Eastern Cape Premier signs service delivery agreements with his Members of the Executive Council (MECs)
In keeping with the promise made in his Inaugural State of the Province Address in 2014 of making government to serve the people with speed and accountability, the Eastern Cape Premier, yesterday signed service delivery agreements with his Members of the Executive Council (MECs) that will cover the current financial year 2015/16.
The event was held at Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg near King Williams Town and was attended by Members of the Provincial Legislature, Heads of provincial departments (HoDs), provincial stakeholders including the Auditor-General, Public Service Commissioner, business and youth leaders.
Mid-last year Eastern Cape Premier Mr Phumulo Masualle signed delivery agreements with his MECs as mechanisms to hold leadership accountable to the public and stakeholders.
Delivering his key note address the Premier said the “delivery agreements lay a chain of accountability from executive authorities to accounting officers and must be replicated across government. We are here for a very short time and therefore we must allow ourselves as leaders to be subjected into public scrutiny”.
In reviewing progress, the Premier noted progressive improvement since the signing of delivery agreements in July last year in the areas amongst others, education in particular provision of foundation phase education, in the health sector with respect to provision of primary health care and the delivery of housing. “The output on the delivery of housing has increased substantial – we no longer surrendering our housing allocation to national treasury or to other provinces,” added the Premier.
Whilst improvements have been noted, however, challenges still remain especially around the culture of non-performance and consequence management especially amongst senior public servants. Both of these challenges have also been noted by the Auditor-General and Legislature, stated the Premier.
In moving the province forward the Premier committed his government towards focusing on rolling out of economic and social infrastructure singling out the Bhisho office precinct as a major project. He added that the good work done in rolling out economic infrastructure by the two IDZs will continue with the focus on providing support towards setting up of the Wild Coast IDZ (WIDZ).
“We will also intensify our efforts increasing the pace of delivery of sanitation, rural electrification, roads maintenance and schools based technology”, said the Premier. The new Delivery Agreements are aligned to the seven priorities which are captured in the Provincial Medium Term Strategic Framework (P-MTSF) and are used as tools to measure performance and delivery.
