ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
13 SEPTEMBER 2000
Cabinet has recently approved the establishment of Council of Government IT officers, which will coordinate the effective harnessing of IT in the public service for improved service delivery. Existing IT heads in departments and provinces will be redesignated Government Information Technology Officers (GITOs). They will be charged with leveraging IT to enhance service delivery in their respective departments. The GITO will also monitor trends in the rapidly changing IT field, and will ensure that economies of scale are utilized. As Information Technology becomes obsolete at a high pace, government needs a vehicle that will continuously analyse Information Technology trends and influence better IT strategies.
The GITO Council will lead the co-ordination and consolidation of government IT initiatives, with a view to enhance service delivery. The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) will serve as the implementing arm of the GITO council, and will be led by the Council. The Council together with SITA will maximize efficiency and effectiveness of government service delivery in accordance with the principles of Batho Pele. The first meeting of the Council GITO will be held before end of the month.
GOVERNMENT FOCUS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Government is the biggest consumer of IT goods and services in the South African market, it currently owns above 60% of the IT purchases. Considering this advantage, SITA is well positioned to ensure that government gets value for money. It has now focused on positioning Government to use IT tools in
support of its policies, sustain the ability of the public service to recruit and retain appropriately skilled personnel and manage IT procurement. For example, a saving of R3.3m on contractor tariffs has been realized through SITA initiatives. This has been realized through an exercise of renegotiating tariffs, product prices and service charges that has the potential of yielding savings that run into millions.
Elimination of IT duplications
Current functioning of government i.e. national departments and Provinces have been procuring and managing information technology led to multiple duplications running into millions of rands. To this end Sita is implementing a plan to consolidate all mainframes, file servers and networks..
Presently, the following have been achieved:
· Consolidation of the Western Cape mainframe into Pretoria, with a saving of R4,2 million made up of software, hardware and human resources savings.
· Proposal to the North West not to upgrade their current mainframe but rather use the idle capacity that Sita has had through the Western Cape consolidation.
· Consolidation of the Defence, South African Police and Central Computer Services so as to have one Sita network. This has just been implemented and although there are still problems, most benefits will come through this integration i.e. video conferencing for the whole of the state, one office application for the whole of Sita etc.
Integration of state departments
In order for Sita to achieve the key objectives for which it was established, integration of state departments and provinces has been identified as a key strategic exercise. Integration of IT services will create a conducive environment to fast track realization of value for the state. The formation of the GITO Council will have a major role in ensuring the appropriateness of the intergration of state departments and review
where necessary.
The following state organs are either in the process of being integrated or have been integrated into Sita:
· The merger of three IT functions from Infoplan (Department of Defence), SAPS IT (South African Police Services) Central Computer Services (Department of State Expenditure);
· Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA);
· Department of Mineral and Energy;
· Department of Environmental Affairs;
· KwaZulu-Natal.
In order for all these initiatives to be successful, capacity building and training will be crucial. The South African Management Development Institute is focussing on programmes that are more supportive of the policy initiatives emanating from the department.
Training programmes are looking to:
1. identify, validate and prioritise customer and stakeholder training needs and expectations.
2. Develop and deliver SAQA and NQF aligned competency based Training Programmes in the priority policy areas
3. Develop and phase in improved support systems and processes (Marketing, IT and Course Administration)
Recently, SAMDI introduced a Service Delivery Programme that deals with department-focussed approach to training and development that target all levels of staff within the respective department. In addition, it provides support and implementations of learning through the operationalisation of practical service delivery improvement initiatives after each course. In this way, the programme not only builds capacity for staff it also applies quick service delivery improvements wins. It competes effectively alongside programmes that are mandatory to attend (Provisioning Administration, LRA etc) while in its case, attendance is still purely voluntary at this stage.
SAMDI has also introduced courses that are recognised and in some instances used by leading tertiary institutions (University of Pretoria and Technikon Southern Africa etc). Courses in the areas of Human Resource Management, Labour Relations and Provisioning Administration and Management are examples of such.
Their recognition is based on the quality of the content, practicality and relevance of the course. This means that the courses are portable and respond to the NQF requirement of providing courses with clear standards and measurable outcomes.
