Date: 27/05/2004
Source: Ministry of Public Service and Administration
Title: G Fraser-Moleketi: Parliamentary Media Briefing, May 2004
STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS IN BUILDING AND STRENGTHENING THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATE: STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION, MS GERALDINE J FRASER-MOLEKETI, MP, AT THE GCIS (GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION CLUSTER) PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING, Cape Town, 27 May 2004
Overview
In heeding the call of the President to speed up service delivery and ensure more effective implementation of national priorities, the Governance and Administration (G&A) cluster has implemented numerous interventions to address the needs of the developmental state. Our key priorities derive largely from the post-election Cabinet Lekgotla of May 2004 and the President's State of the Nation Address delivered on 21 May 2004. The G&A cluster is entrusted with improving the performance of the state, and our comprehensive programmes are underpinned by four strategic focus areas, namely,
1. Streamlining the systems and processes of the machinery of state to enable better alignment of resources and capability with national priorities
2. Integrating service delivery mechanisms and capacity to provide responsive, citizen-centred, service delivery machinery
3. Directly combating poor performance, corruption and institutional inefficiency
4. Contributing to governance improvements and capacity building beyond South Africa, within the context of NEPAD.
In line with the new five-year electoral mandate of making a reality of the People's Contract, the G&A cluster is leveraging the machinery of the state to redress past imbalances by pursuing strategic interventions that are aimed at alleviating poverty, enabling growth, reconstruction and development, developing capacity and strengthening the second economy in an effort to gradually integrate it with the first.
These interlinked strategic interventions include Community Development Workers, A Single Public Service, the Batho Pele Gateway project, Innovation for Improved Service Delivery and Capacity Building for the Public Sector. The overarching goal of all these strategic interventions is the attainment of the Batho Pele principles, an ethos that is being internalised by public servants and which is reflected through their resounding affirmation of 'We Belong, We Care and We Serve'. Taking a cue from the President's State of the Nation address, there is a paradigm shift from policy-making to implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Batho Pele
This year we will intensify the drive of the Batho Pele programme through a rigorous change engagement intervention and the roll out of compulsory induction programmes for all Public Servants.
This is an initiative aimed at building a stronger service delivery culture among all public servants. With this programme, government will work towards building a public service that is not undermined by a lack of commitment to Batho Pele seen in some public servants - absenteeism, late coming, poor treatment of our people and so forth. We will achieve this by promoting and recognising examples of effective public service delivery whilst also identifying poor performance with a view to correction and intervention.
Our intention is to reach every public servant and ensure that they embody these principles, which are critical to building a developmental state. Batho Pele cannot be owned by few and ignored by many.
The programme has started this month in the Eastern Cape province and will be extended to all other provinces and national departments by 2005. Efforts will be made to include service delivery institutions at local government level to ensure that every public servant enjoys the same understanding of the important value of service to the public.
On Community Development Workers and Other Learnership Programmes
Last week President Thabo Mbeki stated that 'The Department of Public Service and Administration will take the necessary action to ensure that Community Development Workers are deployed by the end of this calendar year, and that we need to increase the uptake of learners and improve the focus on the skills that are in short supply'.
The CDWs programme, announced in last year's Presidential State of the Nation Address, is indeed in its full implementation phase throughout the provinces. The G&A cluster deem it critically important to bridge the gap between the two economies through human resources development and capacity building programmes. The learnership approach was adopted to ensure the transfer of skills and knowledge, and to provide practical exposure that is required in order to attain a fully-fledged and qualified Community Development Worker. SAMDI is co-ordinating the training of CDWs and has been an active participant in the roll out of the Community Development Workers (CDWs) project.
On the CDWs programme alone, 495 learners have been enrolled into the learnership programme nationally. An additional intake of 745 learners will be enrolled by the end of July 2004. About 200 municipalities have been identified for the deployment of the learner CDWs. The G&A cluster commits itself to deploying over 1 200 CDWs to 200 municipalities before the end of the year.
The CDWs, together with other learnership programmes in the public service, will ensure that we build a resource pool of public sector employees from within that will ensure effective service delivery. An additional 3 102 interns are currently working in the pubic service.
A Single Public Service
The development of an integrated regulatory framework for all spheres of government and public entities forms part of a broader government modernisation programme.
