G Fraser-Moleketi: Centre for Public Service Innovation awards
ceremony

2 November 2006

Master of ceremonies
Directors-General and Deputy Directors-General
Acting Chief Executive Officer of CPSI
The panel of adjudicators
Our sponsor for this evening Microsoft
Our previous winners and this year's finalists
Ladies and gentlemen

Four years ago, we launched the inaugural CPSI Public Sector Innovation
Awards Programme. The CPSI believed that innovation existed in the public
sector, and intended for projects and individuals to be recognised and
rewarded. It was exciting to see the level of commitment and innovation in the
pubic sector.

It pleases me to see that innovation still thrives in government as I once
again stand before this gathering not only to celebrate our achievements but
also to reflect on the challenges of creating an environment in the public
service in which innovation is encouraged, recognised and rewarded.

Innovation in the public service

Innovation and opportunity are essential components of successful
implementation and as early as 1996, the then Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki,
wrote the following in a preface to a position paper setting out South Africa's
position for the information society and development conference of May 1996,
and I quote:

"South Africa is currently facing a range of historic challenges, some
bequeathed to us as a result of distorted past policies, and others which have
arisen as a result of a rapidly changing international environment. The key to
addressing these challenges is to develop a practical spirit of innovation at
every level of society. When discussing innovation, it is important to stress
that South Africa is in some aspects already a rather innovative society. We
only need to recall how intractable our political and social problems seemed a
decade ago to understand the truly radical break we have made with our past."
(Preface to a paper for the Information Society and Development conference, May
1996)

Some of the challenges that the President referred to ten years ago are
still a reality even today, and that is why the Centre for Public Service
Innovation was established in 2002 to assist government in identifying
innovators in the public service and providing them with opportunities to
develop innovative solutions to service delivery problems and applying these
solutions to improve access to services by all citizens, especially the
poor.

Enhancing the capacity and efficiency of service delivery through
innovation

Through the awards programme the CPSI continues to identify, recognise and
reward examples of successful innovative service delivery projects in the
public sector.

The Public Service Week

Let us first acknowledge the significance of the period in which we are
holding this year's awards ceremony. Next week is Public Service Week. It is
therefore fitting and proper that the awards ceremony takes place during the
period leading to the Public Service Week, as the two programmes complement the
Batho Pele strategy, and have one critical objective in common: improving the
quality of service delivery to citizens.

Public Service Week is about reflecting on the important and valuable role
that public servants in our country contribute in delivering services to our
citizens. This was clearly highlighted and acknowledged by the Deputy President
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka during this year’s Senior Management Service (SMS)
conference in Durban.

In her speech, the Deputy President reminded us that, and I quote, "in any
country, the civil servants as the primary machinery of the state provide the
capacity for the state to fulfil its mandate to the citizens". She continued to
remind us during the SMS conference, that this government has made a pledge to
provide a better life for all, and that as public servants, "you are the most
important workers and professionals on whose shoulders the capacity of the
state to build a winning nation rests".

So let us recommit ourselves to a concerted effort to fulfil the following
responsibilities as part of the coming Public Service Week:

* highlight the centrality and importance of public service delivery
* facilitate access to public services by the general public
* enhance the quality and efficiency of public service delivery
* ensure the multi-skilling of public service cadres in all layers of
government.

This will be done through unannounced visits and deployment of senior
managers to the front line desk, among other things.

The CPSI's role in improving service delivery through innovation

In the same way that Public Service Week annually affords us a moment of
reflection on the importance of public service to citizens in the spirit of
Batho Pele, the CPSI Public Sector Innovation Award Programme also serves to
demonstrate the CPSI's commitment to unlock innovation in the public sector and
create an enabling environment for innovative service delivery to flourish.

In fulfilling this commitment, the CPSI has successfully pioneered a number
of projects aimed at enhancing the quality of services rendered to citizens,
through partnerships with several departments, including Home Affairs and
Health.

The CPSI has piloted several innovative service delivery solutions which
have enhanced the work of these departments significantly. Allow me to
elaborate briefly on just two of these projects.

Firstly, the Corruption Management Information System (CMIS) was developed
and implemented in partnership with the Department of Public Service and
Administration (DPSA).

