M Shilowa: Premier's Service Excellence Awards

22 November 2007

Programme Director
Members of the Executive
Members of the Legislature
Heads of departments
Senior managers
Our service excellence awards nominees
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen

On an evening where we celebrate service excellence, I think it is
appropriate to start by congratulating the Veterinary Public Health Directorate
of the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment for the
award they have received from the International Standards Organisation. This is
the first certificate to be handed to a province in the country and the
continent.

The award, which recognises the high standards maintained by this unit in
ensuring abattoirs in Gauteng adhere to the highest safety standards in
handling meat, will go a long way in building the good image of Gauteng
internationally. It will also assist in assuring tourists to our province and
those planning to come for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, that our food meets the
highest standards in the world.

We agree with Vince Lombardi when he says: "it is time for us all to stand
and cheer for the doer, the achiever, the one who recognises the challenges and
does something about it."

Indeed the Premier Service Excellence Awards (PSEA) is an ongoing exercise
of recognising and acknowledging government employees who rise to the
challenges of their work and excel in service delivery.

We meet here tonight, to pay tribute to teams that have displayed
dedication, commitment and enthusiasm in the execution of their duties. When we
introduced the Premier's Service Excellence Awards five years ago, we were
concerned about the prevailing dominant work ethic in the public sector.

We had realised that the orientation of government employees was neither
civil nor service oriented. They were functioning as old bureaucrats who would
look for reasons why things could not be done instead of trying to find
solutions to problems and better ways in which things could be done to achieve
results.

To change this mindset and to introduce the kind of public service that
would ensure government became more effective, accountable and responsive, more
efficient, more user-friendly and more focussed on spearheading development and
service delivery we adopted the Batho Pele principles. To entrench these
principles in the culture of the public service we then introduced the
Premier’s Service Excellence Awards. We said then that the awards will reward
those who truly live by the Batho Pele principles and entrants will be judged
according to how well they performed and maintained the following:

* a high standard of professional ethics,
* provision of services impartially, fairly and equitably,
* utilise resources efficiently, economically and effectively,
* respond to people's needs,
* encourage the public to participate in policy-making.

This was about getting the basics right. It was about getting the government
employees to do ordinary things in an extraordinary manner. Public recognition
of those who achieved the desired levels of excellence was seen as a catalyst
for others to emulate their best practices.

Our record shows that we have succeeded in laying the foundations for
building the public service that can be relied upon to direct and implement our
strategic programme of action in a co-ordinated and integrated manner across
all departments and within departments.

We now have hard working, dedicated, creative and innovative women and men
in the employ in the Gauteng Provincial Government. We have true public
servants who understand that the primary purpose of public servants is to serve
the public.

Last year we launched the Gauteng Global City Region perspective. We need to
look at whether there is a need to further refine the PSEA to take account of
this added expectations of our employees to coordinate and integrate beyond the
department and the province.

A globally competitive city region requires the development of a dedicated,
productive and people centred public service that has effective service
delivery mechanisms. A motivated and easy to adapt workforce will be a
determining factor in the performance of our province in the global
economy.

Innovation is also of critical importance if we are to achieve our goals.
The PSEA must now be aligned to place emphasis on this so as to help us achieve
our goals. The Extended Executive lekgotla in September this year agreed to the
establishment of the Global City Region (GCR) Academy as a matter of priority
to build innovation capacity in the public sector. The academy will assist in
the development of the necessary skills and capacity within local and
provincial governments in Gauteng to drive service delivery and in building the
capacity for research and development.

We have also agreed on the development of standards of service and service
charters across departments and in future these would have to be taken into
consideration in determining whether service excellence has been achieved.

There is growing impatience on the part of the general public towards poor
service delivery. Despite adherence to the Batho Pele principle, we have seen
service delivery protests, entrepreneurs continue to complain about delays in
payment and big business is unhappy about the length of time it takes to
finalise environmental impact studies and investors say it is not easy to gain
access to government information in our province.

Another decision we have taken as the executive, is to institute measures to
reduce the cost and ease of doing business in Gauteng, including the
development of a one-stop service for businesses interested in investing in
Gauteng. This would include addressing red tape, streamlining approval
processes and upgrading a one-stop business portal. Attention will also be paid
to the current complex legal framework for land use management as well as
accelerating skills development and attracting scarce skills to the
province.

We are mindful of the fact that government actions can positively influence
active private sector participation in the economy, in particular through
creating macro-economic stability, an environment of openness and transparency,
ensuring effective governance and institutions and through investing in
infrastructure.

Your role as government employees and managers is therefore crucial in
helping us achieve the goals of growing the economy and reducing unemployment,
poverty and underdevelopment. We are conscious of the fact that, due to the
strategic role of the public service, the future of our province and our
country lies in our hands. We have the ability to work together to make Gauteng
a better place, that is able to compete with the top city regions in the world
and meet the needs of all its people.

The prevention of fraud and corruption is going to be critical in building
an image of a competitive city region. Rewarding behaviour that ensures that we
achieve this on a sustainable basis will be important in improving the
performance of the state, building confidence in our province and achieving
growth.

Ladies and gentlemen I challenge you to create a culture of continuous
service improvement. Let us recognise, support and encourage service excellence
by adopting the quality of work demonstrated by the teams we are rewarding
tonight and replicating it other areas.

2009 marks the end of term of the current government. We all need to go back
and look at the commitment we made in 2004, to ensure that those that are
supposed to be completed by 2009 are completed and that a foundation for
achieving the 2014 objectives is laid. It is in this regard next year's PSEA
will focus on departments that are on course to ensuring that we complete our
five year mandate and lay the foundation for achieving our 2014 objectives.

I would like to congratulate all the teams that were nominated for this
year's awards. I also urge the achievers to sustain their excellent work. We
are indeed inspired by the dedication and commitment you have display in
serving our people and in achieve excellence in your work.

Let us remember the attainment of excellence is not an event. It comes from
continuously striving for improvements in all aspects of our lives. Let us make
it a habit in the public sector. To quote Vince Lombardi once more: "The
achievements of an organisation are the results of the combined effort of each
individual."

I thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
22 November 2007