Date: 08/06/2004
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Title: N Balindlela: Premier's Office Prov Budget Vote 2004/2005
POLICY AND BUDGET SPEECH FOR 2004/5 BY PREMIER NOSIMO BALINDLELA, DELIVERED IN THE PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE, 8 June 2004
Madam Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
House leaders and Members of the Provincial Legislature
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
At the dawn of our second decade of democratic government, I join the masses of our people in celebrating the 10th anniversary of our democracy. Being part of the evolution of a caring society, which we are re-constructing and developing, could never have been so exciting as it is, during this critical phase of our young democracy. I am presenting this policy speech, in addition to the strategic plan of the Office of the Premier submitted earlier, within an inspiring context of a successful first decade and an even more promising second decade of freedom.
Building on the current mood
The government is set to build on the overwhelming mandate received in April 2004, to ensure a greater sense of belonging, ownership and hope such that a mass movement is established to build our nation, to fight poverty and unemployment, as well as to reverse under-development of centuries. We are a blessed generation that just has to build on a decade, characterised by unity in action aimed at turning around the state machinery for the benefit of the poorest of the poor, while also enhancing the capacity of drivers of economic growth and development to make Eastern Cape competitive, nationally and internationally.
We cannot over emphasise the value of every sector and every individual putting their shoulders behind the wheel of transformation to realise our goals.
In fact stakeholders have pronounced that, "the way" resides in them exploring their rich intellectual capacity and human power to contribute in meeting our goals, rather than waiting for dependency, creating handouts.
Delivering on our mandate
One outstanding universally celebrated milestone of the new South African nation is our Constitution, which embodies the ideals for which millions made supreme sacrifices to attain. That is a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous nation that plays a catalytic role in building a new world order. These are national obligations. In the province the responsibility of ensuring the successful implementation of the Constitution including its subsidiary pieces of legislation, is the Office of the Premier.
In terms of Section 125 of the Constitution, the Executing Authority of a province is vested in the Premier who exercises it together with other Members of the Executive Council to ensure the following:
* Implementation of the Constitution and legislation within functional areas listed in Schedule 4 and 5. These schedules cover concurrent functions such as health, education, housing etc., as well as exclusive provincial functional areas such as provincial roads, traffic and ambulances;
* Administering of legislation falling outside the competencies outlined in Schedule 4 and 5 such as those exclusively of national competencies;
* Developing and implementing provincial policies and legislation; and
* Coordinating the functions of the provincial administration and its departments.
The Constitution and other pieces of legislation and policies we have developed and begun to implement over the first decade of freedom, seek to create a just and caring society.
The OTP has to ensure that we, as government, give practical meaning to the constitutional and legal framework of our country. Special attention is to be given to the most vulnerable sectors of our society, viz. women, children, people with disabilities, youth and the elderly. We have seen in policy and in practice the rights of these sectors increasingly finding expression in real life. Representation of women in management echelons across the province has improved to 21% and equity plans are in place for reaching 30%, 40% and 50% within the current MTEF period.
The State of the Province Address on 28th May 2004 outlined clear targets and implementable programmes to improve various interventions of government for better service delivery. This approach increases public accountability of all spheres of government. However, I would appeal to every one to roll up their sleeves and work with us to achieve even better than those set targets, because our people deserve much better.
To meet these challenges, the Office of the Premier has a number of programmes in its establishment that are intended to assist the Premier realise her Constitutional obligations. Some of the programmes focus on ensuring internal efficiencies and efficacies, while others directly target stakeholders and members of the public.
It is crucial to highlight though that the Office of the Premier is not a delivery agent, such as line function departments, but a coordinating, facilitating and monitoring institution to ensure that such services are delivered to the people of the province. I will re-look at some of the programmes together with the Director General to improve the overall delivery capability of the OTP structure.
The Office of the Premier has the following strategic goals:
* Ensuring and facilitating ongoing transformation of the provincial public sector including championing of the implementation of Batho Pele principles;
* Integrated provincial planning and coordination of the implementation of provincial programmes such as Ilima;
* Facilitating and coordinating human resources development. For example the transversal training programme;
* Ensuring the availability and management of integrated provincial information and communication technology infrastructure;
* Providing policy, legal and auditing services;
* Establishing and managing effective inter-governmental relations;
* Effective strategic management of provincial communications; and
* Establishing and managing the Office of the Premier as a best practice organisation.
One of our key challenges this year will be to strengthen the OTP further to enhance its policy coordination, monitoring and evaluation role, even if we use donor funding to do that. Already, I have introduced to all MECs my quarterly monitoring and evaluation tool according to which they will report on progress made in delivering services. I have had six one-on-one meetings with each MEC and the whole departmental management to tighten our delivery plans, as well as to strengthen the administration and team building.
Madam Speaker, I will take liberty in giving a brief over view of what each programme is set to achieve with in this financial year and over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as details are given in the strategic plan document that has been tabled in this house.
