Department of Public Service and Administration Strategic Plan implementation: progress report

Meeting report

Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) Strategic Plan 2010 – 2014: Progress report
Mr Kenny Govender, Acting DPSA Director General, presented an update on its progress with the implementation of its Strategic Plan 2010 – 2014. Government had adopted an outcomes based approach to implementation. Through this approach it would concentrate on only a few priorities.


Mr Govender reminded the Committee that the Minister for Public Service and Administration had been allocated the responsibility to coordinate the implementation of Outcome 12

which had been divided into Part A – An efficient, effective and development oriented public service and Part B – an empowered , fair and inclusive citizenship.
Part B of the Outcome would be coordinated by the Minister for Arts and Culture. 
He noted that the implementation, including monitoring and reporting, had been started in three Departments. These were the departments of Health, Education and Home Affairs.
 
The DPSA’s 2010 – 2014 Strategic Plan and Operation Plan for 2010 – 2011 took into account the discussion and performance agreement between the Minister and the President and Outcome 12. The Department’s priorities for this period were:
• Review the performance management system to ensure accountability by public officials
• Review of discipline management in the public service
• Review of our recruitment practices
• Improve turn-around times in accessing government services
• Shorten the time it takes to fill vacancies
• Deepen the fight against corruption in the public service
• Interrogate the public sector integrity framework with a view to eliminate conflict of interest by public officials
• Broaden the culture of e-governance
• Strengthen citizen engagement in government programmes
• Intensify capacity development of officials through the introduction of cadre development programmes, and
• Give a new practical meaning to the implementation of the Batho Pele programme
 
Seven strategic outputs had been identified. These outputs were measurable and could only be achieved through partnerships – which were highlighted in the presentation. The DPSA’s approach was not to conduct an extensive review of current outputs but to ensure that the current outputs were regulated, with a more creative focus moving forward.

Mr Govender highlighted the progress of the DPSA in the implementation of the various projects and initiatives for the Financial Year 2010 – 2011 by focusing on each of the seven outputs (see document).

Mr Govender noted the level of user satisfaction was based on an indicator derived from the partnership with StatsSA. The accessibility to government services could only be achieved through partnerships with Community Development Workers. Departments all needed to submit a Service Delivery Implementation Plan (SDIP). There was a weak understanding of Batho Pele in the National and Local Government Departments. The DPSA were working towards improving this understanding and the working culture within the public service. A number of departments were contacted to participate in setting benchmarks to monitor and improve services such as waiting times for pensions, hospital queues, licensing centres and social grants.

A draft template was developed for Human Resources and financial delegations in order to support departments in customisation and implementation. This template was applied in both the provincial and national Departments of Health. The DPSA supported the Department of Health with the customisation and implementation. The DPSA had launched research into determining why there were differences in costs in services across different departments. They wished to establish what the norm for procurement was. It was also established that there was a difference in terms of the norms between administrative staff and professional staff. The DPSA had developed generic structures and had implemented these, in consultation with the Ministers and the Offices of the Premiers, in the departments of Health and Social Development.

Mr Govender conceded that Performance Development, and the Performance Agreement and Assessments, had not been enforced and monitored by the DPSA. He noted that only 54% of Senior Managers had signed their Performance Agreement even after an extension for the deadline was granted.

Mr Govender mentioned that the information on recruitment, retrenchment and career pathing was extracted directly from PERSAL (personnel salary system of government) and that this data was not very accurate as the system was outdated. He acknowledged that the system needed to be cleaned up in order to get a true reflection of the current rates.

The DPSA had launched an investigation into why vacancies were not filled and what could be done to ensure the filling of vacancies. Mr Govender noted that it could take up to nine months to fill vacant posts and this in turn caused unnecessary strain and stress. The DPSA was committed to reducing the time to six months and would use the Public Management Watch to try to improve timeframes. Another area of concern was that of individual promotion within the departments. The DPSA want to implement a fair process so before an individual could be promoted, the Department would need to prove that the individual had all the necessary competencies required for the new position.

Mr Govender noted that there was a delay in the finalisation of disciplinary cases. Matters should be resolved within a timeframe of 60 days but the present average for resolution was 106 days. The DPSA had engaged with Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA) and a module on Labour Relations was currently being developed and rolled out. The development of mandatory training for practitioners and compulsory training days had also been defined.

