Provincial Review Report | South African Government

3. Issues for the National Government

Foreword

From the Minister for the Public Service and Administration

The Government of National Unity declared that 1997 should be the year when the majority of South Africans clearly see the fruits of the 1994 democratic elections. This, it said, should be The Year of Delivery. In my responsibility for the Public Service, I am acutely aware of the challenges that we face to provide services that will allow all the people of South Africa to truly call our land their home.

For the first two years after 1994 we were building our Nation, putting the new Machinery of Government in place, turning the systems which for decades had served the few and controlled the many into ones which benefit all. We have a New Constitution, a new system of national Government and the nine new Provinces. We have successfully integrated the corrupting and fragmented arms of the Apartheid Regime - the Homelands and Own Affairs departments - into a single national Public Service. We have, in the nine Provinces, (where the majority of public servants work) created new systems for the delivery of services, much closer to the people. Through a process of redistribution of staff and resources, we have gone a long way towards a more appropriate allocation of services, especially to the most needy in our society. The Public Service is now much more representative of the people it serves. We have made progress towards increasing the performance of our services.

Together we have come very far in a short time. But we have not yet reached our destination.

The reforms which have begun in the Public Service must continue to gain momentum. Our new country is evolving in new ways, and a new model of government is emerging. It is the responsibility of all of us, politicians and public servants, to make sure that the people of South Africa receive the best possible services.

In response to concerns raised by the members of the public, I requested that a team with local and international expertise undertake a rapid review of the administrations of the nine new provinces. Headed by the Director-General of my department, Dr. Paseka Ncholo, the team has done an excellent job in a very short time in undertaking their task. The intention of the reviews was to take stock of the reform process to date; to see how well the new administrations were progressing in their challenging tasks; to establish whether the administrations had capacity to manage the block budgets that were to be introduced during the 1997/98 financial year; and to find out if the new ways of governing and administering the country which we set up after 1994, corporate governance in particular as envisaged by the 1996 Constitution are workable.

I am proud to record that the team has found that many public servants are dedicated, loyal and hard-working. They are performing excellently, often under trying and difficult circumstances. Without the co-operation of these public servants who poured their hearts out to the Review Task Team this report would not have been possible.

The team found many positive and vibrant initiatives throughout the country. We can take pride in the fact that some provinces are delivering services that are comparable with the best in the world.

But in some areas I have grave concerns. The report is frank and we had no intention of sweeping anything under the carpet. There is much room for improvement. This report identifies the key issues that the team found, and areas that must be addressed if we are to honour the promises we made to our people in 1994. It will be noted that these issues are not only focused on the provincial administrations; national government (and my department not least of all) should take note of the findings in this report which show that the departments do not have effective follow-up mechanisms to ensure that their policies have the desired impact at provincial level.

The report has provinces as its main focus because of the fact that more than 60% of public servants are employed in the provinces. Without doubt there is a need to take the process further into national departments. It is hoped that the new Public Service Commission and the Presidential Review Commission will continue to build on this work in the pursuit of their constitutional and statutory mandates respectively.

We, politicians, public servants, business, and civil society must all act together so that the people of South Africa may receive the public services they deserve.

Zola Skweyiya
Minister for the Public Service and Administration

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1. Executive summary

The provincial reviews

Between October 1996 and May 1997, a review was undertaken of the administration of every department in the nine new provinces of South Africa. In about 350 structured interviews, over 950 provincial staff were asked for their views of how well they were performing their jobs.

The team undertaking the reviews had as their foundation the Constitutional Principles for public administration; that it should be accountable, maintain a high standard of professional ethics, use resources in an efficient, economic and effective way, be representative of the population as a whole and develop human resources in a way that maximises human potential. The country is still reconstructing itself after the corrupting years of apartheid. The review took place recognising that the public service is not yet fully demonstrating the principles set out in the new Constitution.

The review was rapid, took place at a time when provinces were still establishing themselves, and can necessarily be only a snap-shot of a process underway. Topics which were specifically addressed include:

Leadership and strategic management,
The linkage between national and provincial departments,
How financial and other resources are managed, and
How people are managed.

The aim of this review was to improve the management and running of the Public Service. It was to give an indication to national decision-makers what the impediments are to effective delivery of public services to South Africans.

The team visited each province, beginning with the Eastern Cape, then the Northern Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, North-West, the Western Cape, the Northern Cape, Free State and finally Gauteng. After each province had been visited, an individual report was compiled which highlighted the issues of concern for the departments of that province and made recommendations on action that could be taken. These reports were handed over to the Premier of each province within a fortnight of the review taking place. From the findings of these nine reports, (which identified over 1,300 issues) the main points have been distilled into this document.

This report is intended to prompt discussion and action by politicians, and the Public Service. It is also intended that specific bodies such as the Public Service Commission, Public Protector, the Auditor-General and the Presidential Review Commission on the Transformation of the Public Service should use it to make recommendations as to how the efficiency and effectiveness of public services may improve. It is also intended to alert South African Management and Development Institute (SAMDI) and other training institutes to the areas where training and capacity building should be focused.

The findings

Three groups of issues were found:

Issues for national government,
Issues common to most departments and provinces (Transversal Issues), and
Department specific issues.

The Executive Summary addresses the first two of these categories.

1.1 Issues for the National Government

Several key issues were identified where the national government is explicitly having an impact on how the provincial governments are performing their tasks. These are that:

New policies are often set at national level without due consideration to the organisational, financial and service delivery implications in provinces.
Many national and provincial departments are not monitoring the performance of service delivery activities; they (national and provincial departments) do not know how well they are doing their job.
Current Public Service regulations work against excellence in service delivery instead of encouraging it. These regulations:
- do not allow individuals (of whatever rank) to be held accountable for the performance of their jobs,
- have encouraged a culture of lack of responsibility,
- do not allow misconduct to be dealt with promptly and appropriately,
- specify that qualifications are valued far more than skills and experience,
- force managers to be too involved in low-level administrative matters, and
- do not allow departments to create organisations appropriate to their tasks.
National financial regulations limit the efficient use of the State's resources. They do not establish Value For Money as the key principle. They require budgets to be in formats which are inappropriate and difficult for managers to use to make decisions. They constrain the purchase of goods and services to such an extent that the public regularly suffers.
There is confusion in the direction given by national government in the management of the public service, including:
- a lack of clarity over who is responsible for the management of key functions,
- poor support from national departments in processes such as bargaining with unions, and
- poor communication to provinces of national human resource policy as well as the new grading system and treasury instructions.
National departments are not adequately supporting provincial departments in the performance of their tasks, they:
- have not provided sufficient development of provincial departmental capacity,
- require provincial staff to attend too many meetings (which remove them from operational activities), and
- do not provide adequate provincial support from key national service contracts.

1.2 Transversal issues

Whereas national issues were of specific relevance to the national departments, transversal issues (common to all provinces and departments) are of concern to Provincial and National governments.

The review found that the centralisation of functions in provinces, particularly financial and personnel management, has a negative effect on the ability of departments to deliver services. This results from the lack of a client-service approach by the central provincial departments (who still see themselves in the main as controlling, not enabling, line departments), as well as a deficit of skills.

Provinces are restricted in the main by the lack of flexibility to respond effectively to local conditions. They are also hampered by the inability to restructure their departments around the needs of service-delivery and the constraints placed upon them by budget formats.

The Public Service in the provinces is still not focused on improving service delivery. It is restricted by the administrative processes inherited from the previous dispensation. However, with the creation of the nine new provinces, new problems were also added to the burden.

The common themes highlighting the problems are listed below.

Leadership, Management and Strategic Planning

Political interference hampers the administration of provincial departments throughout the country. There is a poor definition of the different roles of politicians and administrators.
There is an over centralisation of management control in provinces. This causes inefficiency in line departments resulting in too much time being spent focusing away from the people who receive services. The Offices of the Directors-General often do not provide effective strategic direction, guidance and leadership, instead they administer the rules of the public service.
Strategic planning at provincial level is often weak and poorly implemented. Strategic planning in departments is of variable quality. There is insufficient co-ordination and communication of strategic plans, which results in weak ownership, and the non-implementation of plans.

Organisational Arrangements

Some provinces still need to create departmental structures in line with their functions and activities.
Some of the key activities of government have been marginalised because they have been placed, and effectively lost, within major spending departments.
Provincial departments mainly have to use their central Public Works departments for maintenance. There is clear evidence that this is not in the best interests of service delivery - it has the effect of increasing the time taken to maintain existing services and build new ones.

Managing Human Resources

Human resource capacity in the provinces continues to pose a serious challenge. This is not as a result of a lack of staff, but of personnel with the appropriate skills and experience to perform the (mainly technical/professional) jobs required. This has led to over-burdening of skilled staff in key professional and technical areas and impacts negatively on service delivery. Few provinces or departments have sufficiently addressed human resources development and training, or indeed have any structured policy to do this.
The lack of discipline and the prevalence of misconduct (such as fraud and theft) are major problems in many departments and provincial administrations. Ineffective procedures for managing misconduct cases cause service delays, excessive costs and demoralises staff who wish to see wrong doing punished. There are chronic shortages of staff capable of managing misconduct cases, the Public Service Act and the Public Service Staff Code procedures are unwieldy and time-consuming.
Personnel management functions are over centralised in many provincial administrations. Departments have difficulty in managing their own staff effectively, due to overcentralisation of the personnel functions. This has had a detrimental effect on service delivery.
The Voluntary Severance Package has not reduced the numbers sufficiently in the Public Service. It has led to many skilled and capable people leaving the Public Service. Prescripts and directives were not properly followed by departments and provinces in managing the voluntary severance.
There is an urgent need to create greater balance in terms of race, gender and disability, particularly in the technically orientated departments and fields of expertise. This may be the case in the public service as a whole.
Some provinces, where the staffing of new structures has been completed, report large numbers of excess staff that cannot be redeployed. Other provinces have not yet completed the staffing process and they hold a large number of staff additional to those in posts.
Throughout the country, whilst effort has been made to reduce the numbers of ghost workers, much still needs to be done, and many still remain on the payroll of some provinces.

