House Chair, having deliberated on the first quarterly performance reports 2019-20 of Public Service and Administration, we as the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration noted that service delivery in a number of areas took place at the rate of 89% for the Department of Public Service and Administration, 89% for the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and 94% for Statistics SA. We are hopeful that the sector will achieve 100% or closer to this target at the end of the financial year, seeing the average pace per quarter.
There is consistent ... [Inaudible.] ... and compliance with the policy of paying for service delivery within 30 days on valid invoices. Investigations with regard to corrupt activities and on officials doing business with the state are on course and we see the results coming out.
We believe that when the agencies dealing with crime come on board, as they are gradually doing, the sector will also be able to help other departments to deal with the scourge of corruption.
Front-line service delivery is given attention to improve on the citizen ... [Inaudible.] ... index and to help officials at the coalface of service delivery with new interventions and capacity development.
The sector is looking well after national planning to influence the economy through sound policy and backing statistics to align government programmes with what the state can afford and with what it needs to plan for the future.
As a portfolio committee, our approach is to thoroughly interrogate issues sector wide in order to fix a lot of challenges in the process so that in the end the annual reports of our sector should improve regarding monitoring and evaluation, oversight, technical assistance to other departments, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, as well as advocacy on good management and administrative
practices. With this composite approach on sector issues, the sector is going to improve further and further.
We present this report for the House to adopt and support. Merci beaucoup. [Thank you very much.] [Applause.]
Hon Chair, I move
that the three reports combined be adopted. Thank you.
There was no debate.
Declaration(s) of vote:
Hon House Chairperson, during my commute this morning I listened to the Auditor-General, AG, speaking on SAfm. After he laid bare the worst audit results in the history of democratic South Africa, he asked something along the lines of: Why is it that people who are not qualified or competent are still put into key positions in government departments? Could it be deliberate?
I know he asked the question rhetorically but I'd like to take this opportunity to provide an answer. The answer is yes! Yes, the rapidly accelerating collapse of our Public Service is the product of the governing party's deliberate effort to capture and hollow out the state.
The truth is that a professional, competent and apolitical Public Service makes it impossible to loot the state into bankruptcy. The governing party knows this; which is why they have deliberately done the exact opposite for the past quarter of a century.
The deliberate plan referred to by the AG was formally codified by the ANC at its Mafikeng conference in 1997. They even gave it an appropriately Soviet-sounding title of cadre deployment. After its 1997 conference, the governing party resolved to deploy cadres to various organs of the state, including the Public Service and to other centres of power in society.
Fast-forward to this debate today where we are supposed to consider the performance of our Public Service after 22 years of cadre deployment. This includes that, as the
AG reported yesterday, the 2018-19 national and provincial audit outcomes are the worst in the history of democratic South Africa. Yet, in the same year, the Public Service paid R2,6 billion in so-called performance bonuses to its cadres, a 68% increase on the year before.
Afrikaans:
Dit gebeur terwyl die Staatsdiens tans R7,1 miljard aan die helde en heldinne wat werk in besighede dwarsoor Suid-Afrika skep, skuld.
Sedert 1 Januarie 2018 het hierdie regering ook slegs 10% van die Staatsdienskommissie se aanbevelings gemplimenteer. En alhoewel Minister Mboweni ons verlede maand gewaarsku het dat die staat se salarisrekening van R630 miljard binnekort gaan veroorsaak dat ons meer geld spandeer net aan rente op staatskuld, as in onderwys, gesondheid en polisiring, word meer as 29 000 miljoener kaders steeds elke maand getrou betaal.
English:
Cadres over country, every time! Let me hasten to add though that this Parliament is also deeply implicated in
the injustices of cadre deployment because it has forsaken its sacred oversight duty. Hot on the heels of the deployment of the convicted liar Bathabile Dlamini, two days ago the parliamentary committee on Public Service and Administration recommended Zanele Hlatshwayo, a former ANC mayor who destroyed Pietermaritzburg, to become a Public Service commissioner. This was despite her saying in the interview that she will never stop being political, even though the Constitution says the Public Service Commission, PSC, is supposed to be independent, impartial and that commissioners may not be members of political organisations. As usual, Luthuli House chose incompetent cadre Zanele over Kevin Malunga, the highly- qualified current Deputy Public Protector, who also applied for the position.