Programme One: Management
Key to the branch's delivery targets is efficient and effective management of the Premier's programme to ensure prioritisation of people's needs and aspirations through the following:
* Ensuring effective management of a proactive Premier's programme for improved responsiveness of government to matters raised by the public during direct encounters including the outreach programme;
* Establishing a well functioning customer care system to follow up and ensure that matters raised by the people are attended to fully; and
* Building an effective issue management and tracking system so that every suggestion, complaint or view of the public or stakeholder is effectively channelled, processed and concluded to achieve a people centred government. A proper record of ideas and concerns raised by the people will be kept including all steps taken from referral to the actual actions by departments or other state agencies.
A budget of R9.817 million has been allocated to the programme for this financial year.
Programme Two: Cabinet Office
This branch is at the core of the Office of the Premier's mandate, providing support to the Premier and the Executive Council. Functions performed by the branch include:
* The secretarial support for effective decision-making and implementation by the Executive Council and Management;
* Fighting corruption and crime in the province;
* Policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation;
* Intergovernmental relations promotion;
* Effective provincial communication; and
* Leadership of government programmes aimed at mainstreaming issues of gender, youth, children, elderly and people with disabilities.
This branch is responsible for ensuring full integration of the PGDP into departmental strategic plans, local government Integrated Development Plans, as well as serving as a reference framework for private sector and donor organisations' plans for development and social investment in the province.
The process is underway, as an inter-departmental team has been established composed of the Cabinet Office, Programme Management Unit (PMU) and Provincial Treasury has been to review departmental programmes and budget for ensuring alignment with the PGDP. Municipalities have been met during a road-show to discuss priority anchor projects for the implementation of the PGDP. All district municipalities and the Metro were covered.
Getting all provincial departments and municipalities on board was meant to ensure that all targets outlined in the State of the Province Address are met, from the immediate targets of the first 100 days, 2004-05 financial year, the MTEF period as well as for the whole third term. By September 2004 an over arching monitoring and evaluation system will be finalised to assist government with tightening screws for improved service delivery.
An audit of various international and donor cooperation agreements has been conducted to establish a baseline for improved coordination of donor contributions to the development of the Eastern Cape. In fact the Office of the Premier is set to benefit R27.197 million from various international donors for purposes of strengthening and expediting public service transformation and good governance. Sources of the funds include:
* The Department for International Development (DFID - R12million);
* Canadian International Aid for Development (R697 000);
* German International Aid for Development (GTZ-R4.8m), and
* The Swedish International Aid for Development (SIDA - R9.7m).
These are but a few of the international partnerships established by our democratic government during the first decade of freedom, for purposes of augmenting our meagre resources to meet people's high expectations. Many more which run into hundreds of millions, are set to benefit departments, municipalities, and communities directly. By the end of this financial year an effective system will be in place to help coordinate and improve the impact of these interventions.
Service level agreements have been concluded with state programme implementing agencies such the Eastern Cape Appropriate Technology Unit (ECATU), Eastern Cape Socio Economic consultative Council (ECSECC) and the Eastern Cape Youth Commission (ECYC). These institutions aim to ensure greater focus on deliverables that impact on the poorest of the poor. ECATU is helping rural communities in especially the eastern regions to make the best of technology in developing the infrastructure for schools building using local material.
Ecsecc assists in developing pro-poor development policies and programmes including the PGDP, while the ECYC provides policy advisory and programme facilitating services to departments and lower spheres of government to prioritise the development of young people. Together these institutions share R23.621m.
The other major focus area of the branch is building awareness and ensuring integrated implementation of government policies and strategies aimed at mainstreaming issues of the vulnerable social sectors.
These include:
* The integrated provincial strategies for people with disabilities and gender;
* Policies, international charters and the Provincial Programme of Action for Children and the elderly people; and
* Integrating programme of fighting crime and violence against these sectors is to be worked out, implemented and showcased along side observed dates and periods dedicated to build public awareness on these challenges.
The special programmes directorate will facilitate and coordinate the implementation of the R1m special development fund announced in the State of the Province Address last month.
The funds allocated for the programme are meant to leverage other funding for assisting structures aimed at mainstreaming issues of gender, children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
Monitoring of various departments' adherence to their development targets aimed at improving lives of people in these sectors will be tightened, including verification of the allocation of resources. National days and periods will be observed to build public and stakeholder awareness of the policies and strategies around these sectors. These dates will be used as rallying points for the mobilization of partners and for progress reports by government and other stakeholders the realisation of sector development targets.
To address the significant image deficit of the Province of the Eastern Cape, an integrated communication and marketing strategy has been developed and its implementation is being rolled out.
Paramount in this programme is a massive integrated branding campaign expected to be launched within the first six months of this financial year.
The programme will seek to leverage resources allocated for communication and marketing by many government and possibly private sector agencies already doing a lot of un-integrated work in this regard.
A R200 000 budget has been set aside as seed funding of the project. A meeting with for runners in branding such as Limpopo is set for June 2004, where lessons learnt will be shared.
A "Thetha noRhulumente Wakho" campaign based on the utilisation of the recently completed multi-media centre and satellite offices of both the Office of the Premier and Department of Social Development around the province will be launched within the first 100 days programme. These facilities will help overcome distance barriers that inhibit both intra and extra governmental communication in the province. The programme will be assisted by fully established district communication offices with "amagosa engcaciso" who would anchor the coordination of the programme. "Amagosa engcaciso" currently are deployed in each category A and C municipality, including Alfred Nzo, Cacadu, Amatole, Nelson Mandela Metro, Chris Hani, Ukhahlamba and OR Tambo.