SAMDI also is developing strategic partnerships with other Public Service Training and Development providers both at the international, regional and local levels. At the international level, SAMDI worked closely with the Civil Service College of the UK, Institute of Public Administration of Ireland as well as the Maaschtricht School of Management based in the Netherlands. This relationship served to meet the goal of making SAMDI internationally competitive and responsive to global imperatives and trends in the field of leadership and management training and development.
At regional level the Africa Co-operation Programme (ACOP) project successfully initiated links with other African institutions such as Centre Africain de Formation et de Recherche Administratives pour le Développement) CAFRAD, and other in Namibia, Ghana, Botswana and Uganda. The current
interactions form the basis for establishing more long-term strategic regional partnerships.
The following are some of the projects that SAMDI is implementing to ensure capacity building within management:
1. PSLDP is a high -level strategic development programme aimed at increasing the capacity of the senior management and leadership in the public service. The programme is informed by the needs analysis conducted amongst Directors-General. Last month about 23 Directors General attended the first session organised under the auspices of (PSLDP).
The successful launch of the programme took place on 23 July 2000 and the Deputy president emphasised the importance of improving management skills in the public service. The programme will improve the participant's capacity to:
· Recognise and relate Macro issues to the Public Service
· Take account of local and global trends and integrate into strategic planning
· Translate strategy into action
· Act corporately
· Embody and uphold public service values and ethics
· Manage resources effectively to achieve the priorities of government
· Create a shared vision among all employees of a learning organization
· Place Human Development interventions at the centre of objective departmental performance
2. The Ministerial Support Programme was launched at the School of Governance on Monday 11 September as a joint venture training programme between SAMDI and University of Western Cape. This programme is aimed at improving service delivery, performance and support for the Ministers, Premiers and MEC's.
Our International partners have also played a role in the conceptualisation of the Presidential Strategic Leadership Development Programme (PSLDP) and the Ministerial Support Programme. This will serve to promote the African Renaissance concept, while also strengthening the possibility of joint ventures in the development of leadership, management, and institutional capacity within the African region broadly and sub-region in particular. The inputs sourced from local and international experts and counterparts will
ensure exchange of the best practices at senior executive level.
DPSA, PSC and SAMDI have all printed an annual report that contains useful information on departmental activities. The Office of the Public Service Commission will work closely with all departments to evaluate and monitor progress on the service delivery programme.
The Office Public Service Commission has only really begun functioning in terms of its new mandate from January this year. During this period it has had to integrate staff and policies and align these towards the achievement of the new mandates.
PSC has now embarked upon a series of strategic interventions that it believes will collectively contribute to achieving the "Monitoring and Evaluation this goal. Listed below is a synopsis of some of these
strategies:
* The monitoring of the implementation of performance management systems which are now required for most public servants would allow for a more rigorous appraisal of outputs, and thus improve the productivity of the public service. Through the PSCs monitoring function, it would ensure that the performance management systems do achieve the desired goals.
* It has helped to operationalise enabling legislation designed to promote good governance and also to prevent fraud - legislations such as the Protected Disclosures Bill - contribute to a reduction in corruption as actions of public servants become subject to external scrutiny. In this regard there will over time be a shift from a partisan and unaccountable government, to one that promotes access to all its citizens, in a fair, just and efficient way.
* Up to now, the Commission has produced over 10 key projects with recommendations being tabled at the Portfolio Committee and the various legislatures.
In order to facilitate better evaluation system by the PSC certain requirements have been outlined for example:
· For all departmental reporting, the PSC requires that reporting goes beyond the simple numbers, and begin to focus on key government priority areas (i.e. Reduction of poverty, broadening of access etc). In stipulating the outputs or goals, departments would naturally have to re-engineer their systems downstream, and begin to focus their resources in addressing these criteria.
· On performance agreements of HODs and DGs, the areas of performance must reflect the goals of government as well as organizational goals. The purpose of this is to align all aspects of government performance, from the macro to the micro, and thus focus the efforts of government in a very direct and
deliberate manner.
· The PSC is putting in place a transversal M&E system. This will allow the PSC to collect key information around government performance on a proactive basis. The process of government departments beginning to focus on M&E is a benefit in itself, in that it would reduce information blockages within the organization, improve the quality of this information, and promote performance management. Once this system works South Africa will be in line with other democracies that have M&E as a mandatory practice.
· The Public Service Commission intends to put a transversal monitoring and evaluation system in place that will contain a data- base on key indicators of levels of corruption, the state of labour relations and human resource management in the public service and the service delivery performance of the public service. The system would enable government to get a composite, overall view of the effectiveness of the public service as the machinery of government.
