Hon Speaker, in the 2011 state of the nation address, I made a commitment that government would fill all funded vacant posts, and I directed the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation department in my office to provide a report within six months on the state of vacancies. This report has been provided.
An analysis of the expenditure of personnel budgets, together with general personnel information on Persal, our employee database, indicates that, on average, less than 3% of funded posts are vacant at any time. This means that, in general, national and provincial departments are doing well in terms of filling funded vacant posts. However, the exercise indicated a need to clean up the personnel database.
The report found that some departments had captured unfunded vacant posts on the database, which contributed to the impression that there were large numbers of vacant positions. We have also noticed a tendency to fill more administrative posts than technical posts that are required to improve service delivery. For example, in the health sector there has been a 71% growth rate in administrative appointments and only a 39% growth rate in health professionals between 2003 and 2010.
A few national departments, such as Water Affairs, Public Works and Justice and Constitutional Development, have had high vacancy rates. This is linked to the difficulty in attracting skilled personnel to government. Some departments, such as the Department of Rural Development and Reform, were undergoing restructuring and had relatively high vacancy levels for that reason. Various actions have been taken since the submission of the report.
Firstly, the Department of the Public Service and Administration has issued an instruction to all departments to fill the funded vacancies and remove unfunded ones from their personnel systems; and, secondly, the Forum of SA Directors-General has been directed to ensure that vacancies are filled within four months, instead of the average time of six to nine months, which had become the norm in the Public Service.
Progress reports will be provided to Cabinet and the President's Co- ordinating Council periodically. As we monitor these reports, the Presidency will determine whether or not it is necessary to take any action against any particular department for not filling vacancies timeously. Thank you, hon Speaker. [Applause.]