This year the implementation of the soon to be passed Inter-governmental Relations Bill, will be intensified through the Premier's Coordinating Forum (PCF) that is composed of the Premier, MEC for Housing Local Government and Traditional Affairs, and Executive Mayors of Category A and C municipalities in the province. The focus will be on strengthening local government as the cold face of service delivery as pronounced by President Thabo Mbeki.
A provincial government programme of fighting corruption in the province is located in this branch and a head of a secretariat unit for the anti-corruption coordinating fora has been appointed. The provincial anti-corruption council has been established, and we shall launch the broader government and civil society Anti-Corruption Forum within Premier's First 100 Days. The local sphere of government will be invited through SALGA to participate in that forum.
A budget of R65.607m has been allocated to this branch for the implementation of its programmes.
Programme Three: Corporate Services
The branch is composed of the following units:
* Deputy Director General's office;
* Financial Management;
* Procurement and Logistics;
* Human Resources Management; and
* Provincial Government Information Technology Officer (PGITO).
Significant components of the donor support for the overall improvement of the provincial administration is located in this branch, inclusive of Integrated Provincial Support Programme and GTZ's Public Administration Programme (PAP).
By August 2004 two centres of innovation will be announced from the social needs cluster institutions, that participated in the Premier's Good Governance Awards Scheme. The identified centres will receive government support to capacitate them to be models of creativity and service excellence in line with the South African Excellence Foundation model.
Financial management will further improve this year. Areas to be tightened include meeting the 30-day payment target for products and services, internal controls, minimisation of risks, fraud prevention, and empowerment of managers and staff on financial management. Registration of all suppliers and the management of the database will assist in the new supply chain management policy.
Sixty percent (60%) of goods and services will be sourced from Black Economic Empowerment suppliers and providers. The target will increase up to 75% within the outer two years of the MTEF period. One critical area, normally a subject of audit queries, is asset management. The policy on asset management is being incrementally implemented with progressive success in the OTP. The Office of the Premier as the piloting site, now shares lessons with the Provincial Treasury charged with the ultimate responsibility to develop the asset management policy for the province, in alignment with the new accounting reforms from the PFMA and Accounting Standards Boards. The provincial asset management policy will be in place by July 2004.
Madam Speaker, my department will continuously show the way in achieving equity employment targets in Senior Management for the designated groups in terms of gender, disability and race. Against the provincial figure of 21% of women in senior management, the Office of the Premier stood at 37.5% (nine out of 24) before the retirement and resignation of two senior female managers and we will strive to maintain the upward trend.
Challenges remain in terms of disability and youth representation. An HIV and AIDS support centre will be in place by December 2004 through the collaboration of the OTP and the Department of Health. The centre will be based in the Office of the Premier catering for Bisho based civil servants.
We will also ensure that at least 100% of service benefits of staff leaving my department are paid on time, for example, leave gratuity to be paid on the last working day and pensions, gratuity within 60 days after departure from service.
Regarding the critical information and communication technologies, all-regional and district offices will be connected to the centre by the end of the financial year. This will cover all regional and district offices in government buildings and those in long-term leases. Electronic document management will be introduced this year. I do want to make it clear though that the records management and an effective registry must be ensured before we process documents electronically.
Within this financial year an over arching provincial information and communication technology strategy located within the PGDP will be finalised as a blue print for integrating all initiatives aimed at leveraging the ICTs for improved service delivery.
However current efforts are being coordinated under a 'Connect the Eastern Cape' campaign launched earlier this year in Port Elizabeth. Under this programme that targets to connect over 150 schools during the current financial year, nine of which will be connected and launched during the first 100 days.
A much improved provincial website will be launched with in the next two months accommodating all provincial departments and municipalities. Areas of improvement include provision of current information on services most required by people including service directory, diary and year plan of government, state of the province address, strategic plans, policy speeches, speeches, tenders, vacancies etc.
My department will also play a crucial role in the Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development (PNC on ISAD) to ensure that our province is prioritised in the roll out of the national ICT strategy.
The Geographic Information System (GIS) will be in place with all provincial departments participating in an integrated manner to ensure effectiveness of this critical planning and programme management tool.
Steps are advanced to have in place a Master Information Systems Plan to clearly outline our information requirements and how to improve our ICT capabilities both provincially and as individual departments.
The budget for the branch is R88.140 million for the current financial year.
Programme Four: Organisational development and governance
Departmental adherence to the transversal training programme will be closely monitored to ensure that over 80% participation of departments, utilizing R14.347 million allocated for the project currently run by Fort Hare Institute of Government.
Over 8033 public servants benefited from the transversal training programme focusing on general management issues including, human resources, project, performance management etc.
A comprehensive communication programme is currently underway anchored by a road-show to recruit youth / school leavers to undertake studies in high-end skill (s) areas, greatly needed for successful implementation of the PGDP. For this project the National Student Financial Aid Scheme will in conjunction with my office manage a total budget of over R40million over the MTEF period, for assisting needy students of the Eastern Cape, R15m of which will be expended in the current financial year. Since the introduction of the programme in 2002/3 financial year, 3078 students were beneficiaries of this student aid scheme.
