Vanguard Mkosana during the culmination of his road-shows
15 November 2006
Introduction of the road shows
Ladies and gentlemen,
Fellow staff members of the Department of Labour,
We, as the Department of Labour have learned from our own experience that
our most important asset is you the staff of the Department of Labour, the
people who make the Department of Labour what it is. Equally so we have learned
that we give better leadership when our decisions are informed by the views of
the staff and the people we serve. Those of us who are based at the labour
centres have the coal face experience in dealing with our clients more than
those who are based at Head Office.
Your day to day shoulder rubbing with the members of the public makes you
the right people to sensitise management on how best to service our clients. On
the other hand we, who are based at Head Office, are more exposed to matters of
development of policy and strategies whose implementation is carried out by you
locally. This makes it imperative that interaction between the two sites be
maintained.
In line with this we have taken a decision that all Senior Managers of
Department of Labour from Directors, Chief Directors, Deputy Directors-General
(DDGs) up to DG should conduct road shows from 15 to 30 November 2006. These
road shows will cover all Department of Labour centres, provincial offices,
Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), Compensation Fund and Department of Labour
Head Office.
During the said road shows the managers throughout the country will
communicate some of the new policy initiatives and solicit views of the staff.
They will also use this opportunity to have first hand experience of the work
away from their usual workplaces.
Among issues to be addressed during the road shows are:
Integrated Business Strategy (IBS) decentralisation
So much has been said about IBS. We are here to talk about IBS as a strategy
to bring services of the Department of Labour closer to clients. IBS is about
decentralisation of functions and delegation of authority to service delivery
points. This will ensure quick decision making and improve service delivery. It
is important to state that there will be nobody who will lose their jobs as a
result of IBS.
Department of Labour resources, both human and monetary, will be deployed
such that they strengthen the labour centres as Department of Labour delivery
points. Capacity building will be prioritised to enable meaningful delegation
of authority. A project of this magnitude cannot be implemented at once hence
the decision to adopt a phased approach, starting with quick wins this
financial year.
Management of Department of Labour resources
The Accounting Officer has a duty to ensure that departmental resources are
secured and well managed. We have put in place an Internal Audit (IA) outfit,
which we think is functioning well in identifying areas of weakness. However,
the staff of the department is slow to effect corrective measures as
recommended by IA. Some of the issues are picked up by the Auditor-General (AG)
and when no suitable answers are forwarded the AG reaches conclusions, which
may be negative. The Department of Labour got a qualified report, the same as
the Compensation Fund, and National Skills Fund; while Sheltered Employment
Factories got a disclaimer. This is not good for the name of our
department.
As one of the measures to change this we have established a project team
dedicated to cleaning up audit queries organisation-wide. Whatever we may try
as long as the staff fails to manage the Department of Labour assets well and
report on issues timeously, we are bound to fail and this we cannot afford.
Under expenditure, payroll certificate reports not forwarded, poor debt
management, poor asset management, BAS Persal reconciliation problems on travel
and subsistence, employee terminations not reported, are some of the issues
highlighted which put our resource management in bad light.
The Department of Labour got negative media coverage on Performance
Management, with allegations of bonus paid to people without signing
performance agreements. This proved to be misinformation and has been
corrected. When we suspended the Director-General trophy for financial
management we said an all-inclusive recognition award system will follow. Work
is underway and we will begin with the awards in 2007/08.
We take this opportunity to inform you about new Strategic Projects
dedicated to Scarce Skills to support the Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and Provincial Growth and Development
Plans. In line with the Department of Labour Positive Employee Philosophy, we
decided that it will be the provincial structures of Department of Labour and
Premiers' Offices which will be the key players in these Strategic Projects.
The launch is on 2 December at Dutywa in the Eastern Cape.
In conclusion, the Department of Labour is handling a number of issues which
impact on other stakeholders beyond us. Currently we are discussing the Impact
of Labour Laws on Job Creation and Small Business Development in South Africa.
Information on this is available at LP and LMP and on our website. Your views
are important. The emerging view is that our laws are sound save that there is
too much proceduralism at implementation stage.
Occupational Health and Safety integration across government is unfolding
with a presentation scheduled for the coming Directors-General's Social Sector
Cluster.
During these road shows we expect to gain insight on how you think we should
move forward and continue to improve the quality of life of our staff and that
of our clients.
We hope we will all find this initiative fulfilling.
I thank you
Enquiries:
Mokgadi Pela
Cell: 082 808 2168
Issued by: Department of Labour
15 November 2006
