Fraser-Moleketi on Governance and Administration Cluster
12 May 2006
This briefing provides information regarding the progress made in the
implementation of Governmentâs Programme of Action (POA) for 2006. This
briefing is the first report for 2006. This report was presented to the
Governance and Administration (G&A) Cabinet Committee on 25 April and was
approved by Cabinet on 3 May. Major areas of reporting include the capacity
assessments, Batho Pele, Local Government Transformation and the African Peer
Review Mechanism.
The G&A has retained the three broad priorities of 2005:
1. capability needs for the developmental state
2. macro-organisation of the state
3. planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.
Capability needs for the developmental state
Capacity assessments
The January Cabinet Lekgotla considered capacity assessments of five
sectors/departments (Health, Education, Justice, Trade and Industry, and
Housing). The G&A Cluster formed a task team on capacity assessments, which
met on the 28 February. Representatives from the sector departments and the
Department of Public Service and Administration (dpsa) were identified for each
programme and project. Subsequently project teams and sector programme teams
have met, and project plans have been developed.
In the health and education sectors, a plan of action has been prepared for
the development of a targeted training programme for hospital Chief Executive
Officers (CEOs) and the re-opening of nursesâ training colleges. Joint meetings
between the co-ordinators from the Department of Education and the dpsa were
held on 28 March and 13 April. Frameworks for districts, principals and
staffing norms have been developed and will be work-shopped with provincial
education departments in mid-May. The work has built on work done by the Public
Service Commission and the Department of Education.
With regard to the justice sector, a joint task team of the Department of
Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ & CD), the National Prosecuting
Authority, National Treasury and the dpsa has been established to investigate
and make recommendations on the remuneration of legally qualified
personnel.
A web-based questionnaire has been developed on critical skills in the
Department of Trade and Industry. The project on assessing capacity to
implement Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) has
been scoped and focus areas identified. A literature study has commenced.
With regard to housing, service providers are currently conducting the
mapping of the housing delivery process. Concurrently, a similar exercise is
being conducted in KwaZulu-Natal to map provincial processes. The proposed
structure of the Housing Department is being job-evaluated. Alignment of the
structure to the service delivery model will take place when the service
delivery model is finalised.
The amendment to the Public Service Regulations, which will require
consultation with the Minister for the Public Service and Administration before
a new organisational structure may be implemented, has been published in the
Government Gazette. This will come into effect in July this year.
Work is ongoing to implement the projects that were initiated following the
ministerial visit to India in December last year. A skills database (management
information system (MIS)) has been developed as part of a pilot which has been
initiated in three departments (the dti, DoJ & CD and dpsa). Input
information has been collected from departments and the MIS has been populated
with Persal information. Templates have been designed to compile the
departmentsâ profile and critical skills have been analysed. The pilot project
is now in its final stage of implementation.
Human resource management interventions
During February the Minister issued a directive to establish the sustainable
pools scheme, an initiative designed to offer accelerated development
opportunities to middle managers with the aim of creating a pool of middle
managers suitable for appointment in the Senior Management Service. Three
provinces (KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape) and two national
departments (the dti and Home Affairs) have been approached to participate in
the project.
Two programmes aimed at promoting the employment of disabled people and
empowerment of women in the public service â the Job ACCESS strategy
(2006-2010) and the Public Service Gender and Governance Plan of Action for
Gender Empowerment (2005-2015) â have been initiated.
The review of the Senior Management Service has been completed and will be
submitted to Cabinet soon. A Public Sector Personnel Expenditure Review (PER)
is underway. As part of the research, a programme of interviews with a sample
of departments, municipalities and public entities has commenced to do a
qualitative analysis of the remuneration and related practices in these
institutions. Flowing from the work on the PER, a public sector remuneration
policy will be developed.
Anti-corruption
A portion of the budget allocated to the National Anti-Corruption Programme
(NAP) has been transferred to the budget of the National Anti-corruption Forum
(NACF) secretariat for the implementation of NAP projects. One of the projects,
the development of guidelines on the application of the Prevention and
Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, has been completed.
South Africa will be hosting Global Forum V (GFV) on Fighting Corruption and
Safeguarding Integrity in April 2007. In preparation inter-departmental
organising committees dealing with content, logistics and security have been
convened. The international organising committee has also been convened. During
November this year the second Pan African Meeting of National Anti-Corruption
bodies will take place. The meeting will be an opportunity for Africa to
discuss issues the continent wants to raise at the global forum V. Efforts are
being made to achieve a distinctly African orientation for GFV.