Management audit at the Department of Home Affairs
The Commission has issued a report spelling out the major management challenges facing the Department of Home Affairs. A joint team of the Department of Public Service and Administration and the Office of the PSC is currently supporting the department in redesigning its management and business processes in order to achieve a drastic improvement in service delivery.
A Professional Ethics and Risk Management
An Explanatory Manual that serves to explain the different stipulations of the Code by means of practical examples has been developed. The Code was translated into all official languages in order to assist in the training of trainers in provincial administrations Case Studies and professional ethics newsletters/posters to raise awareness on anti-corruption were circulated in all provinces.
Anti-Corruption Campaign
The Public Service Commission as the flag-carrier of the anti-corruption campaign has conducted a series of Anti-Corruption Workshops in seven Provinces. The workshops were intended to implement Summit
Resolutions. The participants were senior members from civil society, public and the private sectors. These workshops generated further measures (anti-corruption programmes) to uproot corruption in the private and public sectors.
The comprehensive programmes include plans for-a formation of Provincial Anti-Corruption Cross Sectoral Task Team to take forward Summit Resolutions, organisations and companies creating public awareness campaign promotion of Whistleblowing Mechanisms and Hotlines.
Anti-Corruption Strategies
The following publications on anti-corruption issues were distributed to the Premiers, MEC's, Heads of Departments, Members from Civil Society and The Private Sectors :
* Fighting Corruption: Towards a National Integrity Strategy
* Fighting Corruption: Invitation to Ethics Management
* Fighting Corruption: South African Perspectives
* Fighting Corruption: Corruption Prevention Strategy
Monitoring and evaluating the impact of government programmes
The Public Service Commission intends to put a transversal monitoring and evaluation system in place that will contain a data- base on key indicators of levels of corruption, the state of labour relations and human resource management in the public service and the service delivery performance of the public service. The system would enable government to get a composite, overall view of the effectiveness of the public service as the machinery of government. The Commission is currently determining the scope of the system after which detail design and populating the system with data will be done.
The challenge is to put a system in place that will provide useful information to Government and will enable the Commission "to provide an evaluation of the extent to which the values and principles of public administration are complied with" (section 196(4)(e) of the Constitution).
The Commission also did an evaluation of departments' annual reports and issued a guideline on annual reporting. Departments' annual reports should be the main instrument where account is given of the service delivery performance of government and the impact of government policies and programmes. However, currently reports do not contain useful performance data. The report and guideline that the Commission has published should have a major impact on the quality of annual reports. The Commission is also planning a series of workshops to support departments in providing useful information in annual reports. The challenge is to achieve actual changes in reports, so that it provides useful performance data enabling someone reading the report to assess the performance of a department.
Management audit at the Department of Home Affairs
The Commission has issued a report spelling out the major management challenges facing the Department of Home Affairs. A joint team of the Department of Public Service and Administration and the Office of the PSC is currently supporting the department in redesigning its management and business processes in order to achieve a drastic improvement in service delivery.
The challenge now is to improve our methodology in order to improve the usefulness of management audits to departments, eg to address basic administrative issues that can make a big impact on the improvement of service delivery capacity of departments.
Survey of compliance with the Batho Pele (Transformation of service delivery) policy
The survey report gives an authoritative impression of compliance with the Batho Pele policy and the impact of the policy up to now. A principal finding is that the policy is sound but that it must be applied rigorously
by departments before it will make a major difference to people's lives.
Recommendations are made on how to improve the impact of the policy.
The challenge now is to give an impression of the status of service delivery from the customer's perspective and to improve the practical effect of the policy, that is achievement of improvements at the service delivery point level.
Supporting departments with management advice
The Commission advised departments on management issues and in this manner contributed to the capacity of departments to improve service delivery.
Examples of this are advising the Department of Foreign Affairs on the transformation of its corporate services and designing organisation structures for the Departments of Agriculture and Education in the Northern Province and the Department of Local Government in Gauteng. The Commission is also advising on the fairness of administrative procedures, eg, the selection of Pedi prescribed books for Northern Province schools.
