State of the Public Service Report 2010 Roundtable

1. State of the Public Service Report 2010 Roundtable Presentation to the Portfolio Committee 16 February 2011

2. SOPS 2010 • INTRODUCTION • The PSC annually publishes a State of the Public Service Report. The report is organised according to the nine values in section 195 of the Constitution. • The theme for 2010 was Integration, Coordination and Effective Public Service Delivery. • The need for coordination stems from the fact that societal problems have multiple causes, and thus need a multi-faceted and coherent approach to solve – several departments contribute to the same outcome. • South Africa has now embarked on a path to promote outcomes-driven public administration, and this approach inherently requires more coordination and collaboration around the achievement of defined outcomes. • The nine principles prove useful to throw light on different aspects of a fairly complex concept. 2

3. SOPS 2010 • PROFESSIONAL ETHICS Corruption is a challenge that knows no boundaries and should be addressed in a coordinated manner by all sectors of society. • Structures, like the NACF, ACCC, Anti-Corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee and anti-corruption fora at provincial level have been established to promote the coordination of anti-corruption efforts. • Important work has been done under the auspices of these structures. The ACCC has completed an audit of minimum anti-corruption capacity in departments and established an Anti-corruption Learning Network, which will help to integrate and co-ordinate anti-corruption efforts. • The NACF has managed to bring together a cross-section of stakeholders to focus on a common set of priorities. Whilst it remains an important multi-sector anti-corruption body, the NACF has also not been able to function optimally. However, during 2010 there has been renewed efforts and commitment to strengthen this. However, effective coordination remains a challenge. 3

4. SOPS 2010 • PROFESSIONAL ETHICS • The ACCC has not been able to achieve its objective of co-ordinating measures to build minimum anti-corruption capacity in departments. Such capacity is necessary for addressing allegations of corruption referred to them. • This is reflected in the low feedback rate by departments on cases from the NACH referred to them, which stands at a concerning 36%. • Centralised capacity needs to be created. The Minister for Public Service and Administration has moved in this direction and created an Anti-corruption Unit. • A key challenge in addressing corruption, is that due to the lack of coordination of data on implicated officials, many resign before disciplinary hearings, and accept appointments in other departments. • With regards to Financial Disclosures, the compliance rate has improved (62% in 2004/5 to 79% in 2008/9). Scrutiny of a sample of forms through a partnering with CIPRO and working with the Deeds office has revealed non-disclosures, pointing to the benefit of working in a co-ordinated manner. 4

5. SOPS 2010 • EFFECTIVENESS, EFFICIENCY AND ECONOMY Coordinating the efforts of departments, spheres of government and other institutions to achieve outcomes is key • Government has put in place clear planning frameworks that enhance coordination. These include the MTSF, National Spatial Development Perspective, Provincial Growth and Development Strategies and local Integrated Development Plans. • These will now be further bolstered by integrated planning around outcomes. • The planning frameworks are complemented by new coordination mechanisms such as Delivery Agreements and Delivery Forums. • Coordination requires mature institutional capacity. The spending capacity of provinces has improved substantially. The provinces as a group overspent their budgets by 1.6% in the 2008/09 financial year. This is a turnaround from under spending of 1.7%, 1.1% and 1.1% in the foregoing three financial years. • However, in building a mature institutional capacity, the following lessons from the experience of the past few years should be taken into account: 5

6. SOPS 2010 • EFFECTIVENESS, EFFICIENCY • AND ECONOMY • Planning is still largely restricted to the mandates of functionally organized departments and is not done holistically around outcomes. • DG clusters were not effective coordination mechanisms: • Participation rate of Directors-General in cluster meetings 32% • The clusters (and the new delivery for a) should become fora for joint planning, and agreement on courses of action, including budget re-alignment. • The assignment of different parts of a service delivery process also creates intergovernmental coordination challenges. • For example, housing processes involve: land acquisition, township establishment, infrastructure provision, building of houses. • Parts of the process are the responsibility of provincial departments and the others of municipalities. • Different parts of the process are financed through different grant mechanisms. 6

7. SOPS 2010 • DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION Promoting lasting development requires multiple, targeted and effectively coordinated interventions • Some interventions have worked well but others not. • Recipients of social grants has increased from 4 million people in 2001/02 to 13 million in 2008/09, and will increase to 16 million in 2013. • Access to water has increased from 62% in 1996 to 88% in 2007 • The EPWP was implemented across departmental boundaries, and created 613 498 job opportunities in 2009/10. • South Africa’s response to the global financial crisis, during which a million jobs were lost, included the admirable step of coordinating with business, organised labour and civil society on a package of measures to be implemented. • Departments’ development interventions are also increasingly aligned with local Integrated Development Plans. • Employment creation remains a challenge. The year on year loss of jobs from the first quarter in 2009 to the first quarter in 2010 was 833 000 jobs. 7