Macro-organisation of the state
The process of creating a Single Public Service covering all spheres of
government is underway.
A policy framework on the governance of public entities has been developed.
The policy framework will form the basis for the development of legislation
regulating public entities. Units are being established in the dpsa and the
National Treasury to implement the policy framework.
Integrated service delivery
The e-Government Programme is in the final stages of consultation. The
Gateway portal has been translated into seven languages.
All nine provinces are employing successful Community Development Worker
(CDW) learner graduates into the public service. A total of 1 039 have been
deployed fulltime in provincial departments of local government. Management
structures within provinces are also being strengthened.
Batho Pele
The Batho Pele revitalisation campaign is a wide-ranging programme covering
change management training, learning networks, the annual African Public
Service Day and Public Service week events, unannounced visits by Ministers to
service delivery points and the Khaedu project aimed to give SMS members
exposure to the coalface. The programme is managed by the dpsa with the
participation of all departments.
The rollout of the Batho Pele Change Management Engagement Programme is
yielding results; in Limpopo alone over 400 people have been trained. The
rollout to Local Government is starting this month.
Guidelines on the establishment of Batho Pele Forums were discussed in
February.
November will be dedicated as service delivery month during which provinces
will celebrate Public Service Week (PSW).
The 2006 Africa Public Service Day (APSD) is to be held on 23 June with a
greater participation form Southern African Development Community (SADC)
countries. The proposed theme for Africa Public Service Day (APSD) 2006 is
âBuilding an ethical public service for improved service delivery in Africa -
Towards a proficient, accountable and responsive public service.â
The United Nations has expressed an interest to link up with us.
To date close to 300 SMS Members have participated in the Khaedu Action
Learning Programme, aimed at exposing Senior Management Service (SMS) members
to the service delivery coalface. Khaedu was used as an integral part of DPSA's
Service Delivery Turnaround Programme in KwaZulu-Natal to address issues of
leadership and management development. Deployment of those SMS Members who were
enrolled between January and March this year commenced last month and will be
completed soon.
Participatory governance
A National Imbizo Focus Week was held between 6 and 13 April. Over 200
events took place throughout the country. Thirteen Ministers and 11 Deputy
Ministers participated in the Imbizo events. Most events involved broad
community participation. The Presidential Municipal Imbizo Programme, in
alignment with Project Consolidate, resumes from the end of April and will
covering 10 to 15 districts during the year. It should also be noted that
guidelines are been developed to align and institutionalise the izimbizo
programme with the Integrated Development Planning engagement process and the
planned provincial Growth and Development Summits in 2006.
In implementing the system of ward committees, all provinces have advertised
section 12 notices. Five provinces have been trained on community-based
planning. The first phase of community-based planning has been implemented.
Accredited service providers have been trained by the Sector Education and
Training Authority (SETA) on the assessment of the Ward Training Programme.
Verification of training material has commenced.
Planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation
Integrated planning
Work is continuing on the harmonisation of the National Spatial Development
Perspective (NSDP), Provincial Growth and Development Strategies (PGDSs) and
Integrated Development Plans (IDPs). The Forum of South African
Directors-General (FOSAD) will consider the updated NSDP prior to the July
Lekgotla. Discussions have been held with the provincial governments of
Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal as well as the Tshwane Metro and the
Nkangala District as possible pilot sites for applying the NSDP.
Mainstream hands-on support to local government to improve municipal
governance, performance and accountability
An important milestone for the country in the first quarter was the
successful local government elections held on 1 March 2006, which saw 48,4% of
registered voters going to vote. We now have over 9 000 elected municipal
councillors that will require systematic and targeted support form national and
provincial government. We have made an assessment of the key public and
community issues that characterised the media prior to the elections and how
these will need to be addressed post the election.
At the Extended Cabinet Lekgotla in January 2006, three strategic priorities
were adopted for local government for the current term, i.e. 2006 â 2011:
* mainstreaming hands-on support to local government to improve municipal
governance, performance and accountability
* addressing the structure and governance arrangements of the state to better
strengthen, support and monitor local government performance
* refining and strengthening the policy, regulatory and fiscal environment for
local government and giving greater attention to the enforcement measures.
