and abuse of authority.

Constitutionally guaranteed protections such as equality, liberty, and due process that limit state action and can generally be enforced through the courts.

The lawful freedom of an official to choose among permissible courses of action; it must be exercised in good faith, for the purpose intended, and with relevant considerations only.

The obligation of public officials to answer for their decisions, explain their use of resources and authority, and accept correction from oversight bodies and the public.

Proactive disclosure of government information, decisions, and spending so citizens can understand and scrutinize public action, subject to narrowly defined confidentiality exceptions.

A statutory right of citizens to request and receive recorded government information, with limited exemptions and a duty on agencies to respond within set time limits.

An independent official who investigates complaints of maladministration by public bodies, recommends remedies, and reports findings publicly without usually having power to reverse decisions.

Faulty administration such as delay, rudeness, failure to follow procedure, unreasoned decisions, or unfair treatment, short of illegality, that causes injustice to a complainant.

A written set of standards governing officials' behavior, covering conflicts of interest, gifts, confidentiality, and political neutrality, often enforced through declarations and disciplinary processes.

A situation where an official's private interest, financial or personal, could improperly influence public duties; it must be declared, avoided, or managed through recusal.

The values and standards guiding officials, typically integrity, impartiality, accountability, fairness, and service to the public interest, translated into practical rules and training.

A reform approach applying private-sector techniques to government, emphasizing performance targets, contracting out, customer orientation, and managerial autonomy in exchange for results.

The systematic use of indicators such as outputs, outcomes, timeliness, and cost per unit to assess whether a public program is achieving its intended results.

A long-term contractual arrangement in which private capital and expertise deliver public infrastructure or services, with risks allocated between partners and government retaining oversight.

The optimal combination of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in spending public funds, judged against alternatives rather than simply lowest price.

Government decisions on taxation and spending intended to influence aggregate demand, growth, employment, and distribution, and to manage the fiscal balance.

The annual gap between government expenditure and revenue, usually expressed as a share of GDP, financed by borrowing or asset drawdown.

The accumulated stock of government liabilities from past borrowing, measured against GDP to assess sustainability, refinancing risk, and interest burden.

A deliberate policy of reducing the fiscal deficit through spending restraint, revenue measures, or both, to stabilize or lower public debt over time.

A budget format that groups expenditure by objectives and activities, linking requested funds to expected outputs and outcomes rather than only to line-item inputs.

A multi-year budget planning tool that sets indicative spending ceilings by sector for three to five years, aligning policy priorities with available resources.

A reserve set aside in the budget to meet unforeseen or emergency expenditure without prior legislative appropriation, later regularized through supplementary estimates.

The system of laws, processes, and institutions governing how public money is budgeted, released, spent, accounted for, and audited, aiming at fiscal discipline and efficiency.

Independent examination of government accounts and performance to confirm financial regularity, compliance with rules, and value for money, reported to the legislature.

A technique comparing the present value of a project's social benefits and costs, often using shadow prices, to decide whether it improves welfare.

Converting future costs and benefits into present value using a discount rate that reflects time preference and the opportunity cost of capital.

The sum of discounted future cash flows minus initial investment; a positive value suggests a project adds value at the chosen discount rate.

The probability distribution of a statistic, such as the sample mean, across repeated samples of a given size, underpinning standard errors and confidence intervals.

The standard deviation of a sampling statistic, indicating how much an estimate such as a mean would vary from sample to sample; it shrinks as sample size grows.

A range of values, computed from sample data, that is expected to contain the true population parameter at a stated probability level, such as 95 percent.

A formal procedure comparing sample evidence with a null hypothesis, deciding whether observed differences are large enough to reject it at a chosen significance level.

Rejecting a true null hypothesis, also called a false positive; its probability is the significance level, conventionally set at five percent.

A statistical method estimating how a dependent variable changes with one or more explanatory variables, used for forecasting and policy impact assessment.

A short opening section of a report stating the purpose, key findings, and recommendations so busy decision-makers can grasp the substance without reading the whole document.

A concise, evidence-based document that defines a policy problem, summarizes options and their consequences, and recommends a course of action to a decision-maker.

Writing that uses short sentences, active voice, common words, and clear structure so the intended reader understands the message on a first reading.