A Professional Ethics and Risk Management
The key outputs have been to:
Develop a Code of conduct for the Public Service Conduct workshops on the Code of Conduct in all Provinces with Senior Officials. These workshops were addressed by Premiers , MEC's and DG's, Produce an Explanatory Manual on the Code of Conduct. The Explanatory Manual serves to explain the different
stipulations of the Code by means of practical examples. The Code was translated into all official languages and into Braille in order to assist in the training of trainers in provincial administrations Case Studies and professional ethics newsletters/posters to raise awareness on anti-corruption were circulated in all provinces.
Anti-Corruption Campaign
Workshops conducted include Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference on 10 and 11 November 1998, National Anti-Corruption Summit on 14 and 15 April 1999. The Public Service Commission as the flag-carrier of the anti-corruption campaign has conducted a series of Anti-Corruption Workshops in
seven Provinces. The workshops were intended to implement Summit Resolutions. The participants were senior members from civil society, public and the private sectors. These workshops generated further measures (anti-corruption programmes) to uproot corruption in the private and public sectors.
The comprehensive programmes include plans for-a formation of Provincial Anti-Corruption Cross Sectoral Task Team to take forward Summit Resolutions viz blacklisting of corrupt individuals, organisations and companies creating public awareness campaign promotion of Whistleblowing Mechanisms and Hotlines.
Anti-Corruption Strategies
The following publications on anti-corruption issues were distributed to the Premiers, MEC"s, Heads of Departments, Members from Civil Society and the Private Sectors :
* Fighting Corruption: Towards a National Integrity Strategy
* Fighting Corruption: Invitation to Ethics Management
* Fighting Corruption: South African Perspectives
* Fighting Corruption: Corruption Prevention Strategy
The challenge facing the commission is to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the Code of Conduct for the Public Service and eliminate corruption and unethical behaviour in the Public
Service.
EVALUATION OF DEPARTMENTAL PROGRAMME
Dismissals as a result of misconduct
The purpose of this investigation was to establish a comprehensive data base of misconduct cases attended to by national departments, the problems and delays associated with the disciplinary processes, and a commentary of developments in respect of disciplinary processes within the public service.
The project attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of the misconduct process within the context of Government's concerns and its commitment in the fight against corruption.
The information generated by this project, whilst baseline in nature did not identify trends to conduct an analysis, showed that 283 officials have been dismissed from the Public Service, out of 964 officials found guilty of misconduct. Out of the 238 officials, 102 officials were dismissed for corruption related offences.
Management information required by departments to effectively manage absence due to sick leave
The Public Service Commission was mandated by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the type of management information required to effectively manage absence due to sick leave in the Public Service and make recommendations to the Department
of State Expenditure to standardise improvements to PERSAL.
The key finding after sampling six large departments at national and provincial level was that personnel involved with the administering of PERSAL functions did not utilise the facilities available very effectively.
Recommendations on utilization of facilities available on PERSAL, especially the revised Report 7.11.4 were submitted to the Department of State Expenditure for implementation in Departments and Provincial
Administrations.
Career management in the Public Service
This project attempted to monitor the implementation of provisions of the White paper on Human Resource management in the Public Service. The investigation found that career management programmes have only been implemented at three national departments, and that other departments do not deem career management as an immediate priority.
More work needs to be done with departments to conscientise them of the importance of this aspect, as well as to help them to develop strategies to attend to this HR need, as required by the Skills Development Act. Advice has been provided on the development and implementation of career management programmes based on the research results, models of career management observed in the Public Service and Institutions that were consulted.
Report on investigation into probation
It was considered appropriate that an investigation be undertaken into the management of probationary appointment in the Public Service especially given governments policy on a shortened period of probation.
The emerging findings of the investigation focus on the vexing problems which departments are confronted with. Departments were not dealing effectively with the management of information on PERSAL pertaining to probationary appointments. Policy on probation in some departments has not been developed.
The key challenge facing departments relate to their focus on the management of information on PERSAL, developing departmental policy, capacity building of probationers and monitoring probation as a process.
Report on the state of representativeness in the Public Service
The purpose of this investigation was to base-line and monitor progress made by departments and provincial administrations towards the achievement of representativeness in the public service. The project was aimed at ensuring that Departments adhered to the goals of the Affirmative Action programme.
The key findings were that Departments did achieve representativeness at the level of race, but did not do the same at the level of disabilities.
The key challenge would be to ensure that a skills audit be undertaken of the public service, and for interventions in the area of training and support to take place. The PSC would work closely with the Department of Labour to ensure that compliance with the Employment Equity Act takes place.
