Today, 16 May 2012, the Minister in the Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr Collins Chabane presented the budget vote for the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) to Parliament. This is the second budget vote of the department since it was established.
Minister Chabane together with the Deputy Minister, Mr Obed Bapela accompanied by the Director General of the Department, Dr Sean Phillips and officials reflected on the achievements of the 2011/12 financial year and further outlined the strategic plans for the current year.
In 2011/12 the department outlined several measures to improve the performance of government. The department has now institutionalised quarterly monitoring of the delivery agreements in the Cabinet system. The department has also reviewed the Annual Performance Plans of national departments to ensure that the contents are in line with the delivery agreements.
The delivery agreements are now in the process of being reviewed to strengthen them and give them more focus based on monitoring and evaluation over the past year. In this regard, where targets have been achieved, the review process involves setting higher targets. In instances where monitoring and evaluation has indicated that our activities are not leading to the intended results, changes are being introduced.
The department has also produced the 2011 Development Indicators, which provide a broad picture of the state of our country's development, with 83 socio-economic indicators, based on data sourced from government systems, official statistics, and research done by local and international institutions. Both the Development Indicators and the results of our monitoring reinforce the need for us to continue to focus on the priorities which we identified at the beginning of the term.
The department has also produced a Mid-Term Review. The Mid-Term Review provides a detailed assessment of our progress and challenges with regard to the implementation of the delivery agreements.
The department has also developed the National Evaluation Policy Framework. The framework helps government to establish whether or not government plans are resulting in their intended impacts and the reasons for this. Evaluations involve deep analysis of issues such as causality, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, value for money and sustainability. The focus of the evaluations will be on programmes related to government's priorities. The Framework also provides for the development and monitoring of improvement plans to address the recommendations from the evaluations.
Programmes under consideration for evaluation this year include:
- The National School Nutrition Programme and the Grade R Programme in the Department of Basic Education
- The Integrated Nutrition Programme in the Department of Health
- The Land Reform Recapitalisation and Development Programme and the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme in the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform
- The Business Process Services Incentives Scheme in the Department of Trade and Industry and
- The Integrated Residential Development Programme and Urban Settlements Development Grant in the Department of Human Settlements.
The department has, working in partnership with the Offices of the Premier facilitated assessments of the quality of management practices in 103 national and provincial departments. This involved assessing the quality of management practices across a comprehensive range of management areas. In carrying out these assessments, the Presidency and the Offices of the Premier are sending a strong message to managers that improving the quality of management practices is important.
In the previous financial year, the department undertook to place more emphasis on on-site monitoring of frontline service delivery. Today we are pleased to announce that since June 2011, we have conducted 122 unannounced monitoring visits in five provinces, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Free State and Northern Cape.
The monitoring teams consist of staff from Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) as well as staff from the Offices of the Premier. We monitored the quality of service delivery in selected offices of South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), Home Affairs, drivers license centres, health facilities, courts and schools. We reported the findings to Cabinet during February 2012 and we are working with the relevant departments to ensure that they act on the findings from these monitoring visits.
The department to date focused on national and provincial government, we are now paying more attention to monitoring municipalities. We will include municipal customer service centres in this year's round of unannounced frontline service delivery monitoring visits.
The Presidential hotline continues to be an inspiration to many South Africans. There are more than 130 000 cases logged at present and the resolution rate is more than 80%. This is a resolution rate that we can be proud of, given that we started from a low base of 39% in November 2009. Since its inception, the Presidential Hotline has made a difference in the lives of many South Africans.
Following the report of the Human Rights Commission on the open toilets saga, we have in collaboration with the Department of Water Affairs, completed a review of the state of sanitation. The review indicated that while we are increasing access to safe sanitation by approximately 300 000 households per annum, there are challenges with the operation and maintenance of sanitation systems. The study found that this is caused by a combination of weak municipal management and a lack of clear responsibility for sanitation policy at national level.
The Human Rights Commission has indicated that it is pleased with the study, and is currently consulting with civil society regarding the recommendations. After these consultations, recommendations for improvements will be taken to Cabinet.
On the international front, we have engaged with and learnt from many countries, including Mexico, Columbia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the UK, Canada, the USA and Australia. In March this year we hosted a workshop with our African counterparts from Benin, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and Senegal.
The workshop agreed we would continue to share and learn from each other's experiences. We have also established working relationships with international organisations which provide support in this field which includes the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results, the Institute for Impact Evaluation and the World Bank.
Enquiries:
Harold Maloka
Spokesperson for the Ministry for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in The Presidency
Cell: 082 847 9799
E-mail: harold@po.gov.za or maloka.harold@gmail.com
