G Fraser-Moleketi: South African Local Government Association
(SALGA)

24 April 2007

The vision of Government in the context of building a developmental state is
delivery of services. It is focused primarily on outputs and outcomes and, in
this respect the democratic government of SA has focused enormous efforts on
building a strong developmental state that can systematically, over time,
achieve the following pressing outcomes:

* a dramatic improvement in the quality of life of the people of SA
* marked increase in investments
* generating economic growth
* the creation of quality jobs for all
* the promotion of economic empowerment.

These outcomes generate even more subtle and complex challenges for the
country as a developmental state. These challenges include:

* strengthening participatory people-centred governance
* improving service delivery through integrated governance
* consolidating an accountable and transparent state
* developing human resources
* strengthening performance through monitoring and evaluation.

To achieve these outcomes, the State is heavily reliant on the strength and
capability of the system of government in place to successfully implement the
range of programmes designed to respond to the developmental challenges.
Excellence in performance across and within the three spheres, underpinned by
the availability of capacity (skills, human capital resources and systems),
attracting and retaining the right capacity, its location and optimal use, the
ethos of service becomes of central concern and importance. These are what can
be termed 'critical success factors' for achieving the goals of the
developmental state and, in the absence of any of these, the overall
effectiveness of government delivery becomes compromised.

From the citizen's perspective, the State is constitutionally bound to
ensure that services are in fact delivered to the citizens and, that these are
of a high quality and delivered to their convenience. This challenges the State
to find the most effective methods and channels to deliver these services
within the system of government. It calls for a break-out from the old
fashioned 'single department, single service, single service point' model of
service delivery toward a dynamic, modern delivery model and system that begins
to cluster these services, to the convenience of the citizen, through a 'single
window' be this a physical structure or in cyberspace. In this respect, the
institutions across the three spheres that comprise the machinery of state have
to be strategically aligned and harmonised to complement one another so as to
more effectively fulfil the needs of SA society. Such arrangements will enhance
government's service delivery approach as one sovereign entity, rather than
conceived as separate institutions serving the people.

The Single Public Service (SPS) is thus an initiative of government to
further strengthen and improve the State's capability in these areas, thereby
ensuring that the vision of seamless service delivery and optimal utilisation
of resources to the benefit of the people of South Africa is realised.

The overarching goal of a single system of public administration and
management that covers the three spheres of government promises to give effect
to developmental goals by establishing seamless, integrated service delivery
through integration of service delivery institutions of government. It intends
facilitating this goal by ensuring that the single public service is and
functions as one by determining national norms and standards through
appropriate legislative and regulatory frameworks.

The Single Public Service initiative is being undertaken in terms of five
main work streams and, these dimensions include:

* service delivery: access and cascading Batho Pele to local government
(integration of the front office)
* Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enablement of the Single
Public Service (integration of the back office)
* Human Resources Management and Development (institutional integration)
* anti-corruption
* Framework legislation for the Single Public Service.

In relation to the front office some groundbreaking work has already been
done in this regard: Roll out of Thusong Service Centres, formally known as
Multi-Purpose Community Centres, is earnestly underway with 94 centres in
operation already and plans underway to create such centres in shopping
complexes in high traffic urban centres such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and
Durban; Batho Pele Gateway portal in operation with a fully operational call
centre; and, the Community Development Workers' Programme fully implemented.
Some remarkable achievements have also been made with the cascading of Batho
Pele to Local Government. To date, more than 114 municipalities have been
through the Change Engagement Programme designed by my department as part of
the plan to cascade Batho Pele to Local Government. It is my expectation from
my officials that all 283 municipalities are reached within the next two years
or sooner.

For citizens to access government services in a seamless manner, departments
need to be working together to offer a 'single view' of government which
includes modernising the 'back-end' or 'back-office' of government's business
processes, ensuring interoperable systems both in the 'back-end' as well as the
'front-end' to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. An
audit of systems in place across the three spheres of government is currently
underway. A review of ICT policy frameworks is also underway to ensure
inclusion of local government. It should be noted that back office integration
will take place within a comprehensive e-Government Programme Framework which
is currently being taken through a process of consultation at the local
government level.

Institutional integration focuses on the harmonisation and better alignment
of the institutional enablers that will contribute toward enhanced service
delivery. Institutional enablers include, amongst others, a wage policy for the
SPS, harmonised conditions of service (medical aid and pension funds), norms
and standards for human resource management and development within the SPS,
legal mechanisms for mobility within a SPS, and a common culture of service
delivery across the three spheres of government (including standards for
service delivery). Work is currently in progress to undertake a personnel
expenditure review at local government level as well as an impact analysis of
medical and pension fund arrangements at local government level. The results of
these studies will be important to establish the cost implications to the State
in harmonisation of these various areas as well as the appropriate crafting of
the legislation and related regulations.