Madam House Chair, can the member take a question?
Hon member, are you prepared ...
I don't take questions from cadres.
Be relevant. Speak about the report, not the ANC.
I don't take questions from cadres. [Interjections.]
Hon member, he's not prepared. Continue hon member.
Now, although ... Hon Chairperson, I know some members here are nervous about being arrested soon but can you please ask them to calm down? [Applause.]
Now, although the ANC's cadre deployment chickens have now come home to roost, the good news is that there is another way to build a Public Service.
While not one ANC-led province got more than 30% clean audits, the DA-led Western Cape again obtained 79% clean audits. [Applause.] In the words of the AG, the province had the highest number of auditees and there were no auditees with unauthorised expenditure. Zero! Over the
five years there has been a solid and consistent pattern of good audit outcomes in the Western Cape, which can be attributed to the provincial leadership instilling a culture of accountability and good governance.
Now, there you have it hon Chairperson. On the one hand there is the ANC's quarter century-long track record of patronage and cadre deployment ...
Hon Chairperson, is it parliamentary for the member to call us chickens when we are not chickens? It means that at anytime we can be slaughtered if we are called chickens. [Interjections.]
... [Inaudible.] ... chickens have come home to roost. [Interjections.]
Hon member, did you say the members are chickens?
What I said is that, although the ANC's cadre deployment chickens ...
No, I'm asking a direct ...
... [Inaudible.] ... Chairperson, I'm answering. I said that, although the ANC's cadre deployment chickens have now come home to roost ... [Applause.] ... which is a fact.
I will look into that. Thank you. Continue.
Okay, thank you, hon Chairperson. So there you have it. [Interjections.] Chairperson, if the feathers fit you may wear them if you choose. There you have it hon Chairperson. On the one hand there's the ANC's quarter century-long record of patronage and cadre deployment which is now resulting in outright state collapse. On the other hand there is the DA way of clean and professional government that builds shared prosperity. The DA condemns the department's first quarter performance and rejects this report. Thank you. [Applause.]
House Chair, the Centre for Public Service Innovation's, CPSI, mandate is to develop innovative, sustainable and responsive models of improved service delivery. The CPSI, as one of the entities of the Department of Public Service and Administration, has failed in their mandate because they should have done the necessary research to demonstrate how we should insource workers and build a capable state.
The wage bill that the Minister of Finance is crying about, saying that the Public Service has too many people and causes the state too much, is misguided. This is the case because the majority of public servants are employed only to ... [Inaudible.] ... paperwork for tenders, quotations and invoices, while companies appointed through tenders bring additional staff to do the work that must be done by public servants.
We can do away with many of the challenges cited in the department's first quarter reports if we insource workers in all national departments, provincial departments and entities that municipalities are ...
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation must be closed. It is that simple. There is no need to discuss the report, and we all agreed to this in the Fifth Parliament.
With regard to Statistics SA, we still have not resolved the issue of funding, and Statistics SA continues to lose skilled researchers and mathematicians to the private sector. We need to intervene urgently, and we cannot trust government with the necessary interventions on the issue of state funding. We will never do that.
The EFF rejects this report and calls ... the reports that have interventions in the lives of our people. EFF phezukwenu! [The EFF is coming for you!] Thank you. [Applause.]
The department's main task is to conduct oversight over the executive to ... [Inaudible.] ... effective and efficient development and professional Public Service. The Public Service in all departments of government needs to ensure that employees who render
services to people are well trained, knowledgeable and efficient.
Over the last few weeks we have seen various departments struggling to address fruitless and wasteful expenditure and in most cases ... [Inaudible.] The public's confidence in departments is declining due to the level of corruption, administration and fraud.
We see increasing levels of frustration by workers of the state that fall into the lower tiers of departments, and they are quite often not the ones responsible for corrupt activities, yet when government is in dire straits they are the first ones to have their jobs cut. Again, the burden of mismanagement from the elite is shifted onto the working class and the poor.
