public service

noun4

1. •
   A service performed for the public good.

   • They feel that public service is a noble calling that calls for every citizen in one way or another.
   • They provide counseling as a public service.
2. •
   A service such as health care, transport, or waste removal provided to the general public, often by the government.

   • In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. […] — 2013
3. •
   The organisation, department or business providing such a service.
4. •
   Government employment, especially in the civil service.

   • In spite of more than three decades of public service, I knew I was an unknown quantity to many of my countrymen and to much of the world when I assumed office. — 1971