Financial Management

Staff do not have sufficient skills or understanding of the importance of financial management to oversee provincial departments' funds appropriately. There is a critical shortage of skilled and qualified staff in provincial departments who can manage finances, or have adequate understanding of the role of financial management in the good delivery of services to the public.
Financial management systems are not adequate to meet the challenges of the new model of governance. In fact most systems are premised on the old Bantustan financial management systems.
Most provinces do not prioritise their budgets in accordance with their policy objectives, nor link them enough to their activities. As a result, when cuts are made, they are done in an arbitrary manner, often without real consideration of the effects on service delivery.
Financial information systems do not fully promote the effective management of public funds. Financial information systems are not user-friendly and do not produce reports that managers can adequately understand. Information entered onto the systems is often incomplete. Reports are generally not trusted. Information regarding staff and salaries is often difficult to obtain. The inherited financial system and the personnel salary system (PERSAL) often have problems in interfacing.
Financial management functions are over-centralised in provinces, and there is often insufficient competence to provide an adequate service to the line departments. This regularly leads to misallocation of resources and poor control. This does not imply that centralisation is necessarily problematic especially where a province has little or few skilled personnel.
Relations between Provincial Tender Boards and departments are problematic and not clearly defined.
The state's assets are not well managed. Proper inventories of assets are not kept. Therefore departments have no knowledge of their assets or their value where they exist. Control over the use and management of provincial vehicles is very poor, resulting in fraud and theft.

Information Systems and Technology

Most provinces and departments lack an appropriate or working strategy for the management and deployment of Information Technology (IT). IT has not been fully integrated into the activities of the Public Service.
More than half the provinces do not have complete networks for the basic administrative systems; FMS and PERSAL.

These issues will require a concerted effort from national and provincial government if they are to be addressed effectively.

Conclusion

The Public Service in the provinces is not performing in the most efficient and effective way possible. This report highlights some of the areas already identified by public service managers themselves.

It points towards the need to:

increase the skills of staff,
ensure accountability for actions, and
make sure that misconduct is dealt with speedily to reduce corruption.

In particular it points to the need for greater capacity to manage finances in a manner that ensures value for money. It shows a strong need to empower line managers so that they may fully oversee the management of finances and personnel in their departments .

National regulations on the public service limit the ability of public service managers to provide services. They instead encourage initiative and provide inappropriate safeguards. Each sphere of government is not supportive of each other and sometimes function in competition with each other.

It appears that inherited systems from the past, especially from the Bantustans were never designed to support service delivery at massive scales required by the democratic dispensation. Therefore any measures without systematic thinking compromise the implementation of government policy rather than enhancing it.

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2. Introduction

What has happened in the Public Service since 1994

The government is changing the way public services at provincial level are provided in many ways since April 1994.

It has reorganised the structures of the Public Service through the:

amalgamation of the previous racially based administrations (RSA, Own Affairs administrations, Homelands, Self-overning Territories, and previous provincial administrations) into a single public service split between nine provinces and the new national departments,
reallocation of staff and resources by the provinces into new departments based on the national structures,
creation (in some cases) of new district level services, and
rationalisation of provincial departments in line with the allocation of resources.

It has begun the longer and more difficult process of improving how we deliver services whilst at the same time having to cut expenditure. Provincial administrations have:

reprioritised services in accordance with the policies of the new government,
begun to develop management skills to make sure that services are delivered better,
improved the representativeness of the Public Service, especially at senior levels,
made efforts to bring services closer to the people of the country, especially in rural areas, and
begun to re-orientate services to focus on the disadvantaged groups in society.

And, the most challenging job of all, is to ensure that every part of the Public Service strives to develop a new set of values which puts People First in everything they do.

The purpose of the Report

This report paints a broad picture of the capacity of provincial administrations to deliver public services. It is intended to:

inform the wider public, Public Servants, Parliament and Cabinet on the state of the administration and progress of reform in South Africa's provinces,
dentify key problems and issues which require attention so that provincial administrations may improve the quality of the services they deliver to the public,
identify problems experienced in provinces which derive from the national level, and
stimulate development, remedial programmes and the building of capacity in the Public Service.

The principles that guided the reviews

The style and philosophy of the review derives from the Principles enshrined in the Constitution for public administration which, among other things, are:

that a high standard of professional ethics is promoted and maintained,
there is efficient, economic and effective use of resources,
public administration is development-oriented,
public administration must be accountable,
good human resources management and career development practices, to maximize human potential, must be cultivated, and that the,
public administration must be broadly representative of the South African people.

How the report was compiled

Between October 16th 1996 and May 9th 1997, a specialist team of 15 people (including local and international expertise) visited every province in the country to review the state of administration. In this rapid exercise the team met with over 950 public servants and conducted about 350 formal interviews with staff of all ranks in the Public Service.

Public Servants in the provinces were asked for their views on how well they were performing their tasks, and what the obstacles were to delivering services. Interviews were structured around particular broad topics, including leadership and strategic management, the linkage between national and provincial departments, how financial and other resources are managed, and the management of people. A series of structured open questions (focusing attention on the key topics) were put to staff in these interviews. All responses were recorded. Departments in the provinces were requested to provide supporting documentation where possible. All the information from departments was analysed and the findings communicated back to the Premier and Director-General of each province as soon as practicable. Key issues were identified, and suggestions for improvements made where appropriate. In some cases further investigations were recommended. Many provinces have already acted upon the advice given.

The major findings of these nine reviews have, after further analysis, been brought together into this document. It is necessarily broad in its approach, and does not attribute specific examples to specific provinces, although it does refer to evidence gathered.

It should be noted that the review process was not a forensic investigation. Neither was it an academic exercise; the focus was on improving management. It has depended to a large extent on the information (verbal and documentary) received from the people interviewed. Although undertaken with all due speed in a short time, the review process still took over six months. In the rapidly changing environment some of the issues raised in this report are already receiving attention.

The report and the wider picture

This report is a step in the process of improving how government delivers services. Some parts of the country have progressed further with reform than others. Many provincial departments have been able to achieve great things in a comparatively short time. Others have not. This report provides a stimulus for all to improve on how services are delivered, both those who have done well up to now, and those who have done less well.

The findings relate closely to the activities of other bodies such as the Presidential Review Commission on the Transformation of the Public Service (PRC), the Public Service Commission and the South African Management and Development Institute (SAMDI) in working to improve the Public Service. This report will be a key submission from the Department of Public Service and Administration to the PRC for its comments and for recommendations on how the issues raised may be overcome. The Public Service Commission is already committed to continuing the Review process in the future in accordance with its new monitoring function as set out in the Constitution, and indeed extending it to include national departments. SAMDI has indicated its intention to re-orientate its courses to focus on overcoming some of the key human resource and financial management issues raised in this report. The intention is that all national departments and provincial administrations - and especially the Department of Public Service and Administration - should work together to overcome the challenges raised herein with all due speed.

The structure of the report

This report is split into three main sections; Issues for National Government, Transversal Issues, and Department specific issues. The focus for each of these sections is different - although some topics may overlap, they are addressed from distinct viewpoints. Issues are necessarily general, although examples are given where necessary.

Issues for the National Government

This section looks at the issues raised that are expressly the concern of the national administration to overcome. It highlights in particular what is seen as a national constraint placed on provincial service delivery, the legislative impediments, administrative blockages and the relationships of national and provincial departments. Problems and tensions resulting from the implementation of our three-tier form of government are brought into sharp focus.

Transversal issues

This part of the report looks at those issues which are common to many of the departments in provinces. The intention is to identify the generic issues which provinces could tackle to improve services.

Department-specific issues

In this section, the report addresses the major issues confronting departments in provinces. Similar departments in different provinces often had the same problems. It is intended that this part of the report should highlight these common areas, and give national departments an insight into the specific concerns of their provincial counterparts.

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3. Issues for the national government

This section addresses the issues which are of specific concern to the National Government. It reflects the concerns from the provinces indicating a lack of support given to them from the national level. It looks at the administrative blockages, and the constraints placed upon provinces.

Matters addressed include:

Development and Implementation of Policy,
The management of Human Resources,
The management of Finance, and
Linkages between National and Provincial Departments.

3.1 Many new policies are set at national level without due consideration to the organisational, financial and service delivery implications in provinces.

Many National departments create new policies without considering how they are to be implemented. The unwritten expectation is that the provinces will make the necessary financial and organisational arrangements. There appears to be an assumption at national level that policy will automatically become activity.

Deadlines are often set at national level for implementation, but these tend to be over-optimistic, and not based upon a true assessment of the operational activities that are required.

For instance, the new Schools Act requires that people on the newly created School Governance Structures receive training. This was not costed, and provinces have had difficulty finding resources for this in time. Similarly, although Technology Education is to be part of the Curriculum 2005, some provinces have no resources for schools, no training programmes for teachers, and no strategies in place for implementation. There is no support staff to guide teachers with the implementation of this initiative.

The implementation of Free Primary Health Care for nursing mothers and infants and the provision of abortion on demand was introduced rapidly and without consideration of the real resource and time requirements in provinces.

3.2 National and provincial government is not monitoring the performance of its service delivery activities to good effect.

Monitoring of provincial administrations and their departments does not focus on using the information gathered to improve service delivery. In many cases the information merely counts numbers rather than showing the quality of the service provided. Monitoring information is not fed back to managers to allow them to measure their own performance, and to improve it. Performance standards are not published. Provinces are not aware of how the services they provide compare with others.

The focus of much of the strategic activity of government has been policy formulation so far performance improvement has not been stressed. At national and provincial level, policy implementation stops at giving direction rather than monitoring and ensuring that this is implemented to good effect.

The Department of Education collects statistics on teacher and pupil numbers, but few provinces use these to determine equitable teacher/pupil ratios.

3.3 National regulations work against managers being held accountable for their performance. There is no culture of accountability being upheld.

The Public Service Staff Code and other regulations measure performance of Public Servants in terms of their adherence to rules, not how well they are providing services. Whilst performance-based evaluation is being developed, individuals are still not held accountable for how well they are doing their jobs. Importantly they are also not being held properly accountable for the way they spend the public money.

Managers regularly overspend their budget (up to R200 million in the case of one provincial department in 1996/97), yet no action is taken to rectify the situation.

There is no culture of accountability for individual actions. Public Servants throughout the country are frustrated that accountability for performance is not enforced.

Related to this, the Public Service has developed a principle (enshrined in the regulations) that "accountability cannot be delegated". This means that senior managers are often forced to be involved in all decisions, and junior staff are not free to sufficiently take the initiative. As provinces wish to develop services closer to the people, the regulations and the resulting culture of a lack of initiative and not holding individuals accountable militate against this being done.

Perhaps the most extreme example of this is that, throughout the country, Provincial Directors General are personally approving the appointment of junior staff, down to the level of clerks and food services aids (people who make the tea) in departments such as Public Works, Safety and Security and Welfare. Some Directors-General reported that they spend much of their time working on such approvals.

