NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NUMBER: 3710
DATE FOR PUBLICATION: 25 NOVEMBER 2011
DATE REPLY SUBMITTED: 5 DECEMBER 2011
MS N P GCUME (COPE) to ask the Minister in the Presidency: Performance
Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration:
Whether the Presidency has established a monitoring and evaluation
mechanism for the Department of Social Development; if not, how does the
Presidency (a) monitor and (b) evaluate the said department's performance;
if so, (i) how has the Presidency rated the departmentâs performance (aa)
in (aaa) 2009 and (bbb) 2010 and (bb) during the period 1 January 2011 up
to the latest specified date for which information is available and (ii)
why did the department obtain this score in each specified year?
NW4491E
REPLY:
The Presidency established the Department of Performance Monitoring and
Evaluation (DPME) in 2010, with the first staff member appointed in April
2010. One of the first priorities of DPME was to facilitate the process of
developing delivery agreements for the 12 outcomes. This was completed in
November 2010. Government is now in the process of monitoring and
evaluating the implementation of the delivery agreements, with quarterly
reports to Cabinet. DPME has also recently completed a new web-based
Programme of Action (PoA), which is available to the public (see
www.poa.gov.za). The POA contains summary details of the delivery
agreements, and from 2012, progress against each of the outcomes will be
captured on the POA and will be visible to the public.
The Department of Social Development contributes to several outcomes,
particularly outcomes 1, 3 and 7. Through the POA, the public will be able
to monitor the performance of government (the Department of Social
Development as well as other departments involved in these outcomes) with
regard to progress against the targets in the delivery agreements. This
does not result in a simple âscoreâ rating of the department â rather it
shows progress against the specific planned outputs, activities, indicators
and targets in the delivery agreements.
DPME has also recently obtained Cabinet approval for a National Evaluation
Policy Framework (available on the Presidency website), and has started to
work with a number of national departments to initiate evaluations of key
government programmes. One of the first evaluations which we have initiated
is on Early Childhood Development, which is being jointly carried out by
the Departments of Basic Education, Social Development, Health and Women,
Children and People with Disabilities. This evaluation is due to be
completed and made public by the end of April 2012. In terms of the
national policy framework, a rolling three year national evaluation plan
will be taken to Cabinet for approval early next year. The plan will
identify key programmes to be evaluated, and may include other programmes
related to social development.
In addition to the above, DPME also recently obtained the approval of
Cabinet for a system of assessing the management performance of
departments. This system focuses on assessing the quality of generic
management practices in departments, and involves collecting information
from secondary sources such as Auditor General reports as well as
facilitated and externally verified self-assessments by the management of
departments. These management performance assessments started for the first
time in November 2011, and DPME is planning to present a summary of the
results for all national departments to Cabinet by April 2012. Thereafter
information regarding the results of the management performance assessments
will be made public.
End