tabling of the Budget of the Premier's Office in the Free State Provincial
Legislature, Bloemfontein
13 March 2007
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Colleagues in the Executive Council
Members of the National Assembly
Permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces
Honourable members of the Free State Legislative House
Distinguished leaders of political parties
Marena, Dikgosi le Mafumahadi
Honourable mayors and councillors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Honourable Speaker
It is with pride and a great sense of purpose that I stand in this House and
deliver this address. It is an important occasion to reflect on the role of the
department of the Premier within the context of the provincial government. In
order to grasp the role of this department, it is important to remind the House
once more that its vision is "Leading the Free State province towards service
excellence." The mission is "To provide strategic direction and co-ordinated
integrated service delivery within government in the Free State."
The fundamental law of the country namely the constitution together with the
Public Service Act of 1994 provide the legal basis for the existence of the
Office. The role of providing strategic direction and co-ordination is further
accentuated by the mandate of government for the period 2004 to 2009. The Free
State Growth and Development Strategy give provincial expression of this
national mandate.
Honourable Speaker, when we addressed this house last year on the occasion
of our budget vote, we committed ourselves to strengthen government's ways of
working in order to be more effective and efficient in our service delivery and
transformation mandate. Inspired by the conclusion of the re-organisation of
the department from the historical 14 to now only three programmes, we set out
to pursue our three strategic objectives in a much more co-ordinated and
systematic manner.
The provincial government has just concluded the process of mid-term review.
This process enables the provincial government to take stock of progress made
with regard to integrated service delivery. This process, informed us that the
cluster approach is indeed the most effective and efficient institutional
arrangement of co-ordinating, planning, integration and management of the
Provincial Government's Programme of Action.
Honourable Speaker, although the mid-term review provides evidence of the
positive mood that prevails in the Free State and further provides witness
account to the African Peer Review Mechanism Report which states, among others,
that the majority of the people in the province view this government in a
positive light. The Provincial Government refused to be lulled into complacency
and a spirit of premature victory over poverty and squalor.
This confidence by our people only serves to make us more determined in our
fight against poverty. We are, however, the first to admit that a lot still has
to be done to streamline the delivery machinery of government and we shall
waste no time in doing what is necessary.
The Free State Growth and Development Strategy
The conclusion of the Mid-Term Review has to a great extent coincided with
the finalisation of the review of the Free State Growth and Development
Strategy. This review was about deepening and sharpening its perspective.
The most important aspect of this work was to relate much more closely to
all aspects of the existence of the people of this province. The National
Spatial Development Perspective with its provincial implications gives further
importance to this document.
The coming together of the Mid-Term Review and the finalisation of the
revised Free State Growth and Development Strategy signify two aspects of our
work, namely: where we are with regard to fulfilling the mandate of government
and the strategies we need to employ in order to meet such a mandate.
Mr Speaker, the finalisation of the review of the Free State Growth and
Development Strategy implores us to focus on the implementation of the
Programme of Action of government and to further improve the capacity to do so.
Although the Statistics South Africa survey indicates to us that we are well on
course and that significant changes have occurred in the lives of the majority
of the people.
The most strategic questions that we constantly ask ourselves as we continue
to reflect on our mandate are:
* How best can the Office of the Premier co-ordinate social and economic
efforts in order to meet government targets of service delivery?
* What levels of both public and private investment are needed to improve the
quality of life?
* What level of outcome and impact should be expected of all government
programmes?
* What quantity and quality changes should be anticipated by the people of the
Free State from all sectors of the economy?
* What are the most applicable instruments of measurement that can be utilised
to track service delivery and its impact?
Honourable Speaker, although we pose these as questions, in essence they
define our role and responsibility as the Office of the Premier to provide
overall strategic leadership over the rest of government.
The monitoring and evaluation system that is established, although very
useful, is regarded as a first step towards a more comprehensive system of
tracking development and measurement of progress.
A more comprehensive tool of measuring the social and economic impact of
public and private investment is still necessary and we are currently looking
at our monitoring and evaluation tools to fulfil this important function. We
need to create capacity to measure the types of impact like employment, Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), effect of low-income groups and so on. This information
will guide us with regard to areas of policy emphasis and shifts where
necessary within the context of the Free State Growth and Development
Strategy.
Mr Speaker, such is the context of providing strategic direction and
co-ordination and that role will be meaningless without greater determination
by government to double many folds, its effort to fulfil the hopes and
aspirations of the people of the Free State province.