3.4 Experience and skills are not recognised enough when staff are recruited.

The regulations of the Public Service Staff Code stress qualification over experience, competency and skills when people are assessed for posts in the public service. Many appointments have been frustrated because the PSSC and the Personnel Administration Standards do not recognise experience and competency enough. In particular, many appointments to promote representativeness have been inhibited because experience prior to the appropriate qualification being obtained may not be recognised. This would appear to be in contradiction with the rest of the legislation regarding training and appointments.

3.5 Good management and discipline is inhibited, not supported, by the current procedures used to deal with staff misconduct.

The Public Service Staff Code and the Public Service Act sets out an unwieldy, lengthy and bureaucratic process for dealing with staff misconduct. It is not related to the procedures set out in the Labour Relations Act, and decisions to deal with offences may not be made on the findings of criminal courts alone. It is difficult to act speedily to deal with misconduct, not because managers are unwilling to do so, but because the regulations do not allow them to. This has had a major effect in lowering staff morale. In many provinces there is a backlog of cases to be processed (some as long as four years), and in most of these cases staff are still at work, even though they are alleged to have committed serious offences.

There are examples such as where a hospital employee convicted of raping a patient in a criminal court has remained at work, despite the requests from the management of the provincial health department that he be dismissed. Even though convicted criminally and given a three year suspended sentence, the decision of the court does not affect the administrative investigation, which is a separate matter according to the Public Service Act.

3.6 There is confusion at national level over policy direction for key functions of the Public Service.

There is confusion between the roles of the Central Departments (such as The Departments of Finance, State Expenditure, Public Service and Administration and others) with regard to the management of key functions of the public service in the Provinces. Conflicting messages arise from the different departments in their policy directives to provinces. The Department of Public Service and Administration and State Expenditure singled out for giving conflicting guidelines, issued by different components.

3.7 National Human Resource Policies are poorly communicated to Provinces.

When new Human Resource policies emerge from the Department of the Public Service and Administration they are often poorly communicated especially as between the DG of the province and his departments. Provinces requested that all policies be available in electronic format, not only on paper. Few, if any, guidelines are given to help Provinces interpret what the policy means in practice. As a result, HR specialists in provinces have interpreted these policies with great variation.

For instance, in some provinces applications for the Voluntary Severance Package were automatically granted while others have not. Different criteria has been used to decide on whether an applicant could be released from service. There was widespread misinterpre-tation of what the Voluntary Severance Package was designed to achieve.

3.8 Provincial administrations are not supported sufficiently by central Government departments when they bargain with employee representatives.

Provincial representatives negotiating on behalf of the State (as the employer) with employee representatives often go into negotiations with an unclear understanding of what they are able to negotiate for (their mandate). Mandates are decided by national government with no inputs from the provinces, yet the mandates are binding upon the provinces. Negotiators at provincial level are regularly at a disadvantage since employee representatives are often better briefed than they are on the national agreements. This has serious implications for the whole negotiation process.

The mandate committee for a particular department sits regularly, but provincial departments are not clear on what basis mandates are given because provinces are left out of the consultative process. As a result, decisions are taken which have financial implications, the impact of which is seldom considered by the national department.

3.9 Departments and Provincial Governments cannot match their organisational arrangements to service delivery requirements and the budget available.

The Public Service Staff Code (Chapter J) does not allow provinces to design their organisations more flexibly Provinces were forced to accept the number of posts of particular grades assigned to them by the Public Service Commission, even though they may be able to re-organise their structures to be more efficient and effective within the budget allocated.

3.10 The redeployment of staff is not well managed.

It was generally felt that the Central Redeployment Database (which is meant to show all staff not productively used in departments) is not useful. The intention is that where vacancies arise, staff on this list should, if possible, fill these posts. This has not worked well. Problems were experienced because no provision is made for relocation expenses. There are no clear policy guidelines on who will meet these expenses. This problem was further compounded by the unwillingness of most staff members to relocate.

3.11 Staff are confused as to the real levels of financial authority that provinces and departments have.

New national legislation stresses that accountability and responsibility be pushed down to the lowest level possible in the administration. Many provinces wish to, and indeed do, hold heads of departments accountable through Provincial Exchequer Acts. According to national financial legislation (The Exchequer Act), however, each provincial administration is treated as a government department, and the accountability of the Provincial Director General may not be delegated to their heads of departments (as in fact they are doing).

This legislative confusion means that senior managers are unclear over who is accountable for what. More than half the provinces described this as a problem and need the Departments of Finance and State Expenditure to address the matter urgently.

3.12 National requirements for budgeting do not allow the efficient management of services.

National formats exist for the presentation and compilation of budgets. These do not allow managers to take decisions on how best to use their financial resources. They do not reflect the costs of individual activities (such as how much it costs to run a ward in a hospital), rather the costs of the provision of specific kinds of goods or services to institutions and departments (such as the drugs and personnel). The categoies set out in the budgets are of too high a level to be meaningful, they are; personnel, administrative, stores and livestock, equipment, professional and special services, transfer payments and miscellaneous expenditure.

The implication of this is that managers have great difficulty managing expenditure. They have many problems when trying to reprioritise activities because it is extremely difficult to work out the costs of activities. They do not have sufficiently detailed information to control costs effectively.

Very few provincial departments have reorganised their budgets in ways that allow them to manage expenditure effectively (whether this is for reprioritisation of budgets, reducing expenditure or containing costs to budget). Where they have done so, they are running parallel systems to those prescribed by national Treasury.

3.13 National Guidelines on purchasing are restrictive.

Guidelines by the National Tender Board to Provinces set very low limits on how much managers are allowed to spend on goods and services before referring the decision to the Provincial Tender Board. This means that, unless purchases can be justified as necessary in emergencies, there are long delays (sometimes over a year) as purchases go through the formal tender process. Quotations received from tenderers lapse as a result. Whilst it is recognised that Provinces can (and some have) set their own limits, on the whole it is the national Tender Board which is still guiding the level of discretion given to managers.

In one province, whilst it would be cheaper and enable better quality to be attained if hospitals purchase food locally, they are forced to use a national tender for the provision of fruit and vegetables. As a result, food rots soon after reaching its destination because it has to be distributed hundreds of kilometres to the hospitals from the central suppliers.

In another example from health, premature babies at a hospital in one part of a province had to be wrapped in cotton wool, placed in the backseat of a car, and driven 100kms to the next hospital with incubation facilities. This situation arose because the approval for the purchase of incubators was delayed by the drawn-out process of the Tender Board.

3.14 National Departments have not provided sufficient help to provinces to build the capacity of their provincial counterparts.

Many departments at national level have not supported the development of their provincial partner departments to enable them to administer effectively. Since the creation of the nine provinces, the management of many large, long-term contracts for the purchase of goods and services has been transferred to provinces - often at their request. However, the National Tender Board has not always been willing to support the development of the technical capabilities of provincial Tender Boards. Similarly, the Provincial departments of Sport and Recreation, as well as Nature Conservation and Tourism appear not to have received adequate support from the centre in developing their capacity.

3.15 Key National Contracts do not provide adequate support to provinces.

The national Department of State Expenditure has awarded contracts for the country-wide support of the two key Information Systems of government - the Financial Management System (FMS) and the Personnel/Salary system (PERSAL). Most departments and staff use these systems for management. Service-level agreements for the support of these vital systems have not been set at provincial, but at national level. As a result many problems are experienced when provinces need support (mainly with the PERSAL system) and are unable to obtain it efficiently and promptly. They have to refer back to national level to have their issues addressed. Provinces have no local mechanism for enforcing performance of these contractors. Contracts with the national providers of support are not written with the requirements of the service users in mind.

3.16 National Guidelines for buying goods and services do not establish Value for Money as the key principle.

The State Tender Board s guidelines on purchasing stresses the need to acquire goods and services as economically as possible. Evaluation of tenders take place according to a formula that emphasises the lowest acceptable tender. As a result, in most cases it is the cheaper option that is taken. The principle of Value For Money - the long-term cost in relation to the appropriateness and quality of the product/service - is not established.

One example of this was where the Health Department in a rural province wished to purchase purpose-built ambulances especially for use in areas without tarred or well graded roads. After extensive research, the department requested tenders from two international suppliers of these vehicles, recognising they would cost more than other options, but would last longer and would be less likely to be stolen than locally built vehicles. The Provincial Tender Board suggested that these would be too expensive, and that modified locally built 4x4 vehicles were cheaper and more appropriate. They would need replacement in a short time. The Tender Board over-ruled the department. Maintenance and replacement costs are expected to be high as a result.

3.17 National Departments requiring managers to attend many meetings force provincial staff to spend too much time away from their primary jobs.

Many National Departments require provincial managers to attend meetings on a regular basis. For a significant proportion of staff, these meetings require long journeys and much time away from their base. The actual and opportunity costs of these meetings are also high. Whilst it is important to be inclusive in the development of national policy, an appropriate balance is required. The view was commonly given that national meetings took staff away from their primary role of managing services in the provinces. One national department requires provinces to attend twenty different sub-committees at national level, in addition to the normal policy committees which take place between heads of departments and their MECs.

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4. Transversal issues

In each of its provincial reports, the task team has identified a number of core transversal issues. They represent challenges/constraints affecting the functioning and service delivery of the provincial administration as a whole or the majority of its departments. The focus in this report is on core issues that are common to several provinces. The issues are grouped under five headings:

Leadership, Management, Strategic Planning
Organisational Arrangements
Managing Human Resources
Financial Management
Information Systems and Technology

4.1 Leadership, Management, Strategic Planning

4.1.1 Political interference hampers the administration of departments.

In the majority of provinces, the relationship between the political leadership and the administration is not well defined. For example in many cases MECs have become involved in the administration of departments and undermined the role of Heads of Department. MECs bypass normal, and appropriate, channels of management and become involved in recruitment and in the day-to-day running of departments. In some cases they even see themselves as accounting officers. The problems are made more severe when the political environment in the province is unstable, and especially if public servants are aligned with different political factions.

Tensions exist because of the lack of clear differentiation between the roles and responsibilities of politicians and administrators. In some cases this problem has arisen because MECs, who were in posts before the Heads of Department, were initially involved in establishing their department and administrative functions as well. When the Heads of Department were appointed it appears that there was no official handing over of responsibilities.

In one province there is a serious communication problem between the administrative and political Head of the Education Department. Consequently they provide conflicting reports to the media. In another province tensions between the administrative and political head of a department have had to be mediated by the Provincial Service Commission.