We need to find a way for all senior and junior staff in the department to have equal accountability. In this department ... mandate to find such solutions to this. One possible solution will be that the performance contracts should be interlinked in order to incentivise
... the co-operation between senior and junior staff when the time comes to determine bonuses.
Furthermore, as with individuals, entire departments are unique ... must also ... [Inaudible.] ... face consequences. In various departments we see that they have continuously received qualified audits over the past five- year reported financial period. As a result of a lack of consequences, departments do not show a willingness to want to fix their problems.
Issues of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure are among the most prevalent, and show a clear lack of will by the government to focus on the primary business of bringing service delivery to people. The IFP supports the reports. [Applause.] This report I have read was for Inkosi R Cebekhulu.
On a point of order, hon House Chair.
Why are you on your feet, hon member?
On a point of information, hon House Chairperson. It is the birthday of the hon Hlengwa today. Thank you. [Applause.]
Oh! Happy birthday, mama Hlengwa! And many, many, more! [Applause.]
The House singing the happy birthday song! [Applause.]
Siyabonga! We associate ourselves with the motion of your birthday. Then it is a motion and I put it as such! Mama Kibi, ANC. Oh, I did not see you there, mama Jordaan! Am I right?
Yes.
Alright. Continue, FF Plus.
Declarations of vote:
Hon House Chair, I am sorry to be the bearer of the bad news on that positive note. It has been said by the Minister of Finance, it is been said by the
President, it has been said by the Minister of Public Service and Administration himself, it has been said by the opposition parties and the FF Plus and I am saying it again, the public sector wage bill is too high. It was also said by the committee when they implored the department to come up with effective measures to reduce the wage bill in the public service, yet cuts in the public sector wage bill are still to be seen.
What is also been said over and over again, is that the trade unions have too much power and are allowed to get away with murder because the ruling ANC just cannot seem to master the courage or the will to say no.
The latest in a very long list of examples is the SA Airways, SAA, strike.
We have just finalised the Budget Review and Recommendations, BRR, report process for the various departments. One aspect that was observed in nearly all the departments is the vacancy rate in high-level posts such as directors and deputy directors.
In spite of this, we still have the bloated Salary Bill. So, we have the shortage of specialised staff, such as financial managers and other specialist positions on the one hand, and then we have personal assistants, PAs, for PAs on the other hand. How does this make sense?
The government's wage bill accounts for 34% of the national budget. This means that for every R1 000 government spends, R340 goes towards employee compensation.
The public sector wage bill has more than tripled in the period since 2006- 7 to 2018-19, from a R154 billion to R518 billion. This is due to above inflation remuneration increases.
Public servants earning in access of R1 million per year, as the hon Schreiber has mentioned, increased from 9 600 to 29 000 during the same period.
Afrikaans:
Die privaatsektor word dikwels uitgekryt as die grootste sondebok - dis nou behalwe blanke mense - as dit kom by
die ANC se mislukkings. Die privaatsektor is die grootste werkskepper in Suid-Afrika, ten spyte van reusagtige struikelblokke wat grootliks deur die staat geskep en veroorsaak word.
Die gemiddelde salaris in die privaatsektor is R273 000 per jaar. Die gemiddelde salaris in die staatsdiens in R393 000 per jaar. Die privaatsektor is grootliks suksesvol deur die uitbou en bevordering van die land se ekonomie. Die staat is nie.
Dit is dalk tyd dat die staat begin afkyk by die privaatsektor as dit kom by bestuur- en personneelaangeleenthede om sodoende sy huis in orde begin te kry.
English:
Attempts by the department to curb some of the fraud and corruption within the public sector through the implementation of the revised determination on other remunerative work to prohibit public servants from conducting business with any organs of state is welcomed. Though one would think that it would not have been
necessary, if the most basic of compliance rules were implemented from the start. The FF Plus does not support this report. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Hon House Chair, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members of this House, firstly I want to say in this House, it is pointless for me when we are meeting in a committee deliberating on things and at the end, people will come here and cry, looking for mercy. We were there discussing the appointment of the commissioner. And when one does not win and get what he wants to get, they come here to complain and cry. You are not going to get mercy here. We are not going to ask any permission from anybody, who we want to take this ANC forward! [Applause.]