The co-ordination role is intended to cover the strategic importance of
co-operation between government and the private sector. Let there be an
environment where public and private sector are bound tighter by the commonly
shared objectives of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy.
Let there be more information sharing between these sectors regarding the
following:
* the levels of investment projected for each sector of provincial
economy
* detail of output and outcome of such investment
* its link or relation to Free State Growth and Development Strategy
* anticipated barriers and bottlenecks which both government and its social
partners can deal with
* the extent to which Vision 2014 inspires the Corporate Social Investment.
There is an urgent need to create a platform where these and other issues
relating to growing the economy and meeting social needs are discussed in
detail and this is necessary for all the sectors of the economy.
Honourable Speaker, it is my firm view that these strategic priorities
together with the need for a continuous improvement in the effectiveness of
governance and administration, motivated our Provincial Treasury to increase
our budget by 13% from R91 million to R103 million in this financial year.
I now wish to give a brief analysis of progress with regard each programme
and the allocations for each of them in the new financial year.
Administration
An amount of R27 041 million has been allocated for this programme in the
new financial year. This figure represents 26% of our total allocation. This
programme ensures that both the Premier and the Executive Council are
effectively supported in achieving government's goals and objectives.
Over the years, the Office of the Premier has improved in the manner in
which it interacts with the other government structures, the general public and
the international world. This could be ascribed to the success and improvement
of the administrative support provided to various systems. The department
intends strengthening the Chief of Staff by engaging this important functionary
in good governance practices.
The Secretariat service has been instrumental in developing and improving
the ways of working of the Free State Provincial Government's Cabinet system.
The department will strengthen the accountability system in the area by
encouraging the introduction of a central procurement management in the
financial services through the implementation of Supply Chain Management
services.
There has been a marked improvement in the Office of the Director-General
over the years. Given the various responsibilities of the Director-General, an
effort will be made to continue the improvement in the turnaround time of
various documents and information to the other units and the entire provincial
government.
The Institutional Enhancement Sub-directorate was only established in the
2006/07 financial year and is envisaged to improve the image of the Provincial
Government as well as dealing with customer care and Batho Pele related issues.
The Security Advisory Management Services has provided a good foundation in the
coordination of security matters in the province particularly with regard to
the follow-ups and the implementation of a central hotline system in the
Republic of South Africa. However, more needs to be done in the area of the
implementation of anti-corruption and Fraud Prevention in the province.
The Internal Audit unit and Audit Committee are relatively new in the
department but they already have offered invaluable support to the Accounting
Officer on Auditing functions of the department.
The department has shown great improvement over the years in its financial
management and it is continually striving to build more capacity. Furthermore,
the department continues to pay more attention to the implementation of the
Asset Management Strategy. Testimony to this improvement is the fact that the
Office of the Premier has received unqualified audit opinions in the last two
consecutive years.
Corporate support
We have allocated R34 682 million to this programme. This figure constitutes
34% of our total budget.
This programme focuses on corporate support and ensures that the Office of
the Premier strategically guides and co-ordinates all provincial departments
with regard to transversal corporate support functions.
The Programme has succeeded in laying the foundation to ensure the optimal
functioning and utilisation of human resources in the Free State Provincial
Government through the reconfiguration of the Free State Training and
Development Institute (FSTDI) and the finalisation of Human Resources
Development and Management Strategy. We will come back to this point later.
The co-ordination of the grading of jobs and its ways of working in the Free
State Provincial Government has been improved through the configuration of Job
Evaluation Committee now chaired by the Director-General. The co-ordination of
human resource matters has also improved through the revival of the
inter-departmental Human Resource Forum and the maintenance and administration
of human resource matters.
The Legal Services minimised the risk and exposure of government to claims
significantly and contributed to legally sound decisions making to the extent
that court challenges were limited to the absolute minimum.
In general, given the nature of the functions of the programme and its
dependence on co-operation from role players, activities relating to
co-ordination were not effective enough.
Logistically, constraints are being experienced in the Information
Technology Directorate. Co-ordination of transversal issues will be improved
through a rigorous approach to obtain buy-in and ownership of the role players
involved and the structured management of the various co-ordination forums. The
sharing of information in a structured approach will also assist.
The logical problems at the FSTDI are being addressed through interaction
with the landlord and good progress has been made. An investigation is
currently underway into the configuration of the Information Technology
Directorate to meet the latest development in the field of information
technology, to establish sufficient capacity and to ensure that the activities
of the Free State Government are optimalised through the application of the
latest and most appropriate information technology.