4.1.2 The Director-General's Office does not provide effective strategic direction, guidance and leadership.

Administrative leadership problems at this level are reported from about half of the provinces. Such problems are often combined with a lack of clarity regarding the roles of different levels of the administration. Absence of effective leadership results in paralysis of the administrative system, in low morale amongst the staff, uncertainty and indecisiveness.

Provincial Exchequer Acts make Heads of Department accounting officers. That means that they are accountable for the financial administration and performance of their departments. However, they are professionally accountable to the Director-General of the province. For different reasons - involvement by MECs, insufficient communication systems, lack of resources to drive line functions - DGs in several provinces do not appear to be able to fulfil their statutory obligations as accounting officers as defined by national legislation which is in conflict with Provincial Exchequer Acts. One province appears to have a viable mechanism for managing the conflict.

4.1.3 Directors-General become marginalised due to a lack of communication with departments and structural problems in the departments.

Heads of Departments in some provinces often bypass the Director-General and instead refer administrative issues and decisions to the political leadership in the province. This results in the DGs authority being seriously weakened and in the lack of co-ordination within the provincial administration. Heads of Department tend to take submissions to Cabinet through their MECs without it having been submitted to the DG.

4.1.4 Highly centralised management control, at Provincial Service Commission, DGs Office and/or Finance causes inefficiency in line departments.

The key functions of personnel and financial management are still highly centralised in many provinces. Central Corporate Services control departments rather than provide an effective service. There are also examples of the Provincial Service Commissions not having delegated authority to departments to formally determine their own organisational structure. In some provinces the Provincial Service Commission exerts powerful, centralised control, and this acts as a brake on service delivery.

Over-centralisation creates serious obstacles to the efficient management of line departments, especially regarding personnel matters, and it impacts negatively on service delivery. These negative effects become very serious when the central components (Corporate Services, Finance) lack sufficient skills and expertise. Long delays then occur in recruitment and the handling of misconduct cases, and the departments cannot exercise effective financial control (these problems will be further discussed under HRM and Finance.) However, this does not militate against centralisation in certain provinces with limited skills.

4.1.5 Lack of communication within provincial administrations.

Lack of ability to communicate, internally and with clients, seriously affects efficiency in some provinces. Cabinet decisions are not always adequately communicated to Heads of Departments, and this also affects their ability to monitor the implementation of those decisions. Internal communication problems exist between the DG's office and line departments and also within departments. In some cases, these problems are accentuated by the fact that departments are split between different locations. There are also communication problems between the Head Office in the department and regions and districts.

In some provinces there are too many management meetings, some of which appear to be poorly structured. There are often no clear agendas and no evidence of follow-up action resulting from them.

4.1.6 Strategic planning on provincial level is often insufficient.

The extent and quality of strategic planning on central provincial level varies considerably among provinces. There are provincial administrations with highly commendable strategic plans. On the other hand, there are provinces where policy priorities have not been clearly set out, which makes it impossible to embark on a meaningful strategic planning exercise.

4.1.7 Strategic planning in departments is of variable quality.

Ideally strategic planning in departments should be based on clear policy priorities, linked to a provincial strategic plan and also to the budgetary process. In most cases, however, strategic planning in provincial departments do not fulfil these criteria. There are a number of reasons for this:

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, provincial strategic plans do not always exist.
Frequent structural changes, where departments are split or amalgamated, make long term planning difficult.
Also changes imposed on the administration from national level (new legislation, devolution of functions, budget cuts) complicate strategic planning.

These complicating factors appear to have made many departments abstain from (or postpone) their strategic planning. Departmental planning then tends to be ad hoc and in some cases focussed on fire fighting rather than linked to strategic objectives.

4.1.8 Insufficient co-ordination and communication of strategic plans results in weak ownership.

The Co-ordination of strategic planning appears to be weak in some provinces, even though strategic plans exist both on provincial level and in most of the departments.

Departmental plans are not always co-ordinated and linked to the budgetary process.

In some provinces, there are also problems with inadequate communication of strategic plans to personnel. Even in provinces with well developed provincial plans communication and ownership of the plans is weak or patchy. Departmental plans have not been communicated widely across the department, and there is no ownership or a sharing of a common vision and mission.

4.1.9 Many departmental strategic plans are not implemented.

Whilst most provincial departments have developed strategic plans, and often at great expense, many are not implementing the plans. Most departments have made use of consultants to develop their strategic plans and it appears that no transfer of skills has occurred. Thus expertise is lacking for the development of action plans for implementation. In some departments attempts have been made to deliver on the action plans, but this has not been systematic or co-ordinated.

In one provincial department, for example a strategic plan was developed in conjunction with all the relevant stakeholders and widely agreed upon and accepted. A year later the department was involved in another strategic planning exercise without evaluating their progress on the delivery against the first plan. No attempt was made to link the first plan to the second.

4.1.10 Lack of service delivery targets and monitoring.

The varying quality of strategic planning also reflects on the possibilities to define targets for and monitor departments' service delivery. In some of the provinces most departments have no service delivery targets. And even where such targets exist, monitoring appears to be weak in many cases, and senior managers are not held accountable for the achievement of performance targets.

For instance in some Departments/Secretariats of Safety and Security interim business or action plans are being developed to serve as a basis for strategic planning. Performance targets have not been set for these interim measures, however, and activities appear to be un-co-ordinated.

4.1.11 Departments have not made sufficient progress with the transformation process.

Many provincial departments are involved in day to day crisis management and are unable to address issues of transformation in any depth. Some departments have made superficial attempts to address the issue of representativeness, but they have not made much progress on other transformatory issues.

Additionally there is a lack of strategies to address transformation. Such strategies do not seem to be built into departmental strategic plans.

4.2 Organisational Arrangements

4.2.1 Some provinces have not created departmental structures in line with their functions and activities.

Many departments within some provinces have as yet not designed new structures based on their functions and strategies. They have merely created an amalgamated structure from the existing components. This has in many instances led to bloated structures with a large number of posts not warranted by the functions performed. Usually, in these cases, the department is unable to fund all its posts.

The amalgamated structures also do not reflect the functions currently performed by departments, and this has given rise to the duplication of functions within and between departments. An example of this is the maintenance function performed by the Departments of Health, Education and Public Works.

The delay in the creation of new structures has implications not only for functions performed. It has also given rise to staff insecurity about their future, which manifests itself in low morale and a lack of productivity.

The amalgamation process has resulted in many departments retaining the cultures and practices which prevailed prior to April 1993. Some staff have retained the practice to use government cars to travel between their places of work and residence, while others have not been afforded the privilege. The retention of this practice has resulted in high levels of tension among staff and has the potential for labour disputes.

4.2.2 The lack of clear delineation of functions creates confusion and uncertainty among staff.

The duplication of functions in key components charged with the responsibility of interpreting national norms and standards has resulted in different interpretations being given to service departments. This has created confusion and misunderstanding among staff in service departments and impeded service delivery.

4.2.3 Organisational structures have been inefficient and unstable.

In the majority of the provinces the original structures were not developed by means of generally accepted work study principles, nor were they aligned to the strategic vision and plans. The result is that organisational structures were created which do not facilitate effective service delivery. Many provinces are currently in a process of reviewing their structures.

The fluid nature of organisational structures can be attributed to factors, such as the changes in political leadership. They impact on the stability of departments as the portfolios of the MECs determine the component parts of departments.

4.2.4 Some components feel marginalised within major spending departments.

In some provinces the size and the slower development of some components within large spending departments results in them attaining a low status. These components need nurturing and support or will become disconnected from the mother department and lag behind in their development.

This is clearly illustrated by the neglect shown to the Arts and Culture component within the Department of Education. In many provinces this component is not seen as a priority in terms of funds or staffing and is dominated by the Department of Education.
In some provinces, where one department administers both Welfare and Health functions, there appears to be a lack of focus within the Department on Welfare issues.
The combination of the Economic Affairs and Finance components within one department is problematic as their functions are different. Economic Affairs focuses on what is external to the administration while the Finance component is internally focused.
The Tourism and Environmental Affairs components have often been moved between different "mother departments" in the provincial administrations.

4.2.5 The centralisation of the maintenance functions at Public Works slows down delivery.

The trend towards centralisation of the Public Works function in some provinces is seen as a threat to effective service delivery in other departments. The removal of the maintenance function from large service departments such as Health and Education has a detrimental effect on the speed at which much needed services are provided. These departments fear that their priorities will not be regarded as crucial in terms of provincial priorities, and that their maintenance services could be delayed as a result of a central prioritisation of needs.

4.3 Managing Human Resources

4.3.1 Many departments have not completed their staffing and redeployment process.

Almost half of the provinces have not completed the staffing of their new structures. The approach used to determine structures has not been based on the strategic plans of provinces, neither was it linked to the effective distribution of staff to foster service delivery - it focused more on the retention of staff.

In some provinces, where the staffing process has been completed, it was reported that large numbers of excess staff who could not be redeployed were still employed. In other provinces, where the staffing process was not completed, the structures reflected a number of additional staff in the employment of departments. This situation has a demoralising effect on the rest of the staff.

In many provinces the staffing process has not been well co-ordinated, and little attempt have subsequently been made to redeploy the excess/remaining staff. There was also not a vigorous marketing of the voluntary severance package among these staff members.

The redeployment database is not optimally utilised to assist in the placement of excess staff in suitable vacant positions. The general response by provinces to their lack of utilisation of the database is that it is not user-friendly and does not supply them with sufficient information to make a decision.

As departmental structures still reflect excess staff who are not utilised and cannot be redeployed elsewhere, it is very possible that this situation could conceal the presence of ghost workers.

4.3.2 Lack of staff capacity leads to over-burdened staff and impacts on service delivery.

The staffing of new departmental structures in some provinces has resulted in an unevenness in skills among staff, especially at the lower levels. This lack of skills in addition to the numerous vacancies in many provinces, has created an urgent need for capacity building in the areas of management, finance, administration, technical and professional staff. Another factor which impacts negatively on capacity and service delivery is the granting of the Voluntary Severance Package to essential staff.

In most Education and Health departments, the large number of vacant positions has resulted in serious shortages in specific skills such as financial management and human resources management. In some instances Education departments were unable to establish district offices because of a lack of staff.

The large number of vacancies in some provinces has placed an enormous burden on staff as they are expected to act in capacities two or more levels above their actual rank. This leads to the question of accountability for decisions taken. Staff are over-burdened and frustrated, which manifests itself in efficiency problems, low morale and demotivation.

