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Date : 26/11/2003
Source: Department of Public Service and Administration
Title: Fraser-Moleketi: IQPC project management conference


INPUT BY THE HONOURABLE GERALDINE FRASER-MOLEKETI AT THE OCCASION OF THE IQPC CONFERENCE ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Sandton, Johannesburg, 26 November 2003

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Public administration has undergone tremendous changes during the past few decades. As a consequence of demands of the public that the administration of state should become much more effective and efficient pressure has been exerted that public administration should look towards business to observe how to manage its available resources in a more optimal manner. An entire paradigm shift has taken place from the old bureaucratic manner in administering the work of the state and a much more business-oriented approach has been introduced.

The jury is out on whether this shift was in all instances a beneficial shift and justified. The public sector intellectuals and practitioners are currently engaged with finding responses to the pervasive question on whether it is entirely appropriate in all respects, given the difference in circumstances, values and goals between the public and private sectors to have borrowed so heavily from the tools, techniques and approaches of the private sector? However, that is an extensive discussion that falls largely outside of the focus of this conference, and I do not wish to venture into that debate this morning.

What we can say without fear of contradiction is the fact that some of the approaches and management techniques that have found its way into the public sector through that paradigmatic shift of thinking that has come over the discipline of Public Administration, have resulted, to an extent, in improved operational effectiveness. I would like to be so bold as to categorically state that project management is one of the approaches that we have extended the use to the public sector that have much to offer to our effective functioning. And I can say this even in the knowledge that the full potential thereof have hitherto not been taken advantage of.

In the public sector, however, the motivating force for our greater efficiency and effectiveness do not derive from the profit-making motive. We are not inspired by making more money. The motive for our desire to do better goes much deeper than what the theories around the modernisation of public administration would want to imply. What drives us is the urge to improve the life of all our people. Of making it easier for the old Gogo in the rural areas to get running water. To allow all our children to receive the very best education possible. To see to it that the sick and indigent actually receive the care from society that they are entitled to under a human rights approach. To make it easier for the young urban professional to commute between home and work. To allow the budding entrepreneur to move from subsistence existence to actually growing her business to a small or medium size enterprise.

It is because as a government we take the situation within which our people live seriously that we are passionately driven to do better with what we have. Obviously that also means that we should not allow for wastage or underutilisation of any of the resources available to us. Project management can certainly help us in this regard.

Partially as a response to the criticism of inadequacy of how the state has functioned in the past, and again I am talking internationally, not specifically in terms of the South African situation, the vehicles through which services that have traditionally been rendered directly by the public service have changed. Today, the public service landscape is punctuated by an entire range of alternative service delivery infrastructure. These include public - private partnerships in all manners of combination, it involves commercialisation, it involves privatisation, it involves outsourcing and so forth. A large proportion of the functions of the traditional public service is now provided by agencies in the broader public sector, by not-for-profit organisations and by business.

The way in which the state has structured itself - also in response of a need to bring government closer to the people, and to make it more responsive - has also introduced greater complexity. We are responding to a demand for more decentralisation and deconcentration of power. We have effectively created three spheres of government which are independent from one another, but also interdependent. Ensuring that policy intentions that have been formulated at national level, remains intact while finding its way through all the layers of intergovernmental relations to where it finally gets implemented through a range of projects have become a daunting operation for even the most skilful policy manager.

To add to the complexity of this arrangement, globalisation has thrust a situation on us where the boundaries between independent states are becoming vaguer. Regionalisation and internationalisation of public policy and public services are at the order of the idea. In the African situation, the creation of the African Union, and the formulation of the New Partnership on African Development (NEPAD) are cases in point.

The old ways of structuring work has therefore become defunct. The traditional skills that public servants needed to survive have become superfluous. The circumstances of their work has changed significantly and a large part of what they now must be able to do is to cooperate within complex networks of a range of interested parties and provide leadership and coordination to those networks.

The state is not on equal footing with the others in these networks. The state is the first among equals, because it is the only party in those networks that have legitimate power and responsibility to act in accordance with the needs and requirements of the broader society. The state is charged with making policy and ensuring that those policies are implemented, no matter which vehicle is chosen to do so. It is therefore the responsibility of the state to ensure that the golden nexus between policy, programme and project be maintained and is not compromised or threatened in the process of making the translation between policy and implementation of projects.