Over the first quarter work has advanced across each of these three areas.
National and provincial government departments are in the process of preparing
specific plans to support local government in each of the five key performance
areas for local government. These plans will result in a consolidated national
implementation plan to support local government, which will be presented to the
July Cabinet Lekgotla this year. This work is co-ordinated nationally by the
Department of Provincial and Local Government.
A key area of strategic support to local government in 2006 is that of the
integrated development planning process. In April 2006 a national analysis was
undertaken of all draft Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), with all provinces
and key national sector departments participating. Almost 80% of the drafts
IDPs were assessed and measures to strengthen them before adoption by councils
were identified. Currently intergovernmental engagements with all
municipalities in each of the nine provinces are underway. The purpose is
providing specific feedback from national and national government to each
municipality regarding their draft IDP. The process is on track to produce more
credible IDPs by the deadline in June.
The Project Consolidate municipalities will continue to receive focussed
attention and support from national and provincial government. Some of the
actions undertaken in the last quarter include the convening of a successful
national workshop with approximately 1 000 engineers in March 2006. A key
purpose of this workshop was to make them aware of governmentâs municipal
infrastructure programme and how they can provide support. Work is underway to
deploy the next tranche of Service Delivery Facilitators (SDFs) to Project
Consolidate municipalities. The deployments will target the former
cross-boundary municipalities, those where Presidential izimbizo were convened
and the urban and rural nodal municipalities. These SDFs will be drawn from,
amongst others, the DBSA support initiative (Siyenza Manje) and dpsaâs Project
Khaedu.
As part of governmentâs intention to roll-out an unprecedented capacity
building and support to municipalities the Department of Provincial and Local
Government (dplg) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
held national training and induction programmes for local government
councillors over the month of April. Linked to this a Municipal Leadership
Development (MLD) Programme at certificate level has been developed and
registered for councillors and senior local government officials. This pilot
programme will be rolled-out later in the year. It should also be noted that
the first national conference with mayors is planned for 25 May 2006.
An important area of support to local government is to strengthen their
performance management systems. In this regard, work on the Local Government
Competency Framework is advanced. The intention is to finalise this work by
July and issue human resource management regulations for all municipalities. It
has also been decided that the all performance contracts of Municipal Managers
should be re-negotiated by 1 July 2006. These must be informed by the new IDPs.
A generic performance contract will be made available by 30 May 2006.
As part of the initiative to mainstream hands-on support to municipalities,
government has proceeded to give targeted attention and support to former
cross-boundary municipalities. Implementation protocols have been concluded
between all the affected provinces. The intention is to ensure that service
delivery is not affected and all transitional matters are attended to. The
Offices of the Premier will co-ordinate the finalisation of the audits for the
transfer assets, staff and other related matters in these affected
municipalities. The Local Government Equitable Share has been amended to take
into account the disestablished cross-boundary municipalities.
Government is undertaking all the necessary planning to ensure that we
remain on course to meet our targets regarding the eradication of the bucket
system, the provision of decent sanitation, potable water, electricity and the
Free Basic Services. A plan has been developed to address governmentâs capacity
to plan, spend and implement infrastructure projects. The dplg, together with
the Municipal Infrastructure Task Team, is working to ensure that 2007/08
budget motivations are informed by the backlogs as confirmed at provincial and
municipal level.
Short-term professionals have been deployed to unblock and support project
implementation in targeted municipalities since January 2006. As part of our
effort to support municipalities to strengthen their good governance and
community participation processes, a Handbook for Ward Committees and the Ward
Committee Resource Book was launched on 10 February 2006. Also a Local
Government Anti-Corruption Strategy and an implementation plan have been
developed. The Strategy is informed by lessons learned over the past two years
working with selected municipalities. The strategy focuses on three broad
areas; prevention; detection; and investigation.
Address the structure and governance arrangements of the state to better
strengthen, support and monitor local government performance.
The second local government strategic priority focuses on addressing the
structure and governance arrangements of the state to better strengthen,
support and monitor local government performance. In this regard an assessment
of the capacity of provincial Departments of Local Government to perform their
statutory functions is underway. The intended outcome is a framework for
provincial regulation, monitoring and support for local government. A
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework for Project Consolidate has been
developed. 54 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been developed for the
Project Consolidate programme to track progress. A tracking tool has been
installed to also track issues raised during the 2005 Presidential Imbizo
programme.