4.3.3 Personnel management functions are highly centralised, and this has had a detrimental effect on service delivery.

The lack of personnel delegations (in varying degrees) in all provinces is a source of great concern as its effects are widespread. Where Provincial Service Commissions have delegated all executive personnel powers to Directors-General, they have not sufficiently exercised these, nor further delegated the powers to heads of line departments. This negatively impacts on the autonomous functioning of line managers and severely impedes service delivery.

The absence of personnel authority, together with a lack of effective service from central HRM components in the provinces, negatively affects the filling of posts. Appointments have been known to take one year to be finalised and this results in the loss of skills, in many instances sorely needed technical skills. For instance in Health Departments it has resulted in the failure to secure key medical staff, and one hospital has been unable to appoint an occupational therapist in the past four years.

The centralisation of human resources functions also creates other major problems such as the loss of personnel files, incorrect information management, incorrect advertising of posts, mishandling of labour relations and misconduct cases.

4.3.4 There is an urgent need for redress in terms of race, gender and disability, especially in the management echelon of technically orientated departments.

Representativeness, especially in management positions, was found to be poor for both race and gender in some provinces. The absence of provincial policy to guide the departments on affirmative action/representativeness could be seen as contributing to the delays in the recruitment and appointment process where it would promote representativeness.

The lack of representativeness is especially pronounced in the technically orientated departments such as Agriculture, Public Works and Transport. In those departments management and specialist positions are still dominated by white male staff.

4.3.5 The Voluntary Severance Package has not allowed the Public Service to be reduced. There is no well developed action plan.

Managers have experienced difficulties in using the Voluntary Severance Package (VSPs) as a tool to reduce the number of staff in the Public Service. Many managers are unable to retrench staff who are not productively employed because of the moratorium on employer-initiated retrenchments. Offering VSPs created the opportunity for staff to leave the public service. However, younger staff, with many skills and years of productive work to contribute, took the opportunity, and have been lost to the Public Service. In one province thousands of staff have been identified as not productively employed, yet it is not these staff who have taken VSP, and no mechanism exists to release them.

In another province a total of almost eleven thousand applications for VSPs were approved. The majority of these were from professional and middle ranking staff, which has caused a major loss of skills and experience, and a great reduction in morale of those people who remain.

In some provinces the Voluntary Severance Package was not marketed according to a well developed action plan. No exit interviews were conducted, staff could leave on demand, and in some instances the MECs were not consulted to exercise the final decision to release staff. The effect was the loss of skilled and experienced staff - especially in the areas of teaching, nursing, finance and personnel.

Where provinces experienced problems in finalising misconduct cases, there are examples of the VSP being used as a mechanism to dismiss staff who had been convicted of crimes related to their work activities.

The opinion was also voiced that the scope for granting VSPs is now exhausted, and that another instrument is needed.

4.3.6 There is a low morale among staff members.

Many provincial departments complain of low morale among staff. The high levels of vacancies, delays in the staffing of the new departmental structures, the VSP and right-sizing initiatives, have all contributed to great uncertainty among staff. Long delays in appointments lead to staff acting in capacities above their own rank which is not good for morale.

4.3.7 The lack of discipline and the prevalence of misconduct are major problems in many departments across all provincial administrations.

Discipline appears to be poor among staff in the majority of departments in provinces. Problems are generally experienced with frequent absenteeism, abuse of leave and late coming. Disciplinary problems can be attributed to the uncertainty of staff surrounding the staffing of the new structures.

Many instances of fraudulent practices have been uncovered by departments. These range from cheque fraud to collecting salaries of ghost workers. In many instances fraud was committed by staff working in co-operation across various components.

4.3.8 Ineffective procedures for managing misconduct cause long delays, excessive costs and demoralisation of staff.

The disciplinary problems in departments are often exacerbated by the lack of understanding and application of disciplinary and misconduct procedures, which are viewed by managers as cumbersome. They are often reluctant to take unpopular decisions and fail to discipline staff effectively. The delays result in suspended employees being paid while investigations are underway and at additional expense to the State.

A shortage of investigating and presiding officers also impacts on the finalisation of misconduct cases. This in turn leads to delays in concluding cases resulting in accusations of bad labour practice. In an effort to expedite investigations some departments have employed their own investigating officers thus making inroads on unresolved cases.

4.3.9 Lack of provincial and departmental policy on human resources development and training.

In the majority of the provinces, there is no clear provincial policy ensuring the development of human resource capacity. Development and training should be practical and empowering of staff. It should enable them to effectively and efficiently perform their duties.

There is a dire need for human resource capacity building in various fields, such as in financial management and administration.

4.4 Financial Management

4.4.1 Financial management capacity in departments and the knowledge to appreciate good financial management are clearly insufficient.

There is a tendency, in many provinces, to delegate responsibility for financial administration and control as far as possible. This in itself is commendable, as decentralisation can make financial management more effective. However, decentralisation not adequately supported by the provision of competent staff, spells disaster.

There is a serious shortage of well qualified and trained financial management staff in most of the provinces. Staff in departmental Finance components are of a low rank. At the same time, senior managers in departments do not appear to have the knowledge or appreciation for good financial management and efficient administration and for its service delivery. The capacity of programme and responsibility managers needs to built through training in many provinces.

In major spending departments such as Education and Health unqualified finance personnel are administering budgets of billions. In one department interviews were undertaken to recruit a Financial Manager to manage a budget of R 3.8 billion, but none of the candidates were suitable. The department is of the opinion that the advertised position of Chief Director was too junior given the size of the budget, and that it would have problems attracting the right caliber of person for such a junior position.

4.4.2 Over-centralised financial management and insufficient service to line departments leads to misallocation and inadequate control.

As emphasised in section 4.1, financial management is still highly centralised in a number of provinces. Lack of capacity in line departments is often given as an explanation, but centralised financial management cannot serve as a good substitute for decentralisation supported by capacity building in departments.

To manage centrally, the financial administration for a whole province requires very high competence and capacity at central Finance and also a well developed communication system. In some provinces, however, the competence at central Finance is clearly insufficient. This can result in inaccurate information being provided to departments and in the misallocation of funds.

Central departments do not service the needs of line departments, which causes delays and affects service delivery. In most cases no investigations have been undertaken regarding the service needs and expectations of line departments. Information is often not in usable formats; delays are a common occurrence, and the accuracy of financial information is regularly questioned, often for good reason. Miscoding mistakes are common, and expenditure is regularly misallocated, for instance one provincial department had over 400 audit queries on a budget of R 7 million.

4.4.3 Lack of prioritisation in the budgetary process and of linkage to strategic planning.

The budgetary process appears to be well managed in most provinces and departments. In some provinces, however, there is a lack of understanding of the budgetary system. Programmes are inadequately prioritised, and budgets tend to be wish lists rather than assessments of the costs of implementing planned programmes.

There are many examples in provinces where the budgeting process is not sufficiently linked to the planning of the activities of the province. This is partly a function of the lack of financial management systems which allow activities to be costed effectively, it is also a problem of lack of basic co-ordination between managers. Activities have often not been prioritised effectively, and as a result when budgets are reduced cuts are made in an arbitrary manner.

Frequent complaints by line departments that budget cuts have particularly detrimental effects on specific functions within their area of responsibility should also be seen as indications of inadequate prioritisation. One example is road maintenance - many Roads and Transport Departments claim that budget allocations are insufficient to prevent serious deterioration of road quality. The same applies to the maintenance of hospital equipment.

4.4.4 Inadequate financial control.

In provinces with weak administrative leadership, financial control systems tend to be inadequate with no clear financial ownership or reporting of reliable financial information from departments. There is a poor control and monitoring of transfer payments.

In some of the Provincial Administrations no effective internal audit function has yet been established, and the location of the audit function within the administration is still a controversial issue in some cases. Across the country there are insufficient inspectors to monitor the management of finances to an appropriate standard.

4.4.5 Inadequate financial information and management systems.

FMS is used by the majority of provincial administrations as their main financial management system (although some of the components of pervious homelands are still using their own, different systems). In some provinces it is supplemented by other systems to provide more user-friendly information service.

Two provinces have chosen other main systems, regarded by the provincial administrations as more effective and user-friendly than the FMS. Some of their line departments would prefer the FMS system, however.

There are also provinces where the use of financial information systems has not yet been co-ordinated between departments. The process of standardisation and of cleaning up the former administrations manual data, appears to be very slow.

Many provincial departments were of the opinion that the national FMS was problematic, and the following were cited:

the system is not user-friendly and does not produce reports that are easily interpreted;
the information contained in reports needs further manipulation by financial personnel to be of any use to management;
information is not accurate to the day and does not reflect a real time system;
the majority of the staff are not familiar with the system and require training;
the system does not provide management information; and
the system is not compatible with the budget system and not suitable for generating commitment registers.

For example the Head of a particular Education Department could not understand the financial information presented on FMS and was unable to use it to inform decision making.

4.4.6 Incomplete and unco-ordinated personnel and salary information.

The process of co-ordinating the use of payroll and personnel information systems (with all staff placed on PERSAL) was not completed in all provinces at the time of the reviews. There were examples of two or three systems being used in the same provincial administration/department.

Where all staff have been placed on PERSAL, problems still remain in some cases with the proper allocation to pay points (personnel data have been dumped on garbage pay points). Many departments also do not trust PERSAL data, and significant differences exist between personnel figures given by departments and the corresponding PERSAL figures.

In many departments the information on PERSAL has not been updated. There are problems because leave records, promotions, etc have not been updated. These problems are discovered when files are audited as staff apply for VSPs. They have serious implications because files are inaccurate and adversely affect the calculation of the Voluntary Severance Package.

Problems have also been reported regarding the linking of PERSAL with FMS and other financial information systems. This has an impact on the possibilities to monitor personnel expenditure.

4.4.7 Risk of ghost workers.

The deficiencies mentioned in the preceding paragraph, regarding payroll and personnel information systems, create serious control problems. Although these problems appear to have been overcome in the majority of provincial administrations, there is still a risk for a large number of so-called ghost workers in some cases. Double-payments and improper promotions are also made possible by deficient personnel information and control systems. Head counts/human resource audits are now being performed in order to solve the control problems in these areas.

Problems of ghost workers were experienced for instance in most of the Education departments. The exact extent of the problem is unknown because many provinces were unable to provide accurate personnel statistics. In provinces where there were problems in updating PERSAL timeously teachers who had left or were transferred were still receiving salaries. In a number of provinces there were huge discrepancies between the number of personnel on the records of the department and the payroll statistics.

In one province a snap survey done by E-MIS originally reflected a total of 73 000 CS Educators. The PERSAL statistics reflected a total of 82 000, while the second E-MIS survey reflected 77 600 CS Educators. The big discrepancies can have serious budgetary implications and highlights the problem of ghost workers.