The work on anti-corruption is a continuation of the programme that
commenced in November 2000 when Cabinet made the following groundbreaking
decisions: that the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA)
develop and implement a public service anti-corruption strategy; DPSA to lead
the anti-corruption policy process; DPSA to support the national
anti-corruption programme; and, DPSA to foster regional and international
co-operation on fighting corruption. Public Service and Local Government
Frameworks have been developed as part of this process and put in place. The
emphasis is now on the development of a public sector Anti-Corruption Strategy
by 2008, review of anti-corruption capacity across government and evaluation of
the frameworks in place with a view to effecting improvements, where
necessary.

The Legal Drafting work stream seeks to establish a framework that will
provide for public administration, management and governance across the three
spheres, with the principle objective for government (as a coherent entity) to
be organised and to function in ways that will ensure efficient, quality,
collaborative and accountable service delivery.

The SPS initiative is being implemented in partnership with key role players
across government including, amongst others, National Treasury, the Department
of Provincial and Local Government (dplg), the South African Local Government
Association (SALGA), representatives from the Premier's Offices, etc. Success
in this achieving the Key Performance Areas (KPAs) and Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) in this initiative is very much dependent on involvement and
co-operation amongst all these role players and stakeholders. In this regard,
governance arrangements are firmly in place, roles and responsibilities spelt
out and, plans in place to ensure project deliverables, as expected as per the
President's State of the Nation address in 2007, are fully achieved. Engagement
with Labour has commenced with my intention being to intensify the
communication and further strengthen our networks, thereby keeping our social
partners timeously informed of developments with this initiative.

Access to services

Research has shown that many people have difficulty accessing government
services, often because of prohibitive transport costs. Initiatives aimed at
bringing government services closer to the people are already underway. These
include the Community Development Worker (CDW) Programme, Thusong Service
Centres (formerly known as Multi-Purpose Community Centres) and the Batho Pele
Gateway Project. These initiatives go a long way in addressing the need for
co-operative institutional arrangements. Furthermore, given the potential
offered by information and communication technologies the possibilities for
more efficient service delivery is even more encouraging. The DPSA is currently
working on the development of a comprehensive 2014 Government-wide access
strategy. Very soon intermediaries such as supermarkets and Automatic Teller
Machines (ATMs) will be convenient avenues to apply for an ID document and, for
those errant officials who are always late for conferences, meetings and
workshops and who subsequently incur the wrath and indignation of the metro
police, as convenient a way to pay their traffic fines.

Linked to access is the question of sustainability. Access strategies focus
on providing more services to citizens but do not adequately take into
consideration sustainability of service delivery, convenience to citizens in
terms of access, and integrated delivery involving all key role-players. It
results, for instance, in clinics being built but no staff being available to
work in them. Unfortunately, there is a lack of empirical evidence to show to
what extent citizens are making use of redress mechanisms and whether the
mechanisms in fact do exist or are effective.

Underpinning the system of governance is the concept of co-operative
governance, which is enshrined in the Constitution. As a function of
co-operative governance, the spheres are required to co-ordinate their actions
to provide coherent government for the country as a whole.[1] This mandate
provides the backdrop for both integrated service delivery and institutional
integration.

One of the key principles contained in the Constitution is that the spheres
of government are 'distinctive, interdependent and interrelated.' Despite the
afore-mentioned, one of the major impediments to service delivery within
departments and across the spheres of government is operations which are
characterised by silos. This, impacts significantly on co-operative governance
as well as access to services. It is also indicative of departments' inability
to learn from best practices in similar environments.

The establishment of a Single Public Service would not seek to undermine the
distinctiveness of local government as a sphere; rather, it seeks to improve
the manner in which the spheres inter-relate and co-operate with each other
vertically and horizontally to ensure enhanced delivery of services to the
people of South Africa. The Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act, 2005
will assist by creating the environment for formalising intergovernmental
forums and regulating dispute resolution. However, in order to facilitate
seamless service delivery it will be necessary for government to further
strengthen intergovernmental relations.

Staff mobility

One of the strongest arguments for a SPS is the facilitation of mobility
between institutions and spheres of government. Numerous complications have
arisen in the transfer of personnel especially as regards conditions of service
and related matters. The harmonisation of conditions of service requires some
form of rationalisation.

In terms of Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act, the function and the
personnel must be transferred as 'a going concern.' In addition, the conditions
of service of transferring staff may not become less favourable in the process.
Numerous complications have arisen in transferring personnel between the
spheres. The conditions of service in the public service and that of local
government are significantly different. In the public service, a job is
evaluated and calculated to have a certain job weight, which corresponds to a
salary grade. The job weight determines the salary, and the salary grades are
uniform throughout the public service, with some sectoral exceptions. In a
municipality, remuneration is determined by means of the revenue collected by
the municipality. Affordability largely determines the salary level. In
practice, this means that there is a multiplicity of pay scales in local
government.