The department will continue to seek improvements in this regard, including seeking partnerships where possible and how to extend this financial assistance especially to our students in the further education and training sector. That will surely be instrumental in strengthening one of our PGDP programmes, having a vital role in upgrading technical and vocational skills for employment and self-employment.
Madam Speaker, by the end of the financial year, 1000 students will have been placed on a learnership programme in all twelve provincial departments, targeting the unemployed youth and also to ensure that 20% of them secure permanent employment. Each department will commit to a share of the targeted learnerships and report on an ongoing basis on their appropriate placement in the world of work.
The department will ensure full compliance of departments with the Performance Management and Development System (PMDS), which is critical for improved service delivery to the people. Using an integrated model of assessment that includes the South African Excellence Foundation and the Batho Pele principles, the Premier's Good Governance Awards is set to improve not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. A training programme aimed at previous winners and also new potential entrants is being rolled out to build a critical mass of centres of excellence, that would serve as stimulants for other public institutions.
The ODG branch actually provides support to clusters of departments, empowering them to implement successfully government policies in areas such as HIV and AIDS, compliance of departmental structures with their strategic objectives, and getting the records straight.
Madam Speaker, within this financial year, the branch will enter into service level agreements with client departments so as to ensure that clear targets are set and they are judged according to rate of attaining them.
The competency profiling of the senior management in the provincial administration has been finalised and will be utilised for interventions to improve management across departments after presentation to the Executive Council.
The ODG will be critical in ensuring that issues in the report of the Interim Management Team (IMT) related to human resources management are dealt with and the post Resolution 7 process is finalised.
A budget of R45.177 million is allocated to the branch, down from R51.081 million in the last financial year due to a lesser allocation for Human Resources Development funds.
Programme Five: Shared legal advisory services
The branch will work intensely to reduce cases of litigation by or against the provincial government, which have serious financial implications. We have established a clear trend of the reduction of contempt of court proceedings against the provincial administration and the provincial departments.
We are still challenged with the continued litigation especially in the department of social development. The reason for the escalating number of cases in the department of social development arises in the main to the non-responsiveness of the department to enquiries by the public and legal representatives. However the department of social development, through its 'turn around plan', is looking at resolving these administrative challenges.
A programme of repealing obsolete legislation that was assigned to the province has been finalised. Within the first 100 days we will engage national departments with regard to the remaining obsolete legislation that has not been assigned to the province by the President.
The budget for the current financial year is R8.822 million.
Programme Six: Shared internal audit
The advertisement for the vacant position of the head of the branch has now closed and selection will be done. Internal audit support for four major service delivery departments has been decentralised in line with the recommendations of the Interim Management Team (IMT), while services to the rest of the departments will be intensified to further ensure that the Auditor General can place reliance on the function of internal audit.
A "Project Thetha" campaign aimed at empowering civil servants and the civil society to identify and report critical risk areas for intervention will be launched within the first 100 days, as part of the implementation plan for the Provincial Fraud Prevention Strategy.
The budget of the branch is R15.052 million for the current financial year.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, the people and stakeholders we met during our first three weeks, clearly declared their unwavering commitment to add their shoulders in ensuring that the wheel of governance grinds faster for the realisation of a better life for all. The media committed to help in negotiating the 'rapids and icebergs of the ship we are steering'. The religious leaders undertook to avail their churches as customer service and information centres. They also committed to assist in moral regeneration and to use their resources for fighting poverty. Kings and traditional leaders pledged to open their great places to be springboards for launching and managing development programmes aimed at the poorest of the poor.
Business people also declared their enthusiasm to coordinate and consolidate their social investment and delivery programmes to be aligned with the government's efforts to push back frontiers of poverty. These are great pledges of people with immense influence on millions of people of this province, and the Office of the Premier will lead the management of these stakeholder relations such that our roll out of the PGDP can take off with a bang and register impact in a sustained manner.
I believe the fundamentals are largely firmly in place, as the Office of the Premier received an accolade from the South African Independent Government Auditors (SAIGA) for good governance and accountability, I have a great team that is able and willing to give its best shot for the Office of the Premier to lead the provincial administration to realise the goals outlined in the Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP).
Together, we can and we will raise our performance to even greater heights than in the first decade of freedom. We owe it, not only to the people of this province, but to the nation and world to make success of the ideals we cherish and the programmes we have designed. The British High Commissioner, Ann Grant, last week said, the world and the nation are looking to the Eastern Cape to provide models for sustainable development that can be replicated to bring a better life for all in South Africa, in Africa and many parts of the world.
To inspire our cadres during hard liberation times, a song that said: "Unzima lo mthwalo, ufuna simanyane" used to galvanise people for action with passion. Extricating our people from poverty and underdevelopment is even more challenging. Perhaps our artists need to compose inspirational songs that would implore the new development cadre to face what Tat'uMandela calls, 'many more steep hills to climb' after the liberation, with great vigour and resilience.