Management information required by departments to effectively manage absence due to sick leave
The Public Service Commission was mandated by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the type of management information required to effectively manage absence due to sick leave in the Public Service and make recommendations to the Department
of State Expenditure to standardise improvements to PERSAL
The key finding after sampling six large departments at national and provincial level was that personnel involved with the administering of PERSAL functions did not utilise the facilities available very effectively.
Recommendations on utilization of facilities available on PERSAL, especially the revised Report 7.11.4 were submitted to the Department of State Expenditure for implementation in Departments and Provincial
Administrations.
Career management in the Public Service
This project attempted to monitor the implementation of provisions of the White paper on Human Resource management in the Public Service. The investigation found that career management programmes have only been implemented at three national departments, and that other departments do not deem career management as an immediate priority.
More work needs to be done with departments to conscientise them of the importance of this aspect, as well as to help them to develop strategies to attend to this HR need, as required by the Skills Development Act. Advice has been provided on the development and implementation of career management programmes based on the research results, models of career management observed in the Public Service and Institutions that were consulted.
Report on investigation into probation
It was considered appropriate that an investigation be undertaken into the management of probationary appointment in the Public Service especially given governments policy on a shortened period of probation.
The emerging findings of the investigation focus on the vexing problems which departments are confronted with. Departments were not dealing effectively with the management of information on PERSAL pertaining to probationary appointments. Policy on probation in some departments has not been developed.
The key challenge facing departments relate to their focus on the management of information on PERSAL, developing departmental policy, capacity building of probationers and monitoring probation as a process.
Report on the state of representativeness in the Public Service
The purpose of this investigation was to base-line and monitor progress made by departments and provincial administrations towards the achievement of representativeness in the public service. The project was aimed at ensuring that Departments adhered to the goals of the Affirmative Action programme.
The key findings were that Departments did achieve representativeness at the level of race, but did not do the same at the level of disabilities.
The key challenge would be to ensure that a skills audit be undertaken of the public service, and for interventions in the area of training and support to take place. The PSC would work closely with the Department of Labour to ensure that compliance with the Employment Equity Act takes place.
Management information required by departments to effectively manage absence due to sick leave
The Public Service Commission was mandated by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the type of management information required to effectively manage absence due to sick leave in the Public Service and make recommendations to the Department
of State Expenditure to standardise improvements to PERSAL
The key finding after sampling six large departments at national and provincial level was that personnel involved with the administering of PERSAL functions did not utilise the facilities available very effectively.
Recommendations on utilization of facilities available on PERSAL, especially the revised Report 7.11.4 were submitted to the Department of State Expenditure for implementation in Departments and Provincial
Administrations.
Career management in the Public Service
This project attempted to monitor the implementation of provisions of the White paper on Human Resource management in the Public Service. The investigation found that career management programmes have only been implemented at three national departments, and that other departments do not deem career management as an immediate priority.
More work needs to be done with departments to conscientise them of the importance of this aspect, as well as to help them to develop strategies to attend to this HR need, as required by the Skills Development Act. Advice has been provided on the development and implementation of career management programmes based on the research results, models of career management observed in the Public Service and Institutions that were consulted.
Report on investigation into probation
It was considered appropriate that an investigation be undertaken into the management of probationary appointment in the Public Service especially given governments policy on a shortened period of probation.
The emerging findings of the investigation focus on the vexing problems which departments are confronted with. Departments were not dealing effectively with the management of information on PERSAL pertaining to probationary appointments. Policy on probation in some departments has not been developed.
The key challenge facing departments relate to their focus on the management of information on PERSAL, developing departmental policy, capacity building of probationers and monitoring probation as a process.
Report on the state of representativeness in the Public Service
The purpose of this investigation was to base-line and monitor progress made by departments and provincial administrations towards the achievement of representativeness in the public service. The project was aimed at ensuring that Departments adhered to the goals of the Affirmative Action programme.
The key findings were that Departments did achieve representativeness at the level of race, but did not do the same at the level of disabilities.
The key challenge would be to ensure that a skills audit be undertaken of the public service, and for interventions in the area of training and support to take place. The PSC would work closely with the Department of Labour to ensure that compliance with the Employment Equity Act takes place.
Issued by GCIS on behalf of Department of Public Service and Administration