The system is an Internet based facility developed to integrate information
from a range of sources across government instantly in order to facilitate the
monitoring of corruption related activities in the country.

For instance, during its first phase the system successfully facilitated the
exchange of vital information relating to corruption and anti-corruption
activities across the public service. The next phase of this initiative will
strive for greater integration of various sources of vital data relating to
anti-corruption activities in the country. The CMIS will contribute greatly to
the rollout of the Public Service Anti-Corruption Strategy.

The second innovative service delivery initiative by the CPSI is the Short
Message Service (sms) Notification and Querying facility, developed in
partnership with the Department of Home Affairs. The sms facility enables
citizens to send requests for basic information relating to marital status,
application for documents such as birth, and death certificates as well as
identity documents through the use of their mobile phones.

Currently the CPSI is finalising the following important initiatives aimed
at creating an environment in which innovative ideas are nurtured and service
delivery improved:

* The e-government knowledge exchange portal
The portal is part of the government's e-government strategy which seeks to use
information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the public service to
improve its internal functioning and to render services to the public.

The portal is an internet-based facility that provides a common platform for
government, the private sector, academia and the non-governmental organisation
(NGO) sector to share lessons and exchange knowledge on e-government policies
and practices.

This portal is a partnership between the State Information Technology Agency
(SITA), the Government Information Technology Officers Council (GITOC), the
LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand and the CPSI. The
development of the portal is in its final stages, with key topic areas already
identified such as human capital development, labour, trade and industry and
municipal.

Key factors in mainstreaming innovation excellence in the public service

We have conducted a review of the effectiveness of the awards and it pleases
us to know that the awards have potential to contribute to retention in the
public sector. The review also indicated that the awards have had a positive
effect in changing negative stereotypes about the public service.

So seemingly ladies and gentlemen, we are on the right track in terms of
promoting and sustaining innovation excellence in the public sector. To
maintain this momentum, there are key factors that we need in successfully
promoting and sustaining innovation excellence in the public service. I would
like to address briefly only three of these factors as they play a potentially
important role in nurturing an environment in which innovation flourishes in
the public service. These are:

* partnerships
* capacity building
* replication.

Partnership
Partnership with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry

Partnership is an important component in expediting innovation excellence in
the public service. As I have already mentioned earlier several of the projects
and solutions to service delivery problems initiated by the CPSI were developed
through successful partnerships with other institutions and government
departments.

Partnership is particularly crucial among government institutions
(government-to-government partnerships), where the challenge of overcoming the
traditional 'silo approach' to policy implementation and service delivery is so
acute.

I am therefore pleased to acknowledge and commend the important role that
partnership has played between the CPSI and the Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry, resulting in a recent successful skills training workshop for all the
26 finalists from the '2006 Women In Water, Sanitation and Forestry
awards'.

The CPSI has tailor-made a two-day training programme on public sector
innovation. The training provided the finalists for the 2006 women in water,
sanitation and forestry innovation awards with valuable lessons on
sustainability, leadership and opportunities for networking.

Capacity building

Skills training workshop for CPSI awards 2006 finalists

The second factor is capacity building. Capacity building in the public
service is one of the key government priorities across all three spheres of
government. Capacity building is even more crucial at local government level
where critical services are rendered to local communities.

In my budget speech in May this year, I stressed the need for greater
capacity building in the public service to improve service delivery. I am
pleased to share with you the fact that, in an effort to contribute towards
increasing capacity for sustainable service delivery within the public sector,
the CPSI this year has initiated a skills training workshop for all the
finalists of this year's Public Sector Innovation award programme.

In terms of the workshop, all the finalists attended a training workshop
aimed at providing them with critical skills necessary to manage and sustain
innovation excellence in public service delivery. We are confident that such an
initiative will contribute immensely towards the development of capacity among
public servants to ensure improved quality of service delivery to citizens.

Replication

The third critical success factor in mainstreaming innovation excellence in
the public sector is replication. Replication is the result of learning from
each other's experiences, and sharing knowledge of best practices in innovative
service delivery. The review of the awards that I referred to earlier also
noted that there is a lack of replication of best practice.

As I indicated at the beginning of my speech, this award programme was
launched four years ago and during that period, we have identified, recognised
and rewarded many innovative projects initiated and implemented by public
servants in many government departments and other pubic sector institutions
across the country. Many of these projects have demonstrated service delivery
benefits and are worth replicating.