"We shall not abandon the poor"
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
8 June 2004
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Title: N Balindlela: Premier's Office Prov Budget Vote 2004/2005
POLICY AND BUDGET SPEECH FOR 2004/5 BY PREMIER NOSIMO BALINDLELA, DELIVERED IN THE PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE, 8 June 2004
Madam Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
House leaders and Members of the Provincial Legislature
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
At the dawn of our second decade of democratic government, I join the masses of our people in celebrating the 10th anniversary of our democracy. Being part of the evolution of a caring society, which we are re-constructing and developing, could never have been so exciting as it is, during this critical phase of our young democracy. I am presenting this policy speech, in addition to the strategic plan of the Office of the Premier submitted earlier, within an inspiring context of a successful first decade and an even more promising second decade of freedom.
Building on the current mood
The government is set to build on the overwhelming mandate received in April 2004, to ensure a greater sense of belonging, ownership and hope such that a mass movement is established to build our nation, to fight poverty and unemployment, as well as to reverse under-development of centuries. We are a blessed generation that just has to build on a decade, characterised by unity in action aimed at turning around the state machinery for the benefit of the poorest of the poor, while also enhancing the capacity of drivers of economic growth and development to make Eastern Cape competitive, nationally and internationally.
We cannot over emphasise the value of every sector and every individual putting their shoulders behind the wheel of transformation to realise our goals.
In fact stakeholders have pronounced that, "the way" resides in them exploring their rich intellectual capacity and human power to contribute in meeting our goals, rather than waiting for dependency, creating handouts.
Delivering on our mandate
One outstanding universally celebrated milestone of the new South African nation is our Constitution, which embodies the ideals for which millions made supreme sacrifices to attain. That is a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous nation that plays a catalytic role in building a new world order. These are national obligations. In the province the responsibility of ensuring the successful implementation of the Constitution including its subsidiary pieces of legislation, is the Office of the Premier.
In terms of Section 125 of the Constitution, the Executing Authority of a province is vested in the Premier who exercises it together with other Members of the Executive Council to ensure the following:
* Implementation of the Constitution and legislation within functional areas listed in Schedule 4 and 5. These schedules cover concurrent functions such as health, education, housing etc., as well as exclusive provincial functional areas such as provincial roads, traffic and ambulances;
* Administering of legislation falling outside the competencies outlined in Schedule 4 and 5 such as those exclusively of national competencies;
* Developing and implementing provincial policies and legislation; and
* Coordinating the functions of the provincial administration and its departments.
The Constitution and other pieces of legislation and policies we have developed and begun to implement over the first decade of freedom, seek to create a just and caring society.
The OTP has to ensure that we, as government, give practical meaning to the constitutional and legal framework of our country. Special attention is to be given to the most vulnerable sectors of our society, viz. women, children, people with disabilities, youth and the elderly. We have seen in policy and in practice the rights of these sectors increasingly finding expression in real life. Representation of women in management echelons across the province has improved to 21% and equity plans are in place for reaching 30%, 40% and 50% within the current MTEF period.
The State of the Province Address on 28th May 2004 outlined clear targets and implementable programmes to improve various interventions of government for better service delivery. This approach increases public accountability of all spheres of government. However, I would appeal to every one to roll up their sleeves and work with us to achieve even better than those set targets, because our people deserve much better.
To meet these challenges, the Office of the Premier has a number of programmes in its establishment that are intended to assist the Premier realise her Constitutional obligations. Some of the programmes focus on ensuring internal efficiencies and efficacies, while others directly target stakeholders and members of the public.
It is crucial to highlight though that the Office of the Premier is not a delivery agent, such as line function departments, but a coordinating, facilitating and monitoring institution to ensure that such services are delivered to the people of the province. I will re-look at some of the programmes together with the Director General to improve the overall delivery capability of the OTP structure.
The Office of the Premier has the following strategic goals:
* Ensuring and facilitating ongoing transformation of the provincial public sector including championing of the implementation of Batho Pele principles;
* Integrated provincial planning and coordination of the implementation of provincial programmes such as Ilima;
* Facilitating and coordinating human resources development. For example the transversal training programme;
* Ensuring the availability and management of integrated provincial information and communication technology infrastructure;
* Providing policy, legal and auditing services;
* Establishing and managing effective inter-governmental relations;
* Effective strategic management of provincial communications; and
* Establishing and managing the Office of the Premier as a best practice organisation.
One of our key challenges this year will be to strengthen the OTP further to enhance its policy coordination, monitoring and evaluation role, even if we use donor funding to do that. Already, I have introduced to all MECs my quarterly monitoring and evaluation tool according to which they will report on progress made in delivering services. I have had six one-on-one meetings with each MEC and the whole departmental management to tighten our delivery plans, as well as to strengthen the administration and team building.
Madam Speaker, I will take liberty in giving a brief over view of what each programme is set to achieve with in this financial year and over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as details are given in the strategic plan document that has been tabled in this house.