8. SOPS 2010 • DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION • Employment creation remains a challenge. The year on year loss of jobs from the first quarter in 2009 to the first quarter in 2010 was 833000 jobs. • 40% of people still live below the poverty line. • Some valuable lessons from recent experience will certainly help that interventions such as the few foregoing examples are implemented in a more integrated fashion. • The provision of quality education requires an integrated approach, involving safety and security (safer schools), health (nutrition, immunization), and parental involvement, amongst others. Health • With TB-HIV co-infection becoming a growing threat, an integrated approach is required that pulls together TB and HIV/AIDS programmes. • Consequently, the Minister of Health announced the adoption of a new policy on HIV,AIDS and TB whereby the two conditions are regarded as one disease and HIV and AIDS and TB treatment facilities are integrated. 8

9. SOPS 2010 • FAIRNESS Fairness and equity needs to be experienced evenly by citizens irrespective of their geographic location which requires effective coordination so that norms and standards are evenly applied • Good practice in one part of the system can be undone by failures in another part, and it is critical that collective action be promoted between state organs, business and civil society. • Poor coordination has in certain instances compromised efforts to redress past inequalities. An example is housing, where despite the criteria of a first-come-first serve basis, is not applied in practice leading to a perception of unfairness. • The administrative responsibility to apply such criteria rests with municipalities, which given their challenge and the risk of corruption, may not result in a transparent and fair application. 9

10. SOPS 2010 • FAIRNESS • The Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000, provides standards of fairness in decisions affecting the rights of people, but departments` compliance with the Act shows a marginal improvement to 57% in the 2008/9 cycle. PAJA does serve to instil a common standard across departments. • The principle of equity requires that citizens can expect the same minimum service standards across the country, which has been set by national departments. However, due to resource and performance differences, levels of service sometimes differ. • Better coordination is required to address the perceptions of bias and lack of fairness, as there remains the risk that norms are applied differently. • An example is Road Maintenance, where expenditure ranges between 9 and 32% of expenditure. The National Department of Transport needs to monitor and ensure that standards are met. 10

11. SOPS 2010 • PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN POLICY MAKING/RESPONSIVENESS TO NEEDS There are several initiatives that seek to maintain an effective link between citizens and communities, and these would be more successful if there is improved cooperation between the institutionsinvolved • Citizens have expressed disquiet about services received and do not distinguish between levels of government, hence the need for coordination and integration between all levels is required. • It is important to sustain meaningful channels of public participation, with an emphasis on government facilitating participation with communities encouraged to take charge of their own development. • Ward committees should serve as a key public participation mechanism, and support Integrated Development Planning and municipal performance management. In practice, however, they are said to be ineffective. • The Presidential Hotline serves as another communication channel between government and citizens. However, the timely provision of feedback to callers requires attention as noted by the President. 11

12. SOPS 2010 • PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN POLICY MAKING/RESPONSIVENESS TO NEEDS • The role of CDWs was perceived quite positive by government officials and ward councillors. A challenge is providing an appropriate institutional environment to support them. • Another approach to community participation is through programmes such as the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP), which uses profiling methods to supporting participatory processes. • Community Development Workers (CDWs) are spread between a number of departments and form a link between communities, providing expertise to ensure coordinated, responsive and accessible government • Thusong Service Centres have increased access to services, but only to those living close to such centres. A PSC study found important drivers for citizen satisfaction are accessibility, followed by courtesy and timeliness. • Inspections conducted by the PSC of clinics found a general compliance with Batho Pele principles, whilst a PSC survey of this principle found performance improved from 35% in 2005/6 (poor) to 54% in 2008/9 (adequate). 12

13. SOPS 2010 • ACCOUNTABILITY The outcomes approach of the Presidency has a sharpened focus on responsibilities, but requires much coordination between the different levels (Ministers/ departments/ implementing agencies) responsible for an outcome. • The creation of the Ministry for Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation reflects the premium placed on promoting accountable governance. • Government is faced with a challenge of how to promote individual and collective accountability, so that the 12 outcomes can be achieved. • The introduction of the performance management system for the Executive, which will be cascaded to other levels, is a step in the right direction. • Lessons learned from performance management of senior managers may be useful in this regard. 13

14. SOPS 2010 • ACCOUNTABILITY • Parliament should consider how it will hold government accountable for outcomes, which cross the boundaries of the scope of work of the Portfolio Committees. • The filing of Performance Agreements and holding of HoD evaluations is a key accountability issue; however, in 2009/10, only 65% of HoDs filed their PAs with the PSC and by 31 March 2010 only 51% of qualifying HoDs have been evaluated for their performance in the 2007/08 financial year. • The audit outcomes reflect financial accountability, and it was found that 43 departments (12 national and 31 provincial) received qualified audit opinions in 2008/09. In 2008/09 only 111 out of 283 municipalities received an unqualified audit opinion. 14