4.4.8 Problems with Tender Board.

Provincial Tender Board procedures are regarded as highly problematic by a large number of provincial departments. Delegations are in many cases set too low to be appropriate for departments.

Some Provincial Tender Boards do not appear to be servicing the line departments to the best effect. It can take up to five months from decision by a department to make a purchase to the actual order being placed. Such delays may have serious effects on service delivery. Examples were given of instances where the Tender Board has changed specifications set by departments.

4.4.9 Lack of complete inventories and asset registers.

The majority of provincial departments do not have complete asset registers or inventories. Few inventories are kept, none are costed into asset registers, and no depreciation costing is performed. There is no replacement planning, nor effective maintenance scheduling. This has serious implications as in the absence of proper records the control of state assets becomes impossible.

Many departments are in the process of completing inventories for movable assets. When it comes to costing of the assets, much more remains to be done. And the process of developing a register for buildings and other fixed assets has only just started.

4.4.10 Control over the use and management of Provincial vehicles is very poor. There is much evidence of fraud and theft.

There appears to be serious asset management and control problems regarding Government Garages and the vehicles under their control. Some departments report major problems in the purchasing of subisidised and government vehicles. Control mechanisms for the use of state vehicles and petro-cards appears to be inadequate in some provinces.

Departments did have a mechanism for ensuring that all journeys are authorised by issuing a trip authority certificate to the driver. However, due to a lack of staff in the province departments are unable to monitor or enforce this procedure. It would seem that this is a major problem across many departments.

In one province, there was an estimated R 50 million fraud per annum in the use of its provincial government vehicles. Evidence of such fraud was found throughout the country. In the above example, the bulk of this fraud was between government officials and petrol pump attendants. It was also clear that staff that leave the government service often take their cars, and yet still owe the State money for them.

4.5 Information Systems and Technology

4.5.1 Lack of management information.

Effective systems for communication within the provincial administration do not exist in some provinces. This means that there is a lack of timeous and accurate management information - for both the central administration and the departments. There are examples of the Directors-General not being able to make informed decisions due to incomplete information. On a more decentralised level, communication could be improved by using information technology to overcome geographical problems and facilitate information flow to regional offices.

4.5.2 Lack of effective IT systems and strategy.

The majority of provinces make extensive use of information technology and also have fairly well developed IT systems. There are some provinces, however, that clearly suffer from the lack of IT systems.

However, half of the provinces lack IT strategy, while some of the provinces are in the process of developing a strategy of their own. In some provinces, there appears to be an over-reliance on support from the central IT function. In some cases capacity in line departments is weak or non-existent, while in others existing technical competency is not fully utilised.

4.5.3 Incomplete networks for or access to administrative information systems.

In half of the provinces, networks for FMS and PERSAL are still incomplete. Limited viewing access places serious constraints on the scope for effective financial and human resource management in departments.

Some departments also experience a lack of IT capacity in terms of personnel and skills. Where computers are available personnel are not trained to use them.

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5. Department specific issues

This section of the report focuses on the issues identified in specific departments (e.g. Education and Health) across the provincial administrations. Only those which have occurred with some consistency across many provinces have been listed. Some issues that have been presented under transversal issues have not been replicated in this section although they are applicable for specific departments as well.

5.1 Departments of Finance & Treasury

5.1.1 There are not enough suitably qualified technical and managerial staff in Finance and Treasury Departments to perform all the tasks required.

Whilst there are many skilled and capable people in the provincial Departments of Finance, there is a serious skills deficit. This has been compounded by a loss of experienced staff through the granting of unplanned and non-systematic voluntary severance packages, and the restrictions of the Public Service Regulations on the numbers of senior posts. Competition from the private sector for professionals with suitable financial qualifications (such as Chartered Accountants) and the limit on the salaries which provinces may offer has further reduced the availability of these staff. Provinces have no mechanism for providing incentives for such staff to join them.

5.1.2 Reform of financial management systems is being inhibited by the lack of staff.

Provincial Departments of Finance see the lack of skilled staff as the main restriction on their ability to develop modern and effective financial management in the provinces. Current cash-based financial systems do not reflect the best Generally Accepted Accounting Principles such as the depreciation of assets and accrual accounting. At present, the state does not have the information on the actual cost of services to the taxpayer.

Whilst all Provincial Departments of Finance wish to move towards the proposals made in the White Paper on Financial Management and Expenditure Budget Reform, they are almost unanimously of the opinion that it is too ambitious given the human resource constraints.

5.1.3 There are not enough staff to police the management of finances effectively.

An Internal Audit capacity is being set up in most provinces, however, across the country there are insufficient inspectors to police the management of finances to an appropriate standard.

5.1.4 Most Provincial departments of Finance do not sufficiently support the administration of financial matters in spending departments.

There is a high degree of centralisation of financial management in Provincial Departments of Finance. These departments have difficulty servicing the information requirements of spending departments. Information is often not in a format which is user-friendly, delays are common, and the accuracy of financial information is regularly questioned -often for good reason.

Where line departments are serviced by central finance functions, there are no service-level agreements which allow departments receiving the information to specify the format to be user-friendly, make sure that it is accurate, and ensure it is produced and received promptly. As a result, financial management in departments is often weak, and managers have little faith in the information put before them.

5.2 Departments of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Environmental Affairs and Nature Conservation

These departments are, in one combination or another, bundled together throughout all the provinces. They tend to have the following common features:

shared political oversight between them and another department (often each other),
a large proportion of funds transferred to parastatal bodies (such as Development Corporations, Tourism Councils and Nature Conservation Boards), and
being, in reality, of varying, but low, priority for the provincial governments.

5.2.1 The relationship with parastatal Boards/ Councils is poorly managed and controlled.

Throughout the country, all three departments use parastatal Boards/ Councils as channels for their activities (Development Corporations, Tourism Councils and Nature Conservation Boards etc). These bodies seldom report adequately to the funding departments, and there is little or no accountability for performance of activities. Not all funding departments have a place on the boards/councils they fund, and sometimes the link between the two is limited to the writing of cheques by the province. Whilst required to submit audited reports on the financial management, these are only occasionally accompanied by statements of real performance, and are seldom considered carefully by the funding departments.

Funding departments, with only a few notable exceptions, show weak accountability, and weak control over transfer payments and assets passed from the state to these entities.

5.2.2 These departments are generally low priorities for provincial administrations

These departments tend to be of a low provincial priority and have poor political support throughout the country. Tourism is ranked the 10^th provincial priority in one province which has world-renown tourist destinations.

Departments in this area tend to have a poor linkage with provincial policy setting, and are the first departments to have their budgets cut in times of financial difficulties.

5.2.3 There is poor support from national counterparts for the work of these departments.

Whilst some departments in provinces reported support for their activities from national level, the majority said that national progress had been slow, and that little actual support was given. There is the perception that Tourism has been sidelined by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as an engine for growth. No clear direction regarding the role of Nature Conservation/Environmental Affairs and Tourism was seen in building national wealth. Provinces also reported no clear direction in developing Economic policy matters.

5.3 Departments of Agriculture

5.3.1 Very high vacancy rate for management and specialist staff.

Agriculture departments in many provinces have serious recruitment problems, especially for management positions and in technical/engineering components of their organisations. This has led to high vacancy rates and delays in service delivery.

5.3.2 Poor representativeness in management and engineering posts.

Representativeness is poor, on both race and gender, in most Agriculture departments. This is explained by serious difficulties to find people from disadvantaged groups with sufficient academic/technical qualifications in these areas. Undeniably this situation creates substantial constraints for affirmative action in the short term. More serious is the fact that only a minority of departments have embarked on a systematic policy - including bursaries, training programmes etc. - aimed at solving the problem in the long run.

5.3.3 Large number of supernumerary staff.

In about half of the provinces, Agricultural departments still have a large number of supernumerary staff (figures for these provincial departments vary between 500 and 4 000). The vast majority of these staff are labourers inherited from former homelands. In most cases they are no longer productively employed - they have no work to do and reflect negatively on morale among other staff. In some of the provinces, the situation is aggravated by the fact that funding is insufficient for a substantial number of labourers that are on the approved establishment - i.e. the official figures under-estimate the problem of excess staff.

5.3.4 Under-spending and delays in service delivery due to lack of staff.

The high number of vacancies in key positions in agriculture leads to an inability to implement planned programmes timeously. The result is substantial delays in service delivery in programmes such as extension and engineering services, and substantial under-spending for the departments.

5.3.5 Large number of organisations claim to represent farmers.

Programmes for settlement of farmers have been hampered and delayed in some cases by complicated negotiation processes due to the large number of organisations claiming to represent farmers (or prospective farmers) in the provinces. It was reported from one province that the number of such organisations was as high as 32 in one geographical area.

5.4 Departments of Local Government And Housing

5.4.1 Fluid and unsettled organisational structure

In some provinces, there are separate departments for Local Government (or Development Planning and Local Government) and for Housing. In the majority of provinces, however, those departments are integrated or amalgamated. Substantial uncertainty appears to exist on which of these organisational alternatives is most appropriate/efficient. As a consequence, changes in the departmental structure have been frequent, and the organisations have not yet become properly settled and integrated. There are examples where Local Government and Housing have formally been amalgamated within one department, but where in practice they still operate separately- with separate administrative components, separate budgetary processes, etc. Another consequence is that many departments have as yet not completed staff absorption.

5.4.2 Devolution of functions to provinces without sufficient staff and guidelines

Local Government and Housing are areas where more and more responsibilities - especially for administering very large amounts of transfer payments to local authorities and infra-structure programmes- have been devolved to provincial departments over the last 2 to 3 years. These changes, as well as the structural changes mentioned in the preceding paragraph, have made strategic planning difficult. At the same time, capacity constraints may result from the fact that functions have been devolved without transfer of staff or funds for the departments' operational budgets. Some provinces also feel that no clear differentiation exists between provincial and local competence and, more generally, that policy formulation and guidelines from national level are vague.

5.4.3 Lack of competence at local authorities

The implementation of programmes in most of the provinces has been severely hampered by shortage of capacity and competence at local and district level. A number of cases have been reported where the provincial department must still administer local communities. Often through staff at regional offices in low ranks. Generally the process of building capacity in local authorities appears to take a very long time.

5.5 Departments of Public Works, Roads And Transport

5.5.1 Fluid and unsettled departmental structures cause conflict and hamper service delivery.

This is an area where structural changes (and also changes in political leadership) have been extremely frequent. In one province, the three components involved - Works, Roads and Transport - were rearranged twice within the same year into new departmental structures. One of the components had five different MEC's during the same period. Similar changes, although somewhat less frequent, have occurred in other provinces.