Programme One: Management
Key to the branch's delivery targets is efficient and effective management of the Premier's programme to ensure prioritisation of people's needs and aspirations through the following:
* Ensuring effective management of a proactive Premier's programme for improved responsiveness of government to matters raised by the public during direct encounters including the outreach programme;
* Establishing a well functioning customer care system to follow up and ensure that matters raised by the people are attended to fully; and
* Building an effective issue management and tracking system so that every suggestion, complaint or view of the public or stakeholder is effectively channelled, processed and concluded to achieve a people centred government. A proper record of ideas and concerns raised by the people will be kept including all steps taken from referral to the actual actions by departments or other state agencies.
A budget of R9.817 million has been allocated to the programme for this financial year.
Programme Two: Cabinet Office
This branch is at the core of the Office of the Premier's mandate, providing support to the Premier and the Executive Council. Functions performed by the branch include:
* The secretarial support for effective decision-making and implementation by the Executive Council and Management;
* Fighting corruption and crime in the province;
* Policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation;
* Intergovernmental relations promotion;
* Effective provincial communication; and
* Leadership of government programmes aimed at mainstreaming issues of gender, youth, children, elderly and people with disabilities.
This branch is responsible for ensuring full integration of the PGDP into departmental strategic plans, local government Integrated Development Plans, as well as serving as a reference framework for private sector and donor organisations' plans for development and social investment in the province.
The process is underway, as an inter-departmental team has been established composed of the Cabinet Office, Programme Management Unit (PMU) and Provincial Treasury has been to review departmental programmes and budget for ensuring alignment with the PGDP. Municipalities have been met during a road-show to discuss priority anchor projects for the implementation of the PGDP. All district municipalities and the Metro were covered.
Getting all provincial departments and municipalities on board was meant to ensure that all targets outlined in the State of the Province Address are met, from the immediate targets of the first 100 days, 2004-05 financial year, the MTEF period as well as for the whole third term. By September 2004 an over arching monitoring and evaluation system will be finalised to assist government with tightening screws for improved service delivery.
An audit of various international and donor cooperation agreements has been conducted to establish a baseline for improved coordination of donor contributions to the development of the Eastern Cape. In fact the Office of the Premier is set to benefit R27.197 million from various international donors for purposes of strengthening and expediting public service transformation and good governance. Sources of the funds include:
* The Department for International Development (DFID - R12million);
* Canadian International Aid for Development (R697 000);
* German International Aid for Development (GTZ-R4.8m), and
* The Swedish International Aid for Development (SIDA - R9.7m).
These are but a few of the international partnerships established by our democratic government during the first decade of freedom, for purposes of augmenting our meagre resources to meet people's high expectations. Many more which run into hundreds of millions, are set to benefit departments, municipalities, and communities directly. By the end of this financial year an effective system will be in place to help coordinate and improve the impact of these interventions.
Service level agreements have been concluded with state programme implementing agencies such the Eastern Cape Appropriate Technology Unit (ECATU), Eastern Cape Socio Economic consultative Council (ECSECC) and the Eastern Cape Youth Commission (ECYC). These institutions aim to ensure greater focus on deliverables that impact on the poorest of the poor. ECATU is helping rural communities in especially the eastern regions to make the best of technology in developing the infrastructure for schools building using local material.
Ecsecc assists in developing pro-poor development policies and programmes including the PGDP, while the ECYC provides policy advisory and programme facilitating services to departments and lower spheres of government to prioritise the development of young people. Together these institutions share R23.621m.
The other major focus area of the branch is building awareness and ensuring integrated implementation of government policies and strategies aimed at mainstreaming issues of the vulnerable social sectors.
These include:
* The integrated provincial strategies for people with disabilities and gender;
* Policies, international charters and the Provincial Programme of Action for Children and the elderly people; and
* Integrating programme of fighting crime and violence against these sectors is to be worked out, implemented and showcased along side observed dates and periods dedicated to build public awareness on these challenges.
The special programmes directorate will facilitate and coordinate the implementation of the R1m special development fund announced in the State of the Province Address last month.
The funds allocated for the programme are meant to leverage other funding for assisting structures aimed at mainstreaming issues of gender, children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
Monitoring of various departments' adherence to their development targets aimed at improving lives of people in these sectors will be tightened, including verification of the allocation of resources. National days and periods will be observed to build public and stakeholder awareness of the policies and strategies around these sectors. These dates will be used as rallying points for the mobilization of partners and for progress reports by government and other stakeholders the realisation of sector development targets.
To address the significant image deficit of the Province of the Eastern Cape, an integrated communication and marketing strategy has been developed and its implementation is being rolled out.
Paramount in this programme is a massive integrated branding campaign expected to be launched within the first six months of this financial year.
The programme will seek to leverage resources allocated for communication and marketing by many government and possibly private sector agencies already doing a lot of un-integrated work in this regard.
A R200 000 budget has been set aside as seed funding of the project. A meeting with for runners in branding such as Limpopo is set for June 2004, where lessons learnt will be shared.
A "Thetha noRhulumente Wakho" campaign based on the utilisation of the recently completed multi-media centre and satellite offices of both the Office of the Premier and Department of Social Development around the province will be launched within the first 100 days programme. These facilities will help overcome distance barriers that inhibit both intra and extra governmental communication in the province. The programme will be assisted by fully established district communication offices with "amagosa engcaciso" who would anchor the coordination of the programme. "Amagosa engcaciso" currently are deployed in each category A and C municipality, including Alfred Nzo, Cacadu, Amatole, Nelson Mandela Metro, Chris Hani, Ukhahlamba and OR Tambo.