Refining and strengthening the policy, regulatory and fiscal environment for
local government and giving greater attention to the enforcement measures.
The third local government strategic priority focuses on refining and
strengthening the policy, regulatory and fiscal environment for local
government and giving greater attention to the enforcement measures.
A framework on the division of powers and functions across government and
devolution of functions to local government is being developed. As part of this
work a study on the two-tier system of local government has been completed.
Work on a district shared service model for district municipalities has been
undertaken and consultations will be undertaken between April and June.
Implement the government-wide monitoring and evaluation (M&E) proposal
and implementation plan
A document establishing principles and practices for the government-wide
monitoring and evaluation system, including norms and standards, has been
drafted and circulated to all stakeholders. A stakeholder conference to
deliberate on the draft is planned for June 2006. Road-shows to popularise the
proposal and implementation plan for a Government-wide M&E System were held
between January and March. 1 200 copies of the proposal and implementation plan
have been distributed nationally and provincially.
A Training Strategy for the Government-wide M&E System has been drafted.
An M&E Learning Framework has been developed. A programme for a three-day
introductory workshop on M&E for programme and project managers has been
developed. Plans for the development of four courses targeting various levels
of M&E users are underway.
As part of the Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System, the
oversight role of co-ordinating departments is being implemented through a
number of projects including Public Management Watch and the Human Resource
Utilisation project. Public Management Watch uses a set of human resource and
financial indicators to identify departments facing governance challenges. The
first consolidated Report on Human Resource Utilisation is planned for May
2006.
A major programme within M&E is the implementation of the National
Statistics System (NSS). The Presidency (Policy Co-ordination and Advisory
Services) and Statistics South Africa are collaborating on the development of
the Compendium of Development Indicators for the July Lekgotla. The potential
of the registers of the Departments of Home Affairs, Education and Health to
contribute data for official statistics is being evaluated.
Department of Home Affairs
Mobile units
The deployment of mobile units by the Department of Home Affairs in order to
reach the rural areas of our country has led to the uptake of application for
birth certificates and IDs and has contributed a largely towards ensuring that
those eligible to apply for grants do so without a hindrance.
Capacity
The Department of Home Affairs has appointed nine provincial managers at
Chief Director Level to boast capacity at all its service delivery points in
the country. We believe appointment of managers in provinces will go a long way
in improving the quality of service delivery.
Anti-corruption
The Department will continue to systematically flush out corrupt elements
within its ranks in order to make sure that service delivery is not
compromised. We will in the near future name and shame people who have been
suspended or arrested as a result of corruption related matters.
The Department of Home Affairs is aware that there are people who fake their
deaths in order to avoid certain duties and responsibilities. The Department is
also aware that false registration of deaths is also instigated by greedy
people who collude with hospitals and medical practitioners to claim benefits
for insurance and other financial benefits. This is pure corruption and it must
be reported to the police. If you know of anybody who indulges in such a
corrupt practice, feel free to report it to the nearest Police or the National
Anti-Corruption Hotline Number at 0800 701 701.
The Department of Home Affairs has finalised its Corruption and Fraud
Prevention Plan whose objectives include encouraging a culture within the
Department where all employees, the public and other stakeholders continuously
behave ethically in their dealings with, or on behalf of, the Department,
improving accountability, efficiency and effective administration within the
Department participation especially in the local sphere.
African Peer Review Mechanism
The National Governing Council (NGC) and the Provincial Governing Councils
have rolled out the mobilisation and consultation processes through various
means including district and sectoral workshops, provincial and national
sectoral conferences and community consulations led by CDWs and ward
committees.
The draft Country Self-assessment Report (CSAR) and Programme of Action were
presented to the second National Consultative Conference on 4 to 5 May
2006.
The conference gave delegates an opportunity to consider the draft Country Self
Assessment Report and to check for gaps, suggest additions, and to make inputs
on the Programme of Action.
The main result achieved was an overall, high-level commitment to the Report
and its contents. There was however an acknowledged that certain additional
issues needed to be included and some amendments made.
There was also a very strong acknowledgement of the efforts made by the
Governing Council to ensure that the process is inclusive and
participatory.
The country review team led by Prof Adebayo Adedeji will visit South Africa
in July. The team will be in the country for 2 weeks. The main objective will
be to consult with stakeholders and review the accuracy and completeness of the
country self-assessment report.
Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
12 May 2006