One of these is Dokoza. It is a solution that offers a new, innovative and
cost-effective advanced system for fast-tracking critical services to the
healthcare sector. The system involves the use of mobile technologies for data
and transaction exchange for medical services, making accessible interactive
confidential communication, authorisation and administration via mobile phones
for use initially in HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) treatment.

I am happy to inform you this evening that the Dokoza project was nominated
as a finalist in the 2006 Commonwealth Association for Public Administration
and Management (CAPAM) awards, which were presented in Australia in October. We
are indeed very proud that South Africa matches the best in the world in terms
of creativity and designing innovative approaches to public service delivery.
However, we need more of these innovations in our country not only to compete
with the best innovations on the international stage, but to translate them
into improved quality of service delivery to citizens.

I would therefore like to urge all government departments, especially the
Directors-General whose responsibility it is to identify and adapt best
practices in service delivery approaches, to rise up to this important
challenge of enabling government departments to benefit from the use of
innovative approaches to address service delivery related problems.

We, as government, have the responsibility to demonstrate willingness and
support for service delivery innovations. We have in many ways already
demonstrated that public sector institutions can be innovative and receptive to
new ideas and new approaches to service delivery.

Future initiatives

As we conclude our reflections on the service delivery successes and
challenges of the first decade of our democracy, and also look forward in
anticipation to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead as we progress
through the second decade of our democracy, I call upon the CPSI and all public
servants in our country to strive for greater heights in nurturing innovation
and promoting excellence in the public service.

We look forward with pride, secure in the knowledge that the second decade
of our democracy will be characterised by innovation and excellence as we
strive to accelerate the pace and quality of public service delivery to our
people.

I am therefore pleased to announce two important initiatives to be
undertaken by the CPSI as part of its mandate to create an environment
conductive to innovation and excellence in the public service.

An annual Public Sector Innovation conference

I have requested the CPSI to initiate and launch an Annual Public Sector
Innovation Conference for South Africa in 2007. The conference will serve to
promote and mainstream innovation in the public sector in South Africa, and
enable the sharing of ideas and experiences among public servants from all
three spheres of government.

It has been my experience that awards of this nature are best conducted as
part of a national conference. Therefore in the near future, this awards
ceremony will become an integral part of a public sector innovation conference
to be conducted annually in South Africa.

I therefore would like to call upon all public servants across all three
spheres of government as well as interested parties and individuals from the
private, academic and non-governmental sectors to be part of this exciting new
initiative to mainstream innovation excellence in the public sector in this
country.

Innovation Projects National Registry

The second initiative is of critical importance to the CPSI's task of
identifying and spreading knowledge of best practices in public sector
innovation. To fulfil this role effectively, I would like to announce that I
have asked the CPSI to set up a national registry of innovation projects by
2007. The registry will contain a comprehensive database of replicable projects
demonstrating good practice in innovation excellence in the public sector.

Concluding remarks

To conclude, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to all the
esteemed members of the adjudication panel for taking the time from their busy
schedules to be part of this national programme of identifying, recognising,
and rewarding innovation in public service delivery.

By being part of this award programme, you are placing the benefits of your
considerable collective expertise, knowledge and experiences in the service of
the public sector, thereby contributing towards the mainstreaming of innovation
and excellence in the public service. We look forward to reaping these
benefits.

I especially like the point made by one of the adjudicators who said,

"The concept of a public sector innovation award is spot on. It is important
and necessary. It is a component of performance management and incentives. The
need to show that innovation is not just about coming to work, you need to
drive and stimulate innovative behaviours" (David Walwyn, CSIR 2005
adjudicator).

Secondly, I would like to acknowledge and commend the CPSI staff members,
under the leadership of Acting CEO, Mr Lindani Mthethwa, for their hard work in
skilfully managing the award programme in its entirety, and for diligently and
successfully organising this evening's award ceremony. I urge the CPSI to
continue to play a critical role in creating an environment in which innovation
flourishes in the public service.

Thirdly, I would like to express my appreciation to this year's finalists,
all previous finalists as well as all the public servants who are here this
evening and to those who are not, for continuously striving to improve the
quality of service delivery through innovation.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
2 November 2006