Consultation was held with the departments of Health and Education on Employee Health and Wellness. The Youth, Gender and Disability targets had not been reached.

Mr Govender again emphasised the importance of the clean-up of the PERSAL system but acknowledged that they needed to stop using the inaccurate data as an excuse for non-delivery on a number of issues.

Mr Govender focused on the effectiveness of  State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and noted the low customer satisfaction rate of 61%.

He introduced the Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS) and explained that it was a new HR system that has been piloted within the DPSA and the Free State Department of Education. The generic template was approximately 75% complete and the process of training some users has started.

Mr Govender highlighted the fact that South Africa has committed itself to a number of anti-corruption activities which was driven by the DPSA. The country reported to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on an annual basis and its intention was to sign off on a three-year multi-term agreement.

Mr Govender noted that the DPSA needed to re-focus on the successful conclusion of negotiations. He referred to the salary negotiations had commenced for 2010/11 and that a one-day national strike had been declared. He emphasised that the DPSA feel that the status quo of bargaining structures need to be reviewed and new proposals need to be developed.

All the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) resolutions except the OSD for Medical Therapeutic Services had been signed off and were in the implementation phase.

Mr Govender highlighted the fact that some research would need to be conducted on housing allowances available to public servants and the DPSA would need to come up with a plan to encourage home ownership in the public service.

The Auditor-General has identified a number of gaps with Information Communication and Technology (ICT) as a strategic resource and enabler. Mr Govender emphasised the role of the DPSA in terms of overall performance linked to the public service.

Discussion
Ms A Dreyer (DA) thanked the DPSA for the presentation but believed that the plan was quite an ambitious document. She sought clarity on the issue of PERSAL as it had been an on-going issue within the Government for the last four to five years. She requested a date for when the clean-up of the data in the PERSAL system would be finalised.

Mr L Suka (ANC) thanked the DPSA for the extensive briefing. The strategy outlined was good but he agreed that there should be an emphasis placed on systems. As long as the systems were not right, the DPSA would continue going in a vicious cycle. The system seemed to have serious fundamental problems and he asked DPSA to consider whether PERSAL was the best system and whether they had considered models used in other countries.

Ms F Bikane (ANC) agreed that PERSAL was no longer working. She asked the DPSA to confirm whether the IFMS would be replacing PERSAL and if so, whether it was a better system.

Mr Govender acknowledged the PERSAL system had been an ongoing and unresolved issue. DPSA would be project managing a step-by-step strategy to eradicate the old legacy system. He confirmed that the IFMS was a new system that would, in time, replace PERSAL. IFMS was based on the SAP module, which was an international system. The DPSA had signed a 10-year contract with SAP and modifications for government systems, policies and procedures were underway. The system would be piloted within the DPSA and a roll-out date was set for November. The system would be piloted within the Free State Department of Education before rolled out to other departments.

The Chairperson queried the capacity of SITA to handle the roll-out of the IFMS system.

Mr Govender asked if the DPSA could do a separate presentation on the IFMS system and its roll-out.

Ms S Maluleke (ANC) queried how the DPSA would go about shortening the time for filling vacancies. She believed that there was a strategy in place but no progress was shown.

Mr Suka suggested that the culture of a positive work ethic was gradually eroding and the departments were no longer using the tools available to them but were instead shying away from them.

Ms M Mohale (ANC) queried why institutions were not able to advertise vacancies themselves but instead needed to send them to the departments. The departments could take up to a year to advertise these vacancies. Did the DPSA have any interventions in place to resolve this issue?

Ms Bikane agreed that the HR systems in place were appalling and that key issues were not being addressed. She did not feel assured that there was any sense that these problems were being tackled within departments.

Mr Govender said that they had no figures in terms of vacancies. He noted that DPSA had been discussing decentralising filling of vacancies as they believed that CEOs of hospitals should be able to fill vacancies. He also brought it to the Committee’s attention the fact that HR was not the responsibility of the DPSA and therefore not a priority area. The key focus of the DPSA was holding the departments accountable and to implement a mechanism to monitor and enforce priorities. The DPSA had established a relationship with the Auditor-General, who would submit a full audit in which all such shortcomings would be identified. This would form part of the audit opinion.