Our sector dealt with the mammoth task of championing the reconsideration of the national government with tremendous success. We complement the Ministry of Public Service and Administration for this milestone. We cannot leave aside the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation for their part in macroplanning for the entire state and government regarding reliable official
statistics and ensuring the overall implantation of the National Development Plan.
In this sector, we deal with the inadequate budgets at both Statistics SA and the Public Service Commission. These two institutions are a good example of managing well what they have and to still perform on their mandates far better than compromising them. We only feel bad because they can only stretch that much with what they are given. If the National Treasury would consider topping them up, they would deliver beyond the normal expectation. We also do not want them to be compromised on the core functions given to them by the Constitution in the case of the Public Service Commission and the administrative justice in case of Statistics SA.
The Thusong Service Centres location and funding model remain key issues. The committee will be conducting oversight on ensuring policy framework and management of this facility is given attention for the benefit of poor people and easy access to services by every member of society.
We assure this House that service delivery is on course within our sector.
Concerning vacancies in the public service, our approach is that the Integrated Financial Management System be updated with a sense of urgency so that the shortfalls within the persal system can be addressed. In this manner, the public service would know which posts are redundant and therefore should be abolished against the ones that are vacant and should be filled. In this manner also, the public service would by default deal effectively with the challenge of the wage bill because the budget would not be assigned to oganograms that are not real.
The portfolio committee encouraged lifestyle audits within the public agreement that the Office of Standards and Compliance and the Technical Assistance Unit were crucial to be established, following promulgation of the Public Administration Management Act 11 of 2014 and the subsequent formulation of the Public Service Regulation of 2016. This is a gap that the Fifth Parliament's portfolio committee and the department filled in terms of
legislative and policy tools. Now is the time to begin implementation.
In that manner the public service and government can really make a dent to endemic corruption and we and the legislative establishment can also be empowered to call the public service and the executive to account on this matter. The portfolio committee raised together with the Department of Public Service and Administration the issue of suspensions that go for years on and not being finalised, while officials draw a salary.
The issue of not properly formulating charges, thus making them litigious in a court of law. It is a challenge that the public service must address seeing that the implicated officials win cases against government when they had wronged the same government.
The committee also raised together with the Ministry and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation the issue of board of trustees vacancies and Brand SA which made it difficult for the executive to take decisions without the board. This also held back their increment
and bonuses due to employees. We were assured by both the Ministry and Brand SA executive that the matter was receiving their urgent attention.
We are a bit happy about the issue of permanence and agreements that they are becoming less and less and noncompliance challenge. However, we would be happier when the compliance rate becomes fully compliant.
The newly introduced performance management development system would work well with compliance and ensuring that bonuses are paid only to due candidates, and that capacity development challenges can be identified earlier to improve on individual employees as well as the service they are supposed to deliver.
I propose that the House adopt this report and by the way the ANC supports it.
IsiXhosa:
Into yokuba abantu baza kukhalaza ngokuba sinikana iibhonasi, ngela xesha sasithatha ulawulo loMzantsi Afrika, banikana iibhonasi nemihlaba kwaye akuzange
kubekho mntu uthethayo. Sifuna imihlaba yethu. [Kwaqhwatywa.]
English:
Motion agreed to.
Report on First Quarterly Performance 2019/2020 financial year: Department of Public Service and Administration and its entities, and Public Service Commission accordingly adopted (Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters and Freedom Front Plus dissenting).
Report on First Quarterly Performance 2019/2020 financial year: Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and entities accordingly adopted (Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters and Freedom Front Plus dissenting).
Report on First Quarterly Performance 2019/2020 financial year: Statistics South Africa accordingly adopted (Democratic Alliance and Freedom Front Plus dissenting).
The House adjourned at 16:10. -----------------------