Major consequences of this fluidity result in a lack of strategic planning, uncertainty among staff and delays in service delivery. These effects are aggravated when MECs become strongly involved in the running of the department - its functioning can then become paralysed for months following a change of MEC. In some cases, the structural changes have also resulted in serious conflicts - between senior managers in the department, between Heads of Departments and MECs or between the department and the Provincial Service Commission.

It is obvious that frequent organisational changes cause substantial costs in terms of impact on administration, morale and service delivery.

5.5.2 Conflicts between Public Works and client departments regarding the division of functions.

Conflicts regarding the proper division of responsibilities and staff are common between Public Works and other departments, especially Education and Health. Usually the conflicts concern maintenance work on schools, hospitals, etc. The large line departments want their own resources to ensure that enough weight is given to their needs and priorities. The counter-argument, strongly emphasised in some provinces, is that the centralisation of the Works function is necessary in order to ensure efficiency and high quality in a situation where skills and expertise are lacking.

These existing conflicts create obvious inefficiency and unnecessary costs. Duplication of functions and uncertainty among staff will persist until a stable balance has been struck between centralisation and autonomy for line departments.

5.5.3 Late information and commitment from client departments.

The construction programmes of Public Works have been hampered in some provinces by the late commitment of funds for the projects by client departments. This leads to substantial delays, especially in large projects that need a long time for planning and provisioning. Under-spending and a need to roll over funds is therefore very common among Public Works components or departments.

5.5.4 High vacancy rates and poor representivity in management and engineering positions.

Serious recruitment problems are reported from a large number of departments on this 'technical' category. Vacancies in management and engineering posts have led to a large number of employees being placed in 'acting' positions.

Management and specialist positions are dominated by white male staff in most provinces. There is a lack of systematic planning aimed at longer term solutions to representativeness. Some of the provincial departments also report that promotion of representativeness is done in an unco-ordinated way. Another complaint is that generous granting of voluntary severance packages has contributed substantially to the shortage of staff in key positions.

5.5.5 Large number of excess staff.

Shortage of specialist staff is combined, in many provinces, with a large number of supernumerary staff (alternatively over-staffed post establishments) in other parts of the departments. This problem occurs in provinces that have amalgamated former homeland administrations, and it concerns low level staff in all three components, Works, Roads and Transport. Apart from its budgetary impact, this situation impacts on morale and discipline.

5.5.6 Inefficiency and control problems in Government Garages.

The management of government vehicles is inefficient in some provinces. Excess capacity in terms of the number of garages and the number of staff is costly. There are also cases where managers of government garages are in too low ranks and experience difficulties with the management of the trading account.

Several kinds of control problems and deficiencies are reported regarding the management of government vehicles:

Lack of asset registers and uncertainty on how many vehicles exist at the garages,
Ineffective control of the use of vehicles and petro cards, and
Lengthy delays in finalising accident reports and insufficient control of repairs.

Several provinces are in the process of investigating their problems with Government Garages and exploring possibilities for more reliable and efficient systems.

5.6 Departments of Education

5.6.1 There are problems with financial controls which often result in overspending.

Most of the departments experience problems with the effective monitoring and control of expenditure.

Eight of the provincial departments had overspent on their budget. There was little evidence of proper controls which would force a department to perform within budget. Almost all the departments claim that they were under-budgeted.

The lack of proper monitoring of expenditure was evidenced in one department. Where no breakdown of their projected needs was available it was estimated that the over expenditure could be approximately R200 million.

Most of the provinces have no qualified financial managers. Unqualified finance personnel were administering budgets of billions in the absence of proper financial management training or skills.

There is a lack of meaningful financial information to facilitate management decisions.

5.6.2 There is a shortage of qualified teachers.

Five provinces experienced a shortage of qualified teachers in general and a shortage of science and maths teachers specifically.

In one province, the farm schools had a number of un- or under-qualified teachers. Farmers were not willing to allow these teachers to be replaced with the qualified teachers thus causing problems for the department. The department was faced with the problem of having too many qualified teachers and they were not able to re-deploy these teachers to farm schools because of resistance from the farmers.

In another province VSPs were being offered to science and maths teachers, among others, despite the fact that the department generally had a shortage of these teachers.

5.6.3 Difficulties in communication are experienced with different structural levels throughout the education department.

In most of the departments the flow of information from head office to regional offices then to district offices and eventually to institutions, is poor. There are considerable delays by the time the information reaches the institutional level. In some cases communication with schools is difficult because of a lack of postal or telephone services.

Consequently, when information is required from institutions it reaches head office with great difficulty and after a long time. Officials often have to travel to remote schools to collect the required information.

5.6.4 There is a lack of training of educators and administrative staff in the department.

Seven provincial departments do not provide adequate training and capacity building for their teaching and administrative staff. Some training is done, but this is not sufficient to re-tool teachers for the major challenge of implementing the Curriculum 2005 and outcomes based education. Training of administrative staff is even lower on the provincial priority and in most cases is seriously neglected.

A related problem is that insufficient funds are allocated for training and development. When budget cuts and reprioritisation is done then training gets relegated. Five provinces have not made adequate provision for funds for training and development. One province has budgeted R200 per teacher for training for the implementation of the Curriculum 2005.

5.6.5 District offices are poorly resourced.

Four provinces experience problems with staffing district offices. They have not fully established all their district offices because of lack of staff, accommodation, office equipment, etc.

5.6.6 Lack of school resources.

The lack of resources was experienced by five of the provincial departments. In most cases there was inequitable distribution of resources, with some schools being very well resourced and other schools not having basics like toilets or water.

Seven provinces experience a shortage of classrooms. This has resulted in overcrowding with some schools having to run platoon systems.

Some departments had problems with the centralisation of the Public Works function because they felt that the building and maintenance of schools will not be viewed with the same urgency by a centralised Public Works Department. They felt that this will slow down the school building and renovation programme and further exacerbate the problem of a lack of classrooms.

5.6.7 There are tensions between the Heads of Departments and the MECs.

Tensions arise because of a lack of clear differentiation between the roles and responsibilities of politicians and administrators as mentioned in 5.1.1.

Four provinces reported this as a major problem.

5.6.8 Not all personnel files are available.

With the creation of one provincial educational department from a number of former administrations, there have been many problems in locating personnel files. Five of the provinces did not have all their personnel files.

In one province, several hundred files were recently found at a College of Education.

One provincial department, has had to send staff to another province to try and retrieve personnel files.

In yet another province personnel files are kept at various institutions which existed under the former administrations, and these have not been brought together centrally for an audit to determine whether there is a shortfall.

5.6.9 The management of logistics for the acquisition of books in the country, is poor.

There is a lack of proper procedures which ensure effective control in the acquisition of textbooks and stationery. Consequently a number of problems involving the theft of stationery and fraudulent practices have occurred.

5.6.10 There is no proper management of information.

The department collects various forms of information from the institutions but these were not used or interpreted to assist decision-making. Most departments made use of the E-MIS system but it was not used as a tool to make management decisions.

There was generally a lack of sound management information systems across departments. Networks with head, regional and district offices, were generally poor.

5.6.11 The implementation of the VSPs have created a loss of skills and expertise.

Most departments felt that the implementation of the VSPs had drained them of vital skills and experience. Most of the senior educators who were close to retiring age took the package. In many instances they were senior staff, heads of department and principals of schools. This has caused a drain on the departments and a serious loss of expertise.

Departments have complained that the right-sizing exercise has further exacerbated the problem, because it meant that many vacancies would not be filled.

In addition, to this there has been poor management of the redeployment of teachers and this has had an adverse effect on the teaching profession.

5.6.12 No norms and standards have been set provincially.

In the majority of the provinces there are no norms and standards set for teacher/pupil ratios, provisioning and supplies to schools, etc. Most model C schools have low teacher/pupil ratios, while the other schools have considerably varying ratios. This means that some schools have significantly small class size whereas others could have class sizes as high as 50. It is difficult for provinces to set norms that would apply to all government schools and achieve these within the short term. In the meantime, no norms exist for most of the provinces.

As a result of the great inequities in what institutions inherited from the former administrations it is difficult, with limited funds, to ensure equitable distribution in the short term in accordance with norms and standards.

5.6.13 Organisational culture of the department has not been established.

All the provincial education departments inherited divergent systems, procedures and practices. They faced great challenges in trying to establish a common acceptable administrative system. In most of the departments the organisational structure, policies, functions and administrative systems are not yet in place.

In one province, although the head office is established, the department still functions as three separate compounds under the ex-administrations, from three different offices each with its own administrative system.

5.7 Departments of Health

5.7.1 There is a lack of capacity to support the paradigm shift to the provision of primary health care.

In many provinces the shift in focus from the provision of secondary health care to primary health care has necessitated a reassignment of resources. Health departments in some provinces are of the opinion that as they did not inherit major infrastructure with the creation of the new public service, their structures are inadequate to serve the reprioritised needs of communities. The lack of facilities and primary health care and professional nurses have led to these services still being provided in hospitals.

In some provinces a concern exists that nurses will not be willing to relocate from urban hospitals to rural clinics as they are concerned about the effect the move will have on their career prospects. Departments will therefore have to be innovative and provide incentives to attract nurses to primary health care facilities in the rural areas.

5.7.2 The combination of the Health and Welfare components results in the marginalisation of the one component at the expense of the other.

The majority of Provincial Health Departments are comprised of both Health and Welfare components. This presents problems with the implementation of two different national policies. It leads to a second class status being conferred on one of the components to the detriment of service delivery. This also has a negative effect on staff, who feel that their component has to take a back seat.

5.7.3 The centralisation of the Public Works functions hampers the delivery of health services.

The centralisation of the Public Works functions in some provinces is perceived as a threat to service delivery in the Health Departments. With the shift in paradigm to the provision of primary health care, the building of clinics is crucial for service delivery, and Health departments fear that with centralisation of the Public Works functions, their priorities will not be regarded as crucial in terms of overall provincial priorities.

5.7.4 There is a lack of internal communication within the various levels of Provincial Health Departments.

The majority of Health Departments are experiencing problems with their internal communication. Inadequate channels of communication and an absence of consultation in some provinces results in a lack of communication. The communication problem is not restricted to Head Office but permeates the entire organisation with district offices/one stop offices/centres of the opinion that information is not provided to them by the regional offices.

