Hon Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister, other Ministers present, hon members, I follow gladly on the hon members, colleagues in the committee as well as the chairperson in outlining the challenges that this department faces, particularly politically and administratively. It is fitting to wish the Minister good luck in her challenging new department. I do know you have the ability to get things done.
The National Development Plan, NDP, places a high priority on the developmental state to deliver quality services to our people. The NDP states:
A developmental state needs to be capable, but a capable state does not materialise by decree, nor can it be legislated or waved into existence by declarations. It has to be built brick by brick, institution by institution, and sustained over time. It requires leadership, sound policies, skilled managers and workers, clear lines of accountability, appropriate systems and consistent and fair application of rules.
We debate this budget after Parliament adopted the NDP and, of course, the adoption of the NDP at Mangaung. As I am on this point, I just want to pause and say it seems like we are not quite sure whether the NDP is going to see the light of day as we see a party to the alliance beginning to contract out of the NDP itself.
The NDP 2030 suggests that it is a priority to build a capable state and seriously address poverty and inequality. It is correct to assert Public Service and Administration as the pillar upholding effective government institutions with the requisite skills to achieve the developmental objectives.
Cope's concern, when we look at the programme allocation, is whether the department is ready to lead the implementation of the NDP, and whether the skilled personnel exist in the Public Service in general.
We have listened to the Minister outlining the priorities as directives for departmental implementation. For the department to implement whilst the NDP is characterised as a development state, the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, Palama, must be geared for this challenge. As we speak, Palama is not ready for this task. Palama, with its current budget and focus, will not meet the objective NDP requirements by 2030. So the Minister's perspective of a government school is the correct one to take. The correct path in itself is not the sum total of requirements to meet objectives as required by the NDP; much more must be done, and something drastic must be done.
The department must move faster to inculcate in the personnel of the Public Service the culture of being servants of our people. It must teach officials to love our people, to provide a quality service and, of course, to provide the service fairly, with respect.
We need Public Service personnel who are accountable to our people. To date, the Public Service believes that it is not accountable to the masses of our people, hence they could not care less about the services they provide to communities. If people have no water in the Free State or Limpopo over the weekend, to them it's okay. This is the culture that our Public Service personnel demonstrate towards our people today. The hundreds of daily protests demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that the department has not managed to educate all the officials about the principles of Batho Pele. As Cope, we agree that as a country we must move fast, with speed, to professionalise the Public Service as a priority towards realising the objectives of the NDP and meeting the principles of Batho Pele. Today the state is confronted by the challenge of officials that pay more attention to tenders for themselves and their families. These officials forget that they all have to serve, not to enrich themselves.
To date, the Auditor-General has reported that state officials continue to do business with the state and their own departments without consequences. Minister, you need to take action on this matter. Today, the connected officials' families benefit from unfair business practices. Gupta instructs officials to secure tenders and the department just obliges because they fear name-dropping. This cannot continue.
As we speak, corruption committed by Public Service officials continues to be a problem. Despite having a Public Finance Management Act, PFMA, there are officials who steal, or who plunge our public purse into corrupt practices and still get off scot-free when they face disciplinary action.
As we speak, the employed officials run amok, showing our people disrespect. How could it be possible for the Guptas to get permission from officials to land at Waterkloof Airbase? [Interjections.] This demonstrates an unbecoming attitude. You can't condone that, of course. It's a clear demonstration of the degree of corruption our Public Service displays today. We need to state that there are many public servants and officials who go beyond the call of duty, who do good and what is right, and to them we must say: Well done, keep up the good work.
We want to see the department leading this programme in addressing the lack of accountability in the Public Service. Accountability by a Director- General who eradicates corruption in a department is a priority. We should enforce in the state officials a work ethos through education and training. We must depoliticise and professionalise the Public Service machinery so as to be beyond reproach, with Palama leading the programme of education.
The 2013 budget programme makes provision for the department to improve disciplinary processes. We are worried that as we speak today there's a lack of capacity in handling, disciplining and concluding this within the prescribed period of 60 days. Disciplinary action continues to run for months and years, with billions of rands being spent. We are concerned about the suspension of officials in the department, where 64% of them remain suspended on full pay running into years.
It troubles us that only 4% of the departments meet 80% of their performance targets. It troubles us when 70% of the departments only meet an average of 50% of their performance targets. We wonder how this is going to be turned around.
We cannot wonder when our people continue to protest. As we debate this budget, some departments take more than nine months to appoint senior management services. One of the worst-performing departments, which takes 30,9 months to perform, is Public Works; Basic Education takes 20,1 months; Human Settlements takes 24 months; Transport takes 33 months and Water Affairs takes 12,2 months.
This picture shows complete defiance to the President's call to implement the appointment of officials to do the work within three months. It goes without saying that serious intervention is required, and required without delay. We are concerned about the continuing employment of consultants that costs billions of rands. This money should be directed to the service delivery, not to the connected consultants. I thank you. [Applause.]