This year the implementation of the soon to be passed Inter-governmental Relations Bill, will be intensified through the Premier's Coordinating Forum (PCF) that is composed of the Premier, MEC for Housing Local Government and Traditional Affairs, and Executive Mayors of Category A and C municipalities in the province. The focus will be on strengthening local government as the cold face of service delivery as pronounced by President Thabo Mbeki.
A provincial government programme of fighting corruption in the province is located in this branch and a head of a secretariat unit for the anti-corruption coordinating fora has been appointed. The provincial anti-corruption council has been established, and we shall launch the broader government and civil society Anti-Corruption Forum within Premier's First 100 Days. The local sphere of government will be invited through SALGA to participate in that forum.
A budget of R65.607m has been allocated to this branch for the implementation of its programmes.
Programme Three: Corporate Services
The branch is composed of the following units:
* Deputy Director General's office;
* Financial Management;
* Procurement and Logistics;
* Human Resources Management; and
* Provincial Government Information Technology Officer (PGITO).
Significant components of the donor support for the overall improvement of the provincial administration is located in this branch, inclusive of Integrated Provincial Support Programme and GTZ's Public Administration Programme (PAP).
By August 2004 two centres of innovation will be announced from the social needs cluster institutions, that participated in the Premier's Good Governance Awards Scheme. The identified centres will receive government support to capacitate them to be models of creativity and service excellence in line with the South African Excellence Foundation model.
Financial management will further improve this year. Areas to be tightened include meeting the 30-day payment target for products and services, internal controls, minimisation of risks, fraud prevention, and empowerment of managers and staff on financial management. Registration of all suppliers and the management of the database will assist in the new supply chain management policy.
Sixty percent (60%) of goods and services will be sourced from Black Economic Empowerment suppliers and providers. The target will increase up to 75% within the outer two years of the MTEF period. One critical area, normally a subject of audit queries, is asset management. The policy on asset management is being incrementally implemented with progressive success in the OTP. The Office of the Premier as the piloting site, now shares lessons with the Provincial Treasury charged with the ultimate responsibility to develop the asset management policy for the province, in alignment with the new accounting reforms from the PFMA and Accounting Standards Boards. The provincial asset management policy will be in place by July 2004.
Madam Speaker, my department will continuously show the way in achieving equity employment targets in Senior Management for the designated groups in terms of gender, disability and race. Against the provincial figure of 21% of women in senior management, the Office of the Premier stood at 37.5% (nine out of 24) before the retirement and resignation of two senior female managers and we will strive to maintain the upward trend.
Challenges remain in terms of disability and youth representation. An HIV and AIDS support centre will be in place by December 2004 through the collaboration of the OTP and the Department of Health. The centre will be based in the Office of the Premier catering for Bisho based civil servants.
We will also ensure that at least 100% of service benefits of staff leaving my department are paid on time, for example, leave gratuity to be paid on the last working day and pensions, gratuity within 60 days after departure from service.
Regarding the critical information and communication technologies, all-regional and district offices will be connected to the centre by the end of the financial year. This will cover all regional and district offices in government buildings and those in long-term leases. Electronic document management will be introduced this year. I do want to make it clear though that the records management and an effective registry must be ensured before we process documents electronically.
Within this financial year an over arching provincial information and communication technology strategy located within the PGDP will be finalised as a blue print for integrating all initiatives aimed at leveraging the ICTs for improved service delivery.
However current efforts are being coordinated under a 'Connect the Eastern Cape' campaign launched earlier this year in Port Elizabeth. Under this programme that targets to connect over 150 schools during the current financial year, nine of which will be connected and launched during the first 100 days.
A much improved provincial website will be launched with in the next two months accommodating all provincial departments and municipalities. Areas of improvement include provision of current information on services most required by people including service directory, diary and year plan of government, state of the province address, strategic plans, policy speeches, speeches, tenders, vacancies etc.
My department will also play a crucial role in the Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development (PNC on ISAD) to ensure that our province is prioritised in the roll out of the national ICT strategy.
The Geographic Information System (GIS) will be in place with all provincial departments participating in an integrated manner to ensure effectiveness of this critical planning and programme management tool.
Steps are advanced to have in place a Master Information Systems Plan to clearly outline our information requirements and how to improve our ICT capabilities both provincially and as individual departments.
The budget for the branch is R88.140 million for the current financial year.
Programme Four: Organisational development and governance
Departmental adherence to the transversal training programme will be closely monitored to ensure that over 80% participation of departments, utilizing R14.347 million allocated for the project currently run by Fort Hare Institute of Government.
Over 8033 public servants benefited from the transversal training programme focusing on general management issues including, human resources, project, performance management etc.
A comprehensive communication programme is currently underway anchored by a road-show to recruit youth / school leavers to undertake studies in high-end skill (s) areas, greatly needed for successful implementation of the PGDP. For this project the National Student Financial Aid Scheme will in conjunction with my office manage a total budget of over R40million over the MTEF period, for assisting needy students of the Eastern Cape, R15m of which will be expended in the current financial year. Since the introduction of the programme in 2002/3 financial year, 3078 students were beneficiaries of this student aid scheme.
The department will continue to seek improvements in this regard, including seeking partnerships where possible and how to extend this financial assistance especially to our students in the further education and training sector. That will surely be instrumental in strengthening one of our PGDP programmes, having a vital role in upgrading technical and vocational skills for employment and self-employment.
Madam Speaker, by the end of the financial year, 1000 students will have been placed on a learnership programme in all twelve provincial departments, targeting the unemployed youth and also to ensure that 20% of them secure permanent employment. Each department will commit to a share of the targeted learnerships and report on an ongoing basis on their appropriate placement in the world of work.
The department will ensure full compliance of departments with the Performance Management and Development System (PMDS), which is critical for improved service delivery to the people. Using an integrated model of assessment that includes the South African Excellence Foundation and the Batho Pele principles, the Premier's Good Governance Awards is set to improve not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. A training programme aimed at previous winners and also new potential entrants is being rolled out to build a critical mass of centres of excellence, that would serve as stimulants for other public institutions.
The ODG branch actually provides support to clusters of departments, empowering them to implement successfully government policies in areas such as HIV and AIDS, compliance of departmental structures with their strategic objectives, and getting the records straight.
Madam Speaker, within this financial year, the branch will enter into service level agreements with client departments so as to ensure that clear targets are set and they are judged according to rate of attaining them.
The competency profiling of the senior management in the provincial administration has been finalised and will be utilised for interventions to improve management across departments after presentation to the Executive Council.
The ODG will be critical in ensuring that issues in the report of the Interim Management Team (IMT) related to human resources management are dealt with and the post Resolution 7 process is finalised.
A budget of R45.177 million is allocated to the branch, down from R51.081 million in the last financial year due to a lesser allocation for Human Resources Development funds.
Programme Five: Shared legal advisory services
The branch will work intensely to reduce cases of litigation by or against the provincial government, which have serious financial implications. We have established a clear trend of the reduction of contempt of court proceedings against the provincial administration and the provincial departments.
We are still challenged with the continued litigation especially in the department of social development. The reason for the escalating number of cases in the department of social development arises in the main to the non-responsiveness of the department to enquiries by the public and legal representatives. However the department of social development, through its 'turn around plan', is looking at resolving these administrative challenges.
A programme of repealing obsolete legislation that was assigned to the province has been finalised. Within the first 100 days we will engage national departments with regard to the remaining obsolete legislation that has not been assigned to the province by the President.
The budget for the current financial year is R8.822 million.
Programme Six: Shared internal audit
The advertisement for the vacant position of the head of the branch has now closed and selection will be done. Internal audit support for four major service delivery departments has been decentralised in line with the recommendations of the Interim Management Team (IMT), while services to the rest of the departments will be intensified to further ensure that the Auditor General can place reliance on the function of internal audit.
A "Project Thetha" campaign aimed at empowering civil servants and the civil society to identify and report critical risk areas for intervention will be launched within the first 100 days, as part of the implementation plan for the Provincial Fraud Prevention Strategy.
The budget of the branch is R15.052 million for the current financial year.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, the people and stakeholders we met during our first three weeks, clearly declared their unwavering commitment to add their shoulders in ensuring that the wheel of governance grinds faster for the realisation of a better life for all. The media committed to help in negotiating the 'rapids and icebergs of the ship we are steering'. The religious leaders undertook to avail their churches as customer service and information centres. They also committed to assist in moral regeneration and to use their resources for fighting poverty. Kings and traditional leaders pledged to open their great places to be springboards for launching and managing development programmes aimed at the poorest of the poor.
Business people also declared their enthusiasm to coordinate and consolidate their social investment and delivery programmes to be aligned with the government's efforts to push back frontiers of poverty. These are great pledges of people with immense influence on millions of people of this province, and the Office of the Premier will lead the management of these stakeholder relations such that our roll out of the PGDP can take off with a bang and register impact in a sustained manner.
I believe the fundamentals are largely firmly in place, as the Office of the Premier received an accolade from the South African Independent Government Auditors (SAIGA) for good governance and accountability, I have a great team that is able and willing to give its best shot for the Office of the Premier to lead the provincial administration to realise the goals outlined in the Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP).
Together, we can and we will raise our performance to even greater heights than in the first decade of freedom. We owe it, not only to the people of this province, but to the nation and world to make success of the ideals we cherish and the programmes we have designed. The British High Commissioner, Ann Grant, last week said, the world and the nation are looking to the Eastern Cape to provide models for sustainable development that can be replicated to bring a better life for all in South Africa, in Africa and many parts of the world.
To inspire our cadres during hard liberation times, a song that said: "Unzima lo mthwalo, ufuna simanyane" used to galvanise people for action with passion. Extricating our people from poverty and underdevelopment is even more challenging. Perhaps our artists need to compose inspirational songs that would implore the new development cadre to face what Tat'uMandela calls, 'many more steep hills to climb' after the liberation, with great vigour and resilience.
"We shall not abandon the poor"
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
8 June 2004
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