Public administration involves the development, implementation and management of policies aimed at achieving set goals and objectives that will benefit the general public. Since public administration involves making decisions that affect the use of public resources, the question often arises of how to use public resources to maximize the public good. The National Association of Public Administration has identified four pillars of public administration: economy, efficiency, effectiveness and social equity. These pillars are equally important in the practice of public administration and its success. This article seeks to explain the role of each of the pillars in the practice of public administration. ECONOMY: Economy as the first pillar mainly concerns the allocation of scarce resources for optimal development. It involves combining available resources in their right proportions for the provision of goods and services. It is a prudent use of resources and involves the best combination of resources for an optimal result. In public administration, there is an expectation that a quality public service is provided at the lowest possible cost. Public officials must therefore find how to provide the services required by the population at the lowest cost through cost reduction mechanisms while maintaining quality. Employing economics in the public sector ensures that the use of resources is optimized and not wasted as usually happens in the public sector. Another dimension is to consider economics in terms of deploying resources in order to get the most out of them. EFFICIENCY: This simply means making the most of available resources. So in public administration it could be the provision...... middle of paper ......r the pillars of public administration are equally important in the process of public administration and complement each other in the provision of a quality public service. When public administrators have economics in mind, they focus on the best combination of available resources to provide optimal public service. To ensure that public service is not limited to just one section of the public, the issue of equity is taken into consideration so that the public interest is realized. Efficiency and effectiveness further go hand in hand to ensure that allocated resources are used in the best possible manner to achieve the set objectives. So, while the first three pillars of public administration – Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness – are about how the public service is delivered, the fourth and most recent addition (Equity) is about who the public service is delivered to...