15. SOPS 2010 • TRANSPARENCY The management of information on the attainment of outcomes is critical, to ensure its coherence and consistency, so that different departments and entities do not report potentially contradictory things about the same outcomes. • Joint work between departments will require greater access to information, and sharing shall be needed. Challenges relating to access, especially when some departments restrict and others provide information, need to be addressed. • In light of the outcomes approach, the permeability of boundaries on information held by different role players, is likely to be tested. • The PSC tests this principle by assessing the quality of annual reports and departments compliance with PAIA indicators. The performance overall at 56% (2008/09) shows that information is still not availed timeously and in an accessible manner. 15

16. SOPS 2010 • TRANSPARENCY • The South African Human Rights Commission found that for 2008/09, as many as 10 national and 71 provincial departments did not submit the annual reports. The current process for citizens to access information, when turned down, is too costly and complex. • Proper records management requires attention, and there is a need for improved coordination between information officers and records managers. • Progress is being made with the integration of information systems in the form of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS), which will integrate the current disparate Human Resource Management, payroll, accounting, logistical and business intelligence systems. • The quality of information contained in the Annual Reports has improved. It should be noted that reporting now needs to be elevated to cross-cutting outcomes (as opposed to departmental outputs), requiring greater coherence. 16

17. SOPS 2010 • HR PRACTICES Effective coordination of service delivery relies on the role played by public officials • The achievement of the 12 outcomes depends on the calibre of the public officials (ability, readiness and commitment to the task). They need to think outside functional silos. • Rigorous and credible HR practices are essential to ensure that public servants who are committed to serve are acknowledged, and those who are not are dealt with, to improve or exit. The critical HRM practices requiring attention are HR Planning, skills development, recruitment and selection and performance management. 17

18. SOPS 2010 • HR PRACTICES • A PSC survey showed that the average score of departments is 47% for recruitment and selection practices and 44% for skills development. • The DPSA developed and published an HR Planning Strategic Framework for the Public Service, which it has monitored, and found poor capacity to perform modeling, forecasting and scenario planning. • For the outcomes approach to be credible, there must be a willingness to work in concert, rather than competition, with each other, and recognition that one works for the public service, not just a department. 18

19. SOPS 2010 • REPRESENTIVITY Achieving the objective of a representative Public Service, an integrated approach is necessary, otherwise the private and public sector would just poach from each other • The Public Service has exceeded the representivity targets for black people at senior management level but lags behind with regard to women representivity at senior management level and the representivity of people with disabilities in the Public Service. • However, with regard to women it should be recognised that considerable progress has been made with the first target of 30% having been met. The revised target of 50% by 2009 must now be achieved. • Some departments have achieved the women target: Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism, (Eastern Cape); Community Safety (Gauteng); Social Services (Mpumalanga); Social Development (North West) • DPSA has launched a Job Access strategy for people with disabilities but too early to assess the success of this strategy. 19

20. SOPS 2010 • REPRESENTIVITY • Whilst black people are 79% of the SMS of the Public Service in 2009, the percentage for the private sector is only 28.5%. • Competition for highly skilled black candidates will become more intense. In this regard, the Public Service’s Policy and Procedure on Revolving Door Enablers should facilitate sound partnerships with the private sector to ensure better utilization of senior managers. • An assessment by the HSRC argued that the slow progress with representivity is often due to real constraints, such as the absence of skills in some areas and the uneven quality of school leavers and graduates. • Human Resource Planning, Human Resource Development, Employment Equity Planning are not aligned. • There is not enough information on the number of economically active disabled people, raising some doubts on the correctness of the set targets. • As part of the MDGs, SA has prioritised the education of the girl-child, but this should be sustained well into post-secondary education as well as workplace HRD, so as to do away with the excuse that there are not enough qualified and experienced women to be appointed in certain positions. 20

21. SOPS 2010 • The SOPS 2010 roundtable discussion • On November 4, 2010, the PSC held a Roundtable discussion with various government entities and other stakeholders on the SOPS 2010 Report. • The report was rated positively, and much of the discussion revolved around how the PSC could implement change around the issues raised in the SOPS. The following are among the key issues raised: • Participants enquired how issues raised in many reports could be taken forward and influence decisions that shape the nature and performance of the Public Service • It was emphasised that the PSC should be the custodian of values in section 195 • Questions were raised what the moral public servant should look like, and what can be done to achieve this • The participants raised the view that the PSC should assist with recruitment and selection 21

22. THANK YOU!