Deputy Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, what ties us together is our shared purpose and responsibility to transform the South African Public Service into a formidable, effective vehicle capable of supporting the socioeconomic development that South Africa and its people need and deserves, a public administration capable of ensuring human safety and security to each other and to everyone; ensuring the dignified existence of all our people within a human rights framework; and working in a trajectory of perpetual improvement and elevation for all, but particularly providing support for the poor in order to close the gap and erase the sharp disparities that mark the livelihoods of the privileged and the underprivileged.
The department's mandate has evolved over the years from developing policy towards implementing and facilitating service delivery improvement through support interventions, information and communications technology, ICT, and community development workers. The department also participates in and plays a critical role in various public administration and management structures in the Southern African Development Community, SADC, region and the rest of the world.
The government's five major priorities for the current electoral period include education, health, land reform and rural development, creation of decent work and the fight against crime. Informed by these priorities the objectives underpinning the department's strategic focus include developing and strengthening the capacity of the state through efficient, effective and sustainable systems; strengthening the public sector through institutional reforms; promoting good governance in the public sector and building an effective and caring government; developing the human resource capacity of the public sector; and pursuing strategic international partnerships to consolidate South Africa's regional and international agenda.
During this financial year, as the select committee, we will enhance our oversight function in order to ensure that the DPSA implements these strategic priorities, and in return contributes directly or indirectly towards the achievement of government's objectives of equality, improving the quality of education and health as well as other social services, halving unemployment by 2014, and stepping up the fight against crime. As the select committee we believe that in order for the department to deliver these priorities, it needs to collaborate with other government departments and institutions to establish partnerships with civil society.
The department has been allocated a total budget of R651,4 million during the current financial year. Over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF period, spending is expected to grow to R684,1 million at an average annual rate of 0,1%.
During this financial year, the department needs to focus more on outcomes as it spends its 2010-11 budget. This requires a shift from a focus on inputs that is budgets, personnel and equipment to managing outcomes. These will relate to the strategic focus areas of the department aligned with this year's budget in order to enhance service delivery through systematic information and knowledge management and collaboration between institutions within and across spheres of government as well as between those spheres and private and development sectors. The ANC during its 52nd national congress in Polokwane resolved that, as the ANC, we should continue to lead and drive the process of the unification of administration in the three spheres of government in the Single Public Service.
The uppermost on government's agenda for the ongoing social and economic upliftment and transformation of our society is improvement in the delivery of basic and other services to the people of South Africa.
Currently delivery is hampered by weaknesses in numerous areas, including, amongst others, national frameworks and policies that do not extend to local government in the areas of service delivery and public administration, management and marked differences in remuneration and conditions of service in the Public Service and local government, which makes mobility and transfer of functions difficult.
The single Public Service is based on the principle that the institutions across government - (whether local, provincial or national - that comprise the machinery of the state have to work together to effectively fulfil the needs of the South African society. This means that their structures must be aligned and structured in such a way that there are no barriers to co- operation.
The single Public Service initiative seeks to ensure greater alignment across the three spheres of government in the areas of human resource management and development, service delivery, information and communications technology, anti-corruption and the designs of framework legislation.
The state is constitutionally bound to ensure that services of a high quality are delivered to the citizens at their convenience. This means that government must find the most effective methods and channels to deliver these services. It calls for a dynamic, modern delivery model and a system that clusters these services to the convenience of the citizen through a "single window"- a place where a person can receive a range of government services, be this a physical structure or electronic.
Rather than undermine the distinctiveness of local government as a sphere, the single Public Service will improve the manner in which the spheres interrelate and co-operate with each other to ensure enhanced delivery of services. The Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act of 2005 will assist by creating the environment for formalising intergovernmental forums and regulating dispute resolutions.
In 2003 the community development workers, CDWs, were established as a new cadre of public servants. The unique contribution was to span the divides between different spheres of government and between different line departments that logically are interconnected but are operationally divided. They make it easier for citizens to negotiate the complex maze of government departments in order to access public services, particularly social services and economic opportunities.
President Zuma has further reminded all of us that through working with the people and supported by our public servants, we will build a developmental state, improve public services and strengthen democratic institutions. Community development workers, CDWs, are therefore the critical building block in the actualisation of the developmental state.
Policy for the community development worker's programme is at an advanced stage, with consultations finalised in eight provinces. The policy development process is expected to be completed by April 2010. Therefore, hon Minister, during this financial year, as this House, we want to see the CDWs programme strengthened in order to facilitate access to government services. We support the Budget Vote.