The regulatory programme seeks to improve the alignment of relevant legislation, governance arrangements, planning and budgeting, accountability, performance management, remuneration and procurement policies in the different parts of the public sector, to improve service delivery and maximise the impact of interventions for development. The framework and subsequent legislative matters will be implemented during 2005.
The introduction of the integrated service delivery mechanisms such as Community Development Workers, the e-government gateway, and multi-purpose community centres (MPCCs) will go a long way in improving service delivery, but will require a greater flexibility in the way the structures of government currently operate. Therefore the work that has been started to create a single Public Service needs to be accelerated to remove the obstacles to integration and more effective performance. A unified Public Service will enable seamless service delivery.
On E-Government and Batho Pele Gateway
In his State of the Nation Address, President Thabo Mbeki stated that 'to improve public access to government services, within two months we will launch the Batho Pele Gateway portal, which will provide streamlined government services on-line.
The purpose of the Gateway portal is to create a single source of information on Government services organised according to citizen needs rather than the structures of government. The portal is available to citizens through www.gov.za. In addition citizens will be assisted by specially trained personnel in nine MPCCs selected for the first phase implementation of Gateway, and 55 points of access at postal facilities. There will be direct interface with the CDWs, to enable them to access information on government services to provide to the communities in which they will be working.
Gateway will help in reducing the disparity that exists between the empowered and the disempowered, the first and second economies. Gateway, which will be launched within two months, is but one critical intervention aimed at ensuring that ordinary citizens will be able to interact with government. Over the next year specific attention will be given to rapidly improving access to services through the use of technology and generally increasing the efficiency of core government systems. SITA plays an important role in the management of IT systems within the public service and we will ensure that the general return on investment on IT expenditure for both government departments and ultimately citizens is increased.
On Innovation For Improved Service Delivery
The G&A cluster, through structures such as the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), promotes the creation of a more flexible and yet accountable framework to ensure improved efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery. This will ensure improvement in the performance of the state. The reality is that in building a developmental state, the public service has to address a wide range of complex and difficult problems. We wish to build a culture within our public servants and across our communities that actively engages in seeking new and creative solutions to problems that directly impact on them. We also need to more actively support engagements between the public, private and non-profit sectors, in the interests of improved service delivery and general growth and development.
Early this year we launched the FutureWatch Report on Reducing Red Tape in government, entitled 'From Red Tape to Smart Tape' in an effort to stimulate thinking about new technologies, processes or approaches to critical issues that hamper effective service delivery. Arising out of this report we are challenging public servants to submit ideas on red tape reduction and the removal of unnecessary bureaucracy. Public service can still submit ideas until 31 July 2004, after which time the most creative and productive ideas will be selected for implementation. Members of the public can also submit their ideas for improvement to redtapetosmarttape@sita.co.za.
During 2004/05, government will strengthen its monitoring of performance of institutions to facilitate timely corrective interventions. In this regard, we will phase in an early warning system (EWS) on service delivery. The purpose of the system will be to provide early signals on areas of service delivery that face the risk of being compromised. The system will enable managers to make informed, planned and timely interventions before service delivery collapses.
The roll-out and enhanced usage of CabEnet will provide an additional effective tool for monitoring and evaluation.
On Building Capacity In Government's Service Delivery Machinery
The G&A cluster promote the capability of the Developmental State through human and institutional development, namely, the Public Sector HRD Strategy, for which SAMDI is a critical driver. SAMDI has developed and offers programmes that are geared towards the development and sharpening of competencies among the public service employees. Inherent to the concept of a Developmental State is the need for a public sector that is populated by individuals whose norms, values, attitudes and orientations are consistent with the objectives of the developmental state. It is within this backdrop that in addition to the focus on technical skills, our HRD strategy focuses on the holistic development of the public service employees.
In the spirit of supporting innovation in government, SAMDI and CPSI will launch an Executive Development Programme in Innovation Management in the next two months. The programme will equip a cadre of managers who will understand and support innovation and build a problem-solving and creative culture in government.