In one department, line managers indicated that they are not consulted or informed on senior management decisions which impact on their ability to deliver services. Delays in the dissemination of information by regional offices to district offices/one stop offices is also a problem.

5.7.5 Provincial Health Departments are experiencing a lack of capacity in the professional fields.

In many of the provinces, the large numbers of vacant positions, the granting of the VSP and a general lack of capacity have resulted in serious shortages, specifically in the professional spheres of health.

Most departments indicate a dire need for nursing, medical, dental, professional health, para-medical and pharmacy staff. The critical shortages severely impede the service delivery ability of Health Departments.

5.7.6 Delays by the Provincial Tender Boards result in delays in the purchasing of urgently needed medical equipment.

Most Health Departments perceive the Provincial Tender Board procedures as limiting, cumbersome and time-consuming. They are of the opinion that the procedures are too bureaucratic and not transparent enough, causing delays in the acquisition of medical equipment which is needed quickly.

One department cited delays in the approval of tenders having severe budgetary implications for the department. It was also of the opinion that the Tender Board was not empowering enough of SMMEs.

5.7.7 Resistance to change is increasing.

Some provinces report a growing staff resistance to change and this has serious implications for service delivery within the Health domain. The process of transformation is creating an environment foreign to staff who feel threatened by the transition.

5.8 Departments of Arts and Culture

The issues presented include both the provincial departments of Arts and Culture as well as the components of Arts and Culture where they exist as part of another department.

5.8.1 Arts and Culture exists as a marginalised component of another department.

A major problem facing most of the Arts and Culture "Departments" is that they exist as a component within the department of Education. In this regard Education issues are always at the forefront, and those of Arts and Culture are not considered so important. In some instances the Strategic Plans of the Education Departments do not focus on Arts and Culture in depth, and they are considered as peripheral. The Education Departments are generally faced with many crises, and Arts and Culture issues are not central to these and are often relegated.

In one province, the HoD of Education is still serving as the HoD for the newly created Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture. The HoD is overwhelmed and pressurised by Education issues and consequently has no time to attend to Arts and Culture. This has resulted in the absence of leadership and strategic direction to the newly created department.

5.8.2 The department experiences little or no support from the national department.

There were many problems in this regard. Provinces felt that functions were being devolved from the national department without the necessary transfer of funds. Provincial departments had to take on additional functions without adequate funding. They were experiencing problems in prioritizing their budgets to accommodate the additional functions.

In one province a number of functions are being transferred, in terms of the Archives Act of 1997, from the national department to the province, but no funds are forthcoming. The province has to take over the archives service but has no infrastructure or additional finances to cope with and support the new functions.

Similarly, the Heritages Bill will devolve the management of monuments to provinces and there is also no infrastructure to support this function.

The rural provinces especially felt the lack of adequate facilities acutely. There were no buildings in which to house libraries, nor did the rural provinces inherit many books from old administrations. There was generally an absence of resources to support libraries and a total absence of adequate museums and archive facilities.

5.8.3 FMS is not allowed to be linked with the purchasing system for the libraries.

Although the possibility exists to interface the Library Information System with the FMS , it would appear that the Department of State Expenditure would not permit this. In the absence of the link the departments are forced to operate a parallel system for their provisioning of libraries.

5.9 Departments of Sport and Recreation

5.9.1 Sport and Recreation exists as a component of the department of Education and they do not enjoy a high priority.

In many provinces, Sport and Recreation exists as a component of the Department of Education. They feel marginalised because more focus is placed on the Education component.

In one province for example, the strategic plan which is intended for the Department of Education, Arts and Culture and Sport and Recreation, has the main thrust of the strategy directed at Education, without incorporating Sport and Recreation. Plans are available for Sport and Recreation but they are not incorporated into the main plan and no monitoring of delivery against these plans is done.

5.9.2 There is no clearly defined relationship between the national department and its provincial counterparts.

The department generally experienced very little help and leadership from the national department. Most departments felt that their skills and expertise were being utilised to establish the national department.

The department also expressed concern that there is little consultation with the provinces on important issues that affect them. There was also limited opportunity to input into national policy.

One department felt that meetings with the national department do not focus on strategic issues and objectives.

5.9.3 There is a lack of sports facilities.

There is a lack of adequate sports and recreational facilities and resources, especially in rural areas, and the budget allocation is not sufficient to establish new facilities.

Some provinces have established partnerships with the business sector and are obtaining sponsorships to develop new sporting facilities.

5.10 Secretariats / Departments of Safety and Security

5.10.1 Departmental structures do not reflect the strategies and functions of the Secretariat/ Department.

In some provinces the Secretariat structures were developed at a stage when the future of the Provincial Secretariat was unclear. It was claimed that its functions overlapped those of the Independent Complaints Commission and the Public Protector. The result was the creation, in some provinces, of structures which do not facilitate the role of the Secretariat: that of civilian control, oversight and direction of the Provincial Police Service.

5.10.2 There is a lack of clarity of the role and function of the Provincial Secretariat.

Great uncertainty accompanied the creation of the Provincial Secretariat structures as their roles and responsibilities were unclear. The undefined role and functions of some Secretariats have resulted in their activities being limited, unfocused, reactive and ad hoc.

Some provinces were of the opinion that the new Constitution would provide clarity on the role of the Provincial Secretariat and waited for its approval. It was believed that guidance would be given in delineating between the National and Provincial Policing Services. Other provinces felt that they would benefit from a clear statement on their role and functions by the National Secretariat.

5.11 Department of Developmental Social Welfare

5.11.1 Lack of infrastructure.

Some Welfare departments are experiencing infrastructural problems in creating Service Offices in disadvantaged areas because of a lack of accommodation and infrastructure to set up these offices.

5.11.2 The marginalisation of the Welfare component with the Department of Health.

Where the combination of health and welfare functions exists in one department, the staff employed in the Welfare component are demoralised as they feel that a second class status has been conferred on them.

In one department where this combination exists, the Welfare component felt side-lined by the channels of communicate which are inadequate for their needs. In this particular department, the district welfare services are co-ordinated by a District Manager who reports to the Health Regional Managers. This results in welfare issues not receiving the priority they deserve.

5.11.3 Problems experienced with the amalgamation and centralisation of 14 former pension systems in Pretoria.

The national Department of Welfare assisted provincial departments in the amalgamation and centralisation of the pension systems in Pretoria. The regional staff of provincial departments are of the opinion that the mainframe in Pretoria is unable to process the information of all nine provinces which would result in a slow response time. This severely impacts on the work of the staff in the regions who are at present battling with pension backlogs.

One department cited the example that during the first phase of the amalgamation the National Department conducted a parallel run to ensure that individuals not yet on the new system would receive their pensions. However during the final phase a parallel run was not conducted resulting in several long-time pensioners not being able to receive their pensions. During the amalgamation process staff in various provinces complained of a great deal of down time on the OpenNet system which demoralised staff.

5.11.4 Problems experienced with the payment of pensions and grants.

In most cases the old payment system is still in use, i.e. privatised payments, pension card, bank and post office. The use of Post Offices has pay points for pensions and grants in certain rural areas faces problems with the phasing out of the Post Offices. This situation has led to the contracting of these services to shop-keepers of the area who have the pensioners in a grip of perpetual debt.

The introduction of the Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to oversee the payment of pensions is experienced as very problematic by some departments. The following allegations have been made:

commissions are deducted from pension payouts and recipients receive less;
pensioners do not always receive back payments if they are due;
children are able to collect the pension of behalf of adults who have to make an appearance every three months;
the system makes its possible for the family to collect the pension for three months after the pensioner has died.

5.11.5 The impact a paradigm shift to a developmental approach has on services rendered.

The field of Social Welfare is undergoing a change in paradigm from a purely therapeutic approach to a developmental approach. This means that service delivery will strive to meet the basic needs of communities on a macro level rather than being solely involved in a clinical psycho-therapy on a one-to-one basis.

The effect of the shift in one department has been problems with the retention of the services of private social workers at welfare organisations who cannot or do not want to adapt to the new community based approach to social work.

5.11.6 The mis-utilisation of Social Workers.

In some provinces highly trained social workers are employed in the day-to-day functions of the pensions component by processing pension applications. This occurred in the absence of the administrative staff who are busy with pension payments out in the field. This is a gross mis-utilisation of staff and could lead to accusations of bad labour practices.

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6. Conclusion

The review has revealed that there are many areas of weaknesses in our present administration and alerted us that there are flaws in the way our new system of government is performing its tasks. Much work still needs to be done if we are to realize the dream of a transformed public service and a transformed South Africa.

Among other things the report points towards a need to increase the skills of staff, and to ensure accountability for actions, as well as the need to make sure that misconduct is dealt with speedily so that corruption is reduced. It especially points to the need to greatly improve the capacity of our departments to manage finances in a manner that ensures value for money.

National regulations controlling the public service limiti the ability of the public service to provide services, rather than encouraging initiative and providing appropriate safeguards. This will have to be addressed. National Government is not yet fully supporting the work of the provinces. It needs to do this if the majority of services that are provided to the public are to be provided well.

At national and provincial level, all activities, regulation, systems and processes must be held up to the light and tested with the question "Does this improve the service that the public receive?".

It is up to all the stakeholders, the politicians, the public servants and the public themselves to help solve these problems. National and Provincial governments together have the means at their disposal to overcome many of the structural issues that have been highlighted. Many have already begun to do this.

In the spirit of service delivery and providing the people of South Africa with the service they deserve many corrective initiatives have taken place as a result of the Provincial Reviews.

In the Eastern Cape, where the first review was undertaken, many programmes of assistance have already been implemented, teams of public servants and international Swedish experts have been working in conjunction with each other to build the capacity and restore good administration in the province.

In the Northern Province a programme of assistance is underway in the Department of Education. Here again, public servants from the Department of Public Service and Administration as well as international experts from the UK and the Commonwealth are working in partnership to help strengthen the senior management capacity.

In the Northern Province where allegations of irregular acquisition and management of state property were made, a Commission of Inquiry under the chairmanship of Advocate Semenya was set up by the Premier.

In the process of the reviews a number of deficiencies in skills and training needs have been identified. The South African Management Development Institute has been alerted to areas that are crucial and urgent for HRD and training.

The transformation of the public service from one directed to controlling the people of the country to one which serves them is difficult. Establishing new ways of working has not been easy given the many fragments and tottering administrations that we inherited from the past. Many of the problems that the report identifies have either been inherited from the apartheid era or are products of it. Despite what we have inherited, we have a clear vision of what we want for South Africans; it is a public service that upholds the human dignity of every individual in the country, serving them in a way that enables them to call South Africa home.

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