Policy and governance
A total amount of R39 393 million has been allocated to this programme and
this figure represents about 40% of our budget. This programme is responsible
for the alignment and integration of activities of municipalities and
departments towards the achievements of the Growth and Development
Strategy.
Over and above progress that is reported on the subsequent sub programmes, the
following highlights of the programme can be mentioned amongst others. This
programme managed to fulfil its mandate successfully particularly with regard
to improving our reach to communities through Multi-Purpose Community Centres
(MPCCs).
The establishment of the first and the second generation MPCCs made this
possible. The programme will still continue to improve services at MPCCs and
begin with evaluating the impact that the MPCCs are having on communities that
are being served.
The filling of the post of Chief Director
Governance programme co-ordination has strengthened the ability of the
department to do its co-ordination role particularly on Project Consolidate,
Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme, Urban Renewal Programme,
the Extended Public Works Programme and the five-year local government
strategic agenda.
The Programme also facilitated the revision of decision-making structures so
as to improve intergovernmental relations and promote good governance.
Provincial Clusters have been aligned to the national cluster system. These
clusters are also being cascaded to district municipalities (with membership of
Local municipality) to ensure and facilitate information sharing across the
various spheres as well as implementation of government programmes and we hope
to conclude this programme by April this year.
In addition, the Forum of Heads of Departments (FOHOD) has been extended to
include all municipal managers with the purpose of ensuring information flow
and improving co-operative governance.
The Cluster Programmes of Action have been incorporated on the e-Monitoring
and Evaluation System and is being monitored on a monthly basis. The programme
intends on drastically improving quarterly reporting to enable improved Annual
Reviews. The programme will continually guide programme managers and sub
programme managers to report in line with planned inputs. In addition, the
programme will ensure total reconciliation of the plan with the budget by
ensuring that the budget inputs are closely linked to the service delivery
targets.
During the 2007/08 financial year the programme will convene quarterly
reporting presentation sessions by various programme managers and critically
look at all sub programme reports and advice accordingly.
The electronic monitoring and evaluation system is being realigned with the
reviews of FSGDS. The department has started training as many users as possible
to enable reporting electronically and avoid having to track reports manually
as it is currently being done. This is particularly for reporting on FSGDS,
provincial and national programmes of action.
Local Government or Intergovernmental Relations (IGR)
Last year we welcomed the Inter-Governmental Relations framework Act, and
congratulate the IEC for the job well done in conducting the local government
elections. I further emphasised the way these elections strengthened popular
participatory character of our democracy. The question that is currently facing
us is how best can we utilise and support this sphere of government to further
strengthen the resolve of government as a whole to deliver as one.
The IGR act has enabled greater process of co-ordination. The bodies this
act establishes like the Premier's Co-ordinating Forum should be seized more
with integration of development strategies and monitoring of implementation. We
need to do more in this regard than we have done in the past.
The involvement of the Premier's Office in the Integrated Development Plan
process of the municipalities remains one of the shining examples of such
co-operation. Our confidence continues to rise in relation to credibility of
the Integrated and Development Plans (IDPs). The experience of working together
of these spheres of government, becomes more important when we work together to
develop the District Growth and Development Strategies.
We are gearing ourselves to make sure that the knowledge and experienced
gained in developing the Free State Growth and Development Strategy enriches
the District processes.
Our expectation is that such a process cannot but deepen our common resolve
to assault poverty and joblessness. Our experience Mr Speaker is that the
Cluster system is the most efficient and effective way of integrating
government programmes for greater development impact as we have already stated.
The sooner this system is extended to District municipalities, the more common
the systems of delivery of government can become between spheres.
Evidence at our disposal indicates that the cluster system has ensured that
we are more effective and efficient in:
* effective co-ordination and integration of cross cutting strategic
provincial priorities
* implementation of projects and special focus programmes emanating from the
alignment of the FSGDS, IDPs of municipalities and cross cutting initiatives in
support of national initiatives such as Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA), Joint Initiative for Priority Skills
Acquisition (JIPSA) and the National Spatial Development Perspective
* effective redress of barriers and challenges in supporting lead departments
in co-ordinating Province wide projects
* implementation of effective evaluation, strategic support and monitoring in
respect of the implementation, impact assessment and sustainability of key
projects implemented in the province by provincial departments, municipalities,
state owned enterprises, public entities and national departments operating in
the province as well as key private sector and role players operating in the
province.
The Five Year Strategic Local Government Agenda identifies three strategic
priorities. Firstly, mainstreaming hands on support to local government to
improve municipal governance, performance and accountability. Secondly,
addressing the structure and governance arrangements of the state in order to
better strengthen, support and monitor local government. Lastly, refining and
strengthening the policy, regulatory and fiscal environment for local
government and giving greater attention to the enforcement measures.