Mr Suka believed that the advocacy approach needed to be a bit more aggressive. He suggested a move away from concentrating on pamphlets but to place more emphasis on national and local radio stations. He noted that the focus seemed to be on urban rather than rural and that access to information was being jeopardised. Another area of concern was the accessibility of the language used for the spreading of information. He suggested that people were reached in the language they speak and understand.

Mr Govender acknowledged the suggestions made by Mr Suka and confirmed that there were still gaps in this strategy.

Mr Suka questioned why only 54% of contracts had been signed even after an extension to the deadline. He believed that a culture of non-compliance was being created in the higher structures which was gradually being filtered down to the lower structures. He wanted to know why the DPSA was not dealing with this effectively. He believed that the collapse of Batho Pele was a direct consequence of this and felt that the DPSA was not taking on the custodial responsibility and dealing with the issue.

Ms Mohale asked the DPSA for an indication of the number of Directors General who had signed their contracts.

Mr Govender replied that the DPSA did not have the specific details of how many Directors General had signed and asked the Committee for additional time to confirm numbers and get back to it.

Mr Suka queried whether the budget was sufficient to implement the strategy presented by the DPSA.

Mr Govender replied that there were measurable indicators in place. These were all in the document. He confirmed that there were sufficient funds to implement the strategy but more money might be needed in the following areas: capacity in the DPSA (for which a request had been submitted); additional Strategic Management Team (SMT) members; anti-corruption (the DPSA needed to ensure that there were enough resources available and a request had been submitted already). He confirmed that the money for the roll-out of the IFMS would be coming from National Treasury.

Ms Mohale noted that according to the presentation, only 5% of Departments had reached their targets for women. She wondered if the DPSA had put measures in place to ensure departments reached their targets.

Mr Govender acknowledged that they had failed with gender and disability targets. He confirmed however that the DPSA had established relationships with various Associations for People living with Disabilities as well as Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to ensure that targets for gender and disability were met. He also confirmed that the Auditor-General would report on this and there would be a difference moving forward.

Ms Bikane questioned whether the outputs outlined in the presentation were in fact implementable. She queried how accommodating an integrated public service would be and how well programmes would be aligned to possible long-term strategies.

Mr Govender replied that the intention was not to have an integrated public service by the end of 2011. This would be done in consultation with Parliament. He also asked the Committee to note that all issues and strategies extend to Local Government and all areas of integration would need to be covered.

Ms H van Schalkwyk (DA) queried the effectiveness of SITA. She noted that there was a perception that SITA was ‘bad news’.

Mr Govender said that the DPSA do not have the SITA information requested on hand. He asked if this matter could be handled as a special presentation to the Committee in which the DPSA would focus on the key areas needed to turn SITA around and how to refocus the energy of SITA.

Ms Bikane referred to the strike. She believed that much financial loss was caused by strikes and asked the DPSA to clarify what they would be doing differently with regard to labour relations and how it would minimise the budget spent on strikes.

Mr Govender said that this process had been very slow but that they were working with Government to ensure that the issues were resolved.

Ms Bikane asked the DPSA to verify how much money was being spent on international public relations. She believed that it was important for the country but wondered whether the Department’s priorities were not being mixed up.

Mr Govender responded that during the four years that the DRC program was run, R40 million was spent. He confirmed that this did not come from the DPSA budget but the African Relations Fund. He further noted that there were a number of capacity-building programs which were largely donor-funded and not departmental. The only funds that would come from the Department would be the funds spent on personnel. He confirmed that South Africa had signed the convention and was therefore obligated to participate.

Mr Suka asked the DPSA to explain why they were using the three departments mentioned in the presentation.

Mr Govender replied that the DPSA had identified the Department of Health as suitable in all areas that they were working with. They could use this department as a benchmark to test whether the strategy and policies were in fact working, but they would not stretch their budgets unnecessarily. He confirmed that the DPSA had adopted a very structured approach in this regard.

The Chairperson asked the DPSA to include three key issues in their next presentation which were SITA, PERSAL and the signing of performance contracts. She confirmed that some committee oversight would be unarranged and there would be times when other parliamentary committees would assist with oversight.

Ms Bikane asked whether the DPSA could confirm the appointment of the Director General as soon as possible as there had been only an Acting Director General and this issue needed some urgent resolution.

Adoption of Outstanding Minutes
The minutes of 2 June 2010 were tabled and adopted.

The meeting was adjourned.