This makes the transfer of staff very complex, given that overall conditions
of service must be retained. Add to this the fact that transferring employees
are likely to have to resign from their pension funds, to their detriment, and
may have to join a different medical aid. Their union might not be represented
in the bargaining council of the sphere to which they have moved. Two
strategies must be employed. Firstly, mechanisms must be found in the short
term to make the transfers easier within the existing constraints. Secondly,
conditions of service must be harmonised as far as possible to ensure
mobility.

Service delivery models and plans

Integrated service delivery is difficult due to differences in the service
delivery models adopted by departments. In most instances, these are not
aligned to local government service boundaries nor are they aligned within or
between sectors.

It is a legal requirement of the Public Service Regulations to develop and
implement Service Delivery Plans. These plans should be the tool that assists
and ensures that service delivery improvements take place and that informs and
links budgets, staffing, monitoring, etc. While departments produce plans, they
usually fall short in relation to these factors.

Thus, in developing service delivery plans the following points must be
taken into account:

* Departments must ensure that plans are not developed in a silo - the plans
should depart from an integrated service delivery model for the whole province
- for example are we going to all have the same service boundaries, are we
sharing corporate services, are we planning physical infrastructure in
consultation with other departments, etc.
* They need to have a clear methodology or scientific model that is used to
develop a baseline against which improvements will be measured. Without a
baseline measurement that is comprehensive and detailed, reporting will
continue to be vague.
* The plan must focus on the end users of the department and the service
standards must be informed by the citizens in line with Batho Pele.
* The plan must inform human resource and talent management including
recruitment and training, performance management, equipment, and budgets. Thus
the development of the plans should follow a bottom up approach - starting at
the front line units where service delivery takes place e.g. schools and
clinics.
* The plan must be linked to and inform monitoring and evaluation in each
department.

The introduction of an overarching legislative framework will ensure that
public service reform, the budgetary framework and planning is aligned across
the three spheres which will in turn ensure good governance and
accountability.

Scarce and critical skills

Notwithstanding government's commitment to job creation, a capacity
assessment will reveal that while there may be many vacancies in government,
the skills base of the population does not lend itself to these employment
initiatives. The supply and demand factor increasingly presents a challenge in
not only job creation, but also in the filling of current vacancies within the
public service as well as within local government.

Government is currently finding it difficult to compete with the private
sector to attract requisite skills and more particularly, to stem the flight of
skills to other countries. One of the purposes of the Joint Initiative for
Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) is to align education and training with the
actual needs identified for the developmental state. It is now commonly
accepted that the skills provision is not addressing the developmental needs of
the country.

To address this we are considering the development of a wage policy for the
public service and a review of salary packages for identified categories of
employees, including looking at improving the general working environment as
our initiative to rebut the competition. Further, other long-term solutions
might include partnerships with the Department of Education and institutions of
higher learning to increase intakes in fields that will satisfy the demand in
the public service, the strengthening of public service training institutions,
to mention just a few.

However, in the short-term the public service is required to continue with
its mandate of providing services, growing the economy, etc and thus we have
been forced to consider various options to grow the existing skills base,
including foreign skills exchange programmes, etc.

Management and leadership capacity

What is of great concern is the fact that the majority of senior managers
are concentrated in head offices, thus removed from the 'service delivery coal
face.' In order for provinces to achieve their service delivery targets, the
redeployment of staff to these areas must be considered. There is a stream
within the Single Public Service Project that is tasked with pursuing avenues
that will achieve this mobility, not only within provinces, but also across the
different spheres of government.

The Public Service has established the Senior Management Services (SMS) to
recognise and enhance the role of managers and professionals in the execution
of public functions at national and provincial departments. Against this
background, it is therefore of critical importance that a distinct management
dispensation for all managers, including professionals, be developed using a
common framework.

The overall objective of the establishment of a distinct management cadre
for the Single Public Service is to promote a notion whereby members will not
simply be attached to fixed posts within a specific institution of government
but rather recognised as members of an overarching body of competent senior
managers available to the State for optimal utilisation.

Attitudes and professional ethos

Archbishop Desmond Tutu commented that civil servants are neither civil nor
are they servants of the public. This view is supported by a report by the
Public Protector, which points out, that government institutions are not
citizen-friendly and that the Batho Pele principles are not implemented
correctly.

Perhaps this is attributable to a sense that some public servants in service
delivery institutions do not take pride in their work. It may also in part be
based on the outdated view that jobs in the public service are guaranteed for
life.

One of Batho Pele's principles is that the State should interact with
citizens but many public servants still treat citizens as if they are doing
them a favour. Changing this attitude requires a change in the mindset of
public servants but it is also necessary to transform the material conditions
under which people work. Many public servants are expected to work in
workplaces that are drab and depressing, impacting negatively on their
morale.

The White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery only applies to
improving the service delivery of national and provincial departments. With the
introduction of a single public service, it is envisaged that the South African
Government will espouse a shared culture of service delivery. Batho Pele is
more than merely adhering to a set of principles; it is a mechanism to ensure
that government generally has the same service delivery and transformation
vision and agenda.

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
24 April 2007