On Fight Against Corruption South Africa is ranked amongst the strongest and more established democracies with regards to fighting corruption. Only last month, the highly regarded USA-based Centre for Public Integrity released an exhaustive study on the strength of our integrity framework and, generally, found us to be strong on those integrity mechanisms that fight corruption. In this regard, our anti-corruption mechanisms were favourably compared to those of the USA, Australia, Italy, Portugal and Germany. This is testimony to the success of anti-corruption measures that are aimed at preventing, detecting and punishing corruption by government which are built on strong participation from, and collaboration with, civil society, business, labour and the international community.
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy and the setting up of National Anti-Corruption Forum demonstrate government's commitment to fight corruption and improve efficiency and service delivery. The successful IMTT intervention in the Eastern Cape reflects a government that is combating poor performance, corruption and institutional inefficiency.
We will now focus on the outstanding implementation requirements of the Public Service Anti-Corruption Strategy and meeting our regional and international anti-corruption obligations.
On Immigration Regulations
At its meeting of 4 February 2004, Cabinet established a committee of Ministers to consider proposals and inputs aimed at finalising the regulations for the Immigration Act. The Committee of Ministers included the Home Affairs Minister, as the Convenor, Ministers of Education, Trade and Industry, Safety and Security, Public Service and Administration, Foreign Affairs and Justice and Constitutional Development. The Committee has agreed to finalise the process by the end of August 2004, in line with President's directive.
On NEPAD
The G&A cluster is aware that regional and continental development is critical to South Africa's success, and that we need to support and enable governance and public sector improvements in Africa. Through NEPAD Governance and Public Administration programme, our anti-corruption work and direct support interventions such as that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a number of practical programmes are underway across the continent. Partnerships have been forged between African governments, public administration organisations and research institutes, which aim to collectively build good governance practice, and directly address poverty.
People's Contract
The G&A cluster will implement strategic interventions in the national, provincial and local spheres of government when needed, in so doing, make a direct contribution to the improvement of governance and service delivery. Izimbizos, CDWs, Letsemas, Gateway and MPCCs are all strategic interventions to bring the government closer to the people and to ensure effective service delivery. A healthier and more vibrant engagement between government and communities in issues of policy and service delivery will ensure that problematic areas receive urgent attention. The implementation of these G&A cluster priority programmes and better performance by the state will make the People's Contract a reality.
For More Information Contact: Madoda Mxakwe
Tel: (012) 314 7231
Cell: 082 462 7771
Issued by: Ministry of Public Service and Administration
27 May 2004
Source: Ministry of Public Service and Administration
Title: G Fraser-Moleketi: Parliamentary Media Briefing, May 2004
STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS IN BUILDING AND STRENGTHENING THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATE: STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION, MS GERALDINE J FRASER-MOLEKETI, MP, AT THE GCIS (GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION CLUSTER) PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING, Cape Town, 27 May 2004
Overview
In heeding the call of the President to speed up service delivery and ensure more effective implementation of national priorities, the Governance and Administration (G&A) cluster has implemented numerous interventions to address the needs of the developmental state. Our key priorities derive largely from the post-election Cabinet Lekgotla of May 2004 and the President's State of the Nation Address delivered on 21 May 2004. The G&A cluster is entrusted with improving the performance of the state, and our comprehensive programmes are underpinned by four strategic focus areas, namely,
1. Streamlining the systems and processes of the machinery of state to enable better alignment of resources and capability with national priorities
2. Integrating service delivery mechanisms and capacity to provide responsive, citizen-centred, service delivery machinery
3. Directly combating poor performance, corruption and institutional inefficiency
4. Contributing to governance improvements and capacity building beyond South Africa, within the context of NEPAD.
In line with the new five-year electoral mandate of making a reality of the People's Contract, the G&A cluster is leveraging the machinery of the state to redress past imbalances by pursuing strategic interventions that are aimed at alleviating poverty, enabling growth, reconstruction and development, developing capacity and strengthening the second economy in an effort to gradually integrate it with the first.
These interlinked strategic interventions include Community Development Workers, A Single Public Service, the Batho Pele Gateway project, Innovation for Improved Service Delivery and Capacity Building for the Public Sector. The overarching goal of all these strategic interventions is the attainment of the Batho Pele principles, an ethos that is being internalised by public servants and which is reflected through their resounding affirmation of 'We Belong, We Care and We Serve'. Taking a cue from the President's State of the Nation address, there is a paradigm shift from policy-making to implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Batho Pele
This year we will intensify the drive of the Batho Pele programme through a rigorous change engagement intervention and the roll out of compulsory induction programmes for all Public Servants.
