SUMMARY:
The Minister of Public Service and Administration, Ms G Fraser-Moleketi, the Department Director-General, Professor R Levin, and Mr N Bramdaw from Government Communications and Information Systems (GCIS), fielded media questions on the monitoring and evaluation of public service performance and productivity benchmarking by individual public servants. The mobility of personnel from one sphere of government to another, staff retention and the scarce skills problem were also addressed. Funding for the improvement of staff competencies was also briefly referred to. Wage negotiations and the role of trade unions in municipal government were questioned.
Minister’s address Ms Fraser-Moleketi addressed some of the highlights of the Government Programme of Action (POA) for the first reporting period from July – August 2004. The Batho Pele strategy aimed at transforming the culture and ethos of the Public Service to improve service delivery. The focus areas of the campaign included "taking services to the people", "knowing your service rights", and the setting up of management systems to monitor performance. Integrated Service Delivery aimed to provide a wide range of government services from a single source or location e.g. the Multi-Purpose Community Centres. Community Development Workers were also being trained to bring information and services closer to the people.
Monitoring and evaluation was discussed in regard to participatory governance by the community, as well as through the systems and frameworks being established at different levels of government. The Minister highlighted the Human Resource Management and Development initiatives that were being undertaken and the need to improve the physical work environments of public servants. They aimed to create a seamless delivery system through all spheres of government that allowed for mobility between spheres and ensured uniformity of standards by public entities that reported to departments. Intergovernmental relations would need to be improved to provide seamless service. Drafting legislation to provide greater clarity of the roles of national, local and provincial government was a priority. The Municipal Infrastructrure Grant would assist municipalities with their service delivery and also create jobs through the Expanded Public Works Programme. Once the different systems were in place, this would allow for efficient and effective implementation of strategies and enable the transformation agenda to be taken forward.
Press questions Q. A journalist from the Sowetan newspaper asked how monitoring and evaluation would work in practice, and how it would be possible for the President to liaise with parties at different levels.
A. Professor Levin said monitoring and evaluation was technical but needed at all levels of government and in all departments. Mechanisms were needed to integrate information available and a system had been envisaged. There were initiatives in all departments and these needed to be documented. An overview of all reporting requirements in government needed to be looked at. National Treasury was reviewing these reporting requirements. They would then know where their data was coming from. Statistics South Africa had indicators of different areas of work. It would be necessary to develop these into a "compendium of indicators" used by departments. An over-arching system in a central department could then be used to identify problem areas and to assess value for money of the services provided. Human resources would provide another data source. A government-wide system was needed that would allow a "dashboard presentation" to be created at the level of the Presidency. The Department was using international best practice. Australia, for example, had a very strong monitoring system at the departmental level. South Africa was looking at something very ambitious and innovative. Instead of a ten-year overview of performance, they envisaged analytical capabilities that would allow for annual reviews to track and evaluate processes. These media briefings were one such initiative.
Q. The Sunday Times representative asked if there was any way in which public service output could be benchmarked so that it could be compared to output in the private sector.
A. Professor Levin said this would need to be done by specific departments to establish productivity. It would not be possible for the Governance and Administration sector to get down to that level alone.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi added that Performance Linked Increases were already in place and the only way to improve performance would be if there were benchmarks. In some instances however, the individual could not be measured on his/her own performance, as output was a group effort.
Q The spokesperson for Radio Jacaranda questioned the transfer of personnel from one sphere of government to another, and asked what would be done about the lack of capacity at local government level.
A. Ms Fraser-Moleketi said the thrust of government was to move to an integrated public service. Unfortunately, the different frameworks and conditions of service between the different spheres meant this was not easy. Good service had to be delivered to all communities. Work on this issue would be completed early next year.
Q. The MP for Mount Ayliffe, Mr J.Doidge, said he was impressed by the Scarce Skills Strategy and asked what was being done to retain skills in rural areas. He also asked what strategies were in place to fill vacancies, especially in the health services in these rural areas.
A. Ms Fraser-Moleketi said the Minister of Health would reveal more information in this regard. Her department had clearly identified the profile of categories of personnel that were considered scarce. With the assistance of organised labour, scarce skills and rural allowances had been established. Over the past financial year, nearly R700 million had been set aside to ensure the retention of health professionals and to recruit the skilled persons needed. An annual review had been built-in to review rural allowances. There were incentives to encourage professionals to work in rural areas, such as housing benefits. More discussion on this was needed. The government was engaged in discussions with Britain concerning the "poaching" of trained health professionals.
Q. A journalist from Bloomberg News questioned the stage of the wage negotiations in the public service.
A. The Minister said they had yet not returned to the Bargaining Chamber, but she was determined that a consensual agreement would be reached. It was not her intention to implement a unilateral offer.
Q. A representative of Independent Newspapers asked if trade unions or their members were "trying to run municipalities".
A. The Minister said discussions were taking place with some of the unions. However, any co-running of municipalities would be problematic.
Q. A Sunday Times correspondent said that if the public service currently had 1.056 million workers, where would it be at the end of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period?
A. Ms Fraser-Moleketi said most developed countries worked on 21 public servants to 1 000 population – South Africa currently has 21–24:1 000. ‘Numbers’ were not the issue, but rather the competency and skills base. The largest number of public servants were educators and healthworkers, and these were also the most qualified staff. The areas that needed focus were skilled workers and project managers.
Q. A Sowetan newspaper’s representative asked what the "skills" needed were.
A. The Minister said "scarce skills" had been identified and included healthworkers, specific categories of IT technicians, water engineers etc. The Department had looked at the specific requirements of these categories of employees in the short, medium and long term. These reports determine the nature of interventions that were needed in the future.
Q. Mr Donald Presiano from a daily publication referred to the Municipal Infrastructure Grant and asked for information on the development of Municipal Bonds.
A. Ms Fraser-Moleketi asked if she could leave this question to another time, as she did not have the necessary information regarding this with her.
Q. The Sunday Times journalist said that if the MTEF wage bill was flat over the next three years how could competencies be increased without additional funding?
A. Ms Fraser-Moleketi said 1.3% of the wage bill in the MTEF had been set aside for recruitment into the police and correctional services (an area highlighted by the President in his state of the Nation address) and 0.3% for other sectors e.g. health and education. There were vacancies that needed to be filled e.g. a 60% vacancy rate in education in the Eastern Cape. A certain number of excess public servants had been identified but they would be given training in new skills so they could be re-employed in other areas. The Department was still involved in repackaging levels 11 and 12. These were professionals who had be retained in their specific professional areas rather than losing them to management positions.