These strategic priorities place an additional responsibility on the
department to provide leadership, support and co-ordination. The Premier's
Co-ordinating Forum will continue to focus on these priorities and to
consolidate the progress we are making; community mobilisation, social cohesion
and solidarity.
The provincial government has once again demonstrated that it possesses
strategic capacity to build social cohesion and solidarity, as well as to
entrench a people centred and people driven approach. A community mobilisation
programme was then unfolded which sought to lead the rest of society in the
pursuit of a common vision of a better life for all.
The Executive Council (ExCo) meets-the-people campaign took forward our
message of a national partnership to build a better life for all. Through this
campaign we touched each and every municipality in the Free State and
strengthened our inter-governmental perspective. It continues to be a platform
for direct interaction with communities. Four key areas of interaction are the
following:
* governance and administration
* social and human development
* economic and job creation
* safety and security.
It can be expected that this year, there will be changes in the format of
these interactions. The aim is to enrich the purpose of these interactions and
strengthen area of weakness identified. A new programme for the year will
commence in May.
It was indeed these interactions that revealed to us the positive mood that
prevails in the Free State community. Although the development needs remain
huge, there is great sense of confidence in the ability of government to
deliver on them.
We had an opportunity as the provincial government to welcome both the
President and the Deputy President on the Presidential Izimbizo held in Thabo
Mofutsanyana in April and Xhariep in December respectively. We also took part
in the Imbizo focus weeks of April and October. The National Council of
Provinces (NCOP) also visited our province where they spent a week in the
Fezile Dabi district. All of these mass outreach programmes gave a voice to
those who would not necessarily have the opportunity to interact with their
elected representatives on a personal level.
9
Special programmes
We managed to collect data on all policies regarding special programmes and
created a required database. We also drafted a provincial gender policy in line
with the national gender framework. We established a district disability forum
in Thabo Mofutsanyana district and are currently in discussions with all
districts to roll out the establishment and strengthening of HIV and AIDS,
disability desk, children's rights unit and gender forums in all the district
municipalities.
Soon this year, we will be launching the Free State Provincial Gender
Equality and Women's Empowerment Implementation Strategy (GEWEIS). The GEWEIS
sets short, medium and long-term objectives, which are to be fulfilled by the
provincial government and its line-function departments.
The province of the Free State has been identified by national Government to
be the host for the launch of the 16 Days of Activism against Women and Child
Abuse. We welcome this honour and look forward to perform our national duty in
this regard. It can be deduced that the manner in which we continue to feature
on national agenda regarding gender issues can only give us a sense of pride in
abilities to host such events, warmth and hospitality.
The youth programme will be given even more attention this year. More
capacity will be developed for this programme in line with the resolutions of
the conference of the Youth Commission last year. There is great need to scale
up the youth programme and give it more content and width.
We welcome the new HIV and AIDS Strategy announced by the national Minister
of Health as a creative and determined plan to reduce the levels of infections.
The target group of 18 to 24 remains strategic in the fight against the
pandemic.
The Policy Unit together with the provincial Department of Health will be
working together to effect the necessary policy implications of this
strategy.
The disability sector
The department of the Premier will continue to pay special attention on the
people living with disability to ensure that they are fully integrated within
the mainstream of society. We will this year, endeavour to improve the content
of this programme, starting with assessment regarding employment figures by
government.
Indications currently are that the Office of the Premier has a higher
percentage of people living with disability as compared to other departments.
Mr Speaker, I have singled out employment as one indicator among many, the
reason for this is that social and economic inclusion largely depends on
disposable income that one has.
I would like to once more challenge the private sector as creators of jobs
and employment opportunities to pay special attention to these and other
vulnerable people in our society. Let us continue to build a caring society
that is inclusive.
Excellence awards
Once more this year, Premier's Award ceremonies will be held to recognise
special efforts by the people of the province, in various categories. A point
needs to be made that we have thousands of unsung and uncelebrated heroes and
heroines.
I have in mind those individuals within our communities, in their small but
profound ways, sometimes in public but mostly in their private homes,
struggling against all odds but continue to live and let live. We salute those
achievers and confirm that their efforts are not in vain. Their time will also
come when they will be elevated to the pedestal of life itself.
International relations
One of the major achievements of our co-ordination responsibilities has been
the manner in which international trips have been managed; whereas in the past
these trips were undertaken without due regard to the investment philosophy as
articulated in our Growth and Development Strategy. We now have all of these
trips arranged in accordance with guidelines determined by the Department of
Foreign Affairs.
There is now better co-ordination between municipalities, the provincial
government and the Department of Foreign Affairs resulting in improved
monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes of such missions.
AsgiSA and JIPSA
Cognisant of the challenges of co-ordinating the implementation of the
AsgiSA initiative in our province, a unit has been established to deal with the
co-ordination and implementation of these programmes; whereas the national
AsgiSA framework identifies two projects for the province versus the Harrismith
Logistics Hub and the Bio-Fuel initiative. We will use the economic
opportunities unleashed through the AsgiSA initiative to unlock some of our own
economic growth sectors and focus on their development.
We have finalised an implementation plan for both AsgiSA and JIPSA and we
intend to launch both at the beginning of the new financial year.
Premier's special projects
I am glad to bring to the attention of the house an update of our continuing
programme of supporting micro enterprises in poor communities. So small are
these businesses that they deserve a special attention. I would like to take
this opportunity to thank the Flemish Government for their generous
contribution in supporting the Business Centres. I would like to assure the
people of Belgium that the level at which they have targeted this support, is
the level at which it is mostly needed. This is a special intervention by my
department in order to chart the way towards well targeted service
delivery.
The business centres will be providing the following services:
* basic non-financial business advice and information
* provide active, continuous training and mentoring to micro businesses on
entrepreneurial, technical and generic skills
* assist small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) with market information
and, where necessary, assist in organisational development
* tendering advice
* placement of individuals
* training soft and technical skills and innovation and technology
* assistance with job placement and mediation
* research and development on the level of social development.
May we all of us put our shoulder to the wheel in order to achieve more out
of this humble effort.
Human Resource Development
Last year, Mr Speaker, I announced a human resources strategy process aimed
at assessing current government human resources regulations and management
issues. That study has been completed. Currently human resources practitioners
are working on a programme and timeframes to address areas of weakness and
those that need special attention.
We will continue to look at the public service environment in order to
ensure that we retain skilled personnel and those who deliver quality and
efficient service. Employee wellness, motivation and skilling remain our
priority.
The Free State Training and Development Institute, as we stated earlier, has
been restructured to enable it to:
* ensure the effective and efficient provision of transverse human resource
training and development services in the Free State Provincial Government and
to create a culture of life-long learning
* establish and monitor the implementation of human resource training and
development partnerships
* co-ordinate skills base within the Free State Provincial Government in line
with the prescripts of the National Skills Development act of 1998.
During the first three quarters of the 2006/07 financial year, a total of
774 officials were trained on the variety of courses targeting executive and
other management levels.
The Free State Society for Public Administration and Governance, which we
launched last year, will provide a necessary platform for all our public
servants to engage on policy and other strategic discussions and it will
further unlock professional development opportunities locally and abroad.
Honourable Speaker, we have raised the need to build enough capacity within
the department so that our role of strategic leadership provision is executed
with distinction. It is for this reason that we established two new units,
which elevate our programme coordination and stakeholder management to new
heights.
These are the Government Programme Co-ordination unit and the Community
Liaison Unit. Both units will be instrumental in creating additional capacity
and mobility with regard to the interface with civil society.
We will also in the new financial year improve on the capacity of the policy
unit particularly research, monitoring and evaluation. The implementation of
the five-year strategic agenda for local government, plus the responsibility of
meeting national targets such as the bucket eradication, free basic services,
housing etc, requires of the department to play a leading co-ordination
role.
This additional capacity will furthermore ensure that effective oversight
and monitoring occurs to evaluate the impact of services rendered on the lives
of the citizens of the Free State.
Honourable Speaker and members of the house, we stand today at the halfway
mark of our mandated period. We are greatly inspired by the strides we have
made and are confident that moving forward, we can only improve on our people's
contract to create jobs and fight poverty.
We recall the resolve of the people of the Free State to work together with
our government to fulfil the 2004 mandate. We renew our pledge towards a
national partnership of building a better life for all. We will use all our
collective energies to mobilise all our social partners and our communities to
work together with us as we leave behind us a legacy of:
* strong partnerships and unity
* an accelerated advance towards a better life for all
* a growing economy that benefits all
* better service to the public and participation for development
* safety and security for communities and citizens and
* a caring society.
Honourable Speaker, the time to act is now!
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Free State Provincial Government
13 March 2007
Source: Free State Provincial Government (http:www.fs.gov.za)