This is an initiative aimed at building a stronger service delivery culture among all public servants. With this programme, government will work towards building a public service that is not undermined by a lack of commitment to Batho Pele seen in some public servants - absenteeism, late coming, poor treatment of our people and so forth. We will achieve this by promoting and recognising examples of effective public service delivery whilst also identifying poor performance with a view to correction and intervention.
Our intention is to reach every public servant and ensure that they embody these principles, which are critical to building a developmental state. Batho Pele cannot be owned by few and ignored by many.
The programme has started this month in the Eastern Cape province and will be extended to all other provinces and national departments by 2005. Efforts will be made to include service delivery institutions at local government level to ensure that every public servant enjoys the same understanding of the important value of service to the public.
On Community Development Workers and Other Learnership Programmes
Last week President Thabo Mbeki stated that 'The Department of Public Service and Administration will take the necessary action to ensure that Community Development Workers are deployed by the end of this calendar year, and that we need to increase the uptake of learners and improve the focus on the skills that are in short supply'.
The CDWs programme, announced in last year's Presidential State of the Nation Address, is indeed in its full implementation phase throughout the provinces. The G&A cluster deem it critically important to bridge the gap between the two economies through human resources development and capacity building programmes. The learnership approach was adopted to ensure the transfer of skills and knowledge, and to provide practical exposure that is required in order to attain a fully-fledged and qualified Community Development Worker. SAMDI is co-ordinating the training of CDWs and has been an active participant in the roll out of the Community Development Workers (CDWs) project.
On the CDWs programme alone, 495 learners have been enrolled into the learnership programme nationally. An additional intake of 745 learners will be enrolled by the end of July 2004. About 200 municipalities have been identified for the deployment of the learner CDWs. The G&A cluster commits itself to deploying over 1 200 CDWs to 200 municipalities before the end of the year.
The CDWs, together with other learnership programmes in the public service, will ensure that we build a resource pool of public sector employees from within that will ensure effective service delivery. An additional 3 102 interns are currently working in the pubic service.
A Single Public Service
The development of an integrated regulatory framework for all spheres of government and public entities forms part of a broader government modernisation programme.
The regulatory programme seeks to improve the alignment of relevant legislation, governance arrangements, planning and budgeting, accountability, performance management, remuneration and procurement policies in the different parts of the public sector, to improve service delivery and maximise the impact of interventions for development. The framework and subsequent legislative matters will be implemented during 2005.
The introduction of the integrated service delivery mechanisms such as Community Development Workers, the e-government gateway, and multi-purpose community centres (MPCCs) will go a long way in improving service delivery, but will require a greater flexibility in the way the structures of government currently operate. Therefore the work that has been started to create a single Public Service needs to be accelerated to remove the obstacles to integration and more effective performance. A unified Public Service will enable seamless service delivery.
On E-Government and Batho Pele Gateway
In his State of the Nation Address, President Thabo Mbeki stated that 'to improve public access to government services, within two months we will launch the Batho Pele Gateway portal, which will provide streamlined government services on-line.
The purpose of the Gateway portal is to create a single source of information on Government services organised according to citizen needs rather than the structures of government. The portal is available to citizens through www.gov.za. In addition citizens will be assisted by specially trained personnel in nine MPCCs selected for the first phase implementation of Gateway, and 55 points of access at postal facilities. There will be direct interface with the CDWs, to enable them to access information on government services to provide to the communities in which they will be working.
Gateway will help in reducing the disparity that exists between the empowered and the disempowered, the first and second economies. Gateway, which will be launched within two months, is but one critical intervention aimed at ensuring that ordinary citizens will be able to interact with government. Over the next year specific attention will be given to rapidly improving access to services through the use of technology and generally increasing the efficiency of core government systems. SITA plays an important role in the management of IT systems within the public service and we will ensure that the general return on investment on IT expenditure for both government departments and ultimately citizens is increased.
On Innovation For Improved Service Delivery
The G&A cluster, through structures such as the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), promotes the creation of a more flexible and yet accountable framework to ensure improved efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery. This will ensure improvement in the performance