Bearing in mind all these influences and changes on public administration, it should be clear to all of you that Project Management has become a core skill in the make-up of all public sector managers and professionals. We have accordingly given recognition to this important competence in the competency profile that has been adopted for all members of the SMS in the public service, and are also taking due cognisance of it in the extension of the competency profile to middle and emerging managers.

It is notable that in current recruitment efforts to vacant positions the saliency of the requirement for project management skills has become much more pronounced. However, it still leaves the competency profile of existing public sector appointments with respect to project management skills in a questionable position. Training and further personal development is obviously the way to go in these cases. This caveat has been identified, notwithstanding the fact that we actually have a very well qualified senior management service. An audit that was undertaken by the Public Service Commission revealed that public service employees belonging to the SMS have on average two degrees. In a rapidly changing environment continual matching with newly required skills is actually necessary.

The President has pointed to this fact in his State of the Nation Address earlier this year when he was very pointed in his remarks on the need for us to develop capacity for programme and project management and actually elevate the importance of this skill by appointing dedicated project managers in some instances.

In terms of the skills development and training, SAMDI, the department in government charged with overall responsibility for capacity development, has an enormous role to play to ensure a more public service relevant and standardised approach to the topic at hand. Obviously the existence of SAMDI does not diminish the role of the higher education and continuing education sector to also play a role in a situation where there is clearly a need for such training and education.

However, training alone will not result in the optimum benefit gained for the public sector from the approach of project management. We obviously need to also take into consideration the procedures and systems, as well as the structuring of government, as well as the entire service delivery field to make sure that project management mechanisms that we introduce will be feasible and appropriate for the highly complex and qualitatively different contexts than those in which the private sector is operating in.

There are current moves afoot in government to develop a project mechanism that is appropriate for managing transversal projects in the public sector. Those are the projects that cut across traditional departmental divides. A task team comprising officials from the centre of government, these include the Presidency, DPSA, DPLG and National Treasury is currently reviewing experiences from cross-cutting programmes locally and internationally.

Work done to date indicates that the following elements should be included in the framework:
* Determination of the nature and extent of the cross cutting work required
* Determination of the mechanisms to be put in place to ensure joint championship and accountability for the programme
* Developing a partnering protocol for the programme
* Appoint a programme manager at an appropriate level
* Be clear about the role of the center of government and
* Transformational issues

Once completed, this framework will be an important instrument to guide the management of joint programmes in the public service. This framework is part and parcel of a bigger process where government needs to improve the way it implements projects.

In my mind, government needs to move closer to a more uniform government project methodology - rather than to leave it to individual and departmental whim to decide on methodology followed. There should be a "government's way" of doing - notwithstanding in which department or in which sphere of government an individual is employed or a project emanates from. I am forever cautious of straight imports from overseas, however, by way of analogy I am arguing for something similar that I see that features on the programme of this conference - the Prince2 methodology of the Office of Government Commerce in the UK. I wish I could have been present to listen to the paper from Zambia that reflects on the use of this particular methodology in the African context.

A South African public sector standardised methodology will ensure that project managers throughout government tackle projects with the same instruments and techniques. It will ensure that there is continuity whenever a change of project manager is experienced (and you believe me, the turn-over of those with very desirable and scarce skills in the public service is rapid). It will reduce the learning curve when personnel move between departments and even between spheres of government.

We also need to ensure that project management becomes integrated in our overall government and public service approach. It must become part of the organisational culture. A case in point being the very powerful means that the closure phase of project management offers to improve on our existing knowledge and learning management. In the public service we are notoriously weak on allowing adequate time to close projects and derive the necessary learning before we move on. We should also integrate project management with our performance management system.

The potential for entrenching project management deeper into the public sector is great. The potential for it to result in greater effectiveness, better service delivery for the people of this country and the rest of the continent is not in dispute. The challenge for us it to move from having that insight, to actually realising the full potential. I trust that this conference will make a significant contribution of allowing those public sector employees who are attending today to move from a situation where they realise the relevance and the potential, to one where we firmly institutionalise a project management across the South African public sector.

I wish you all the best with the deliberations of this conference.

Source: Department of Public Service and Administration (http://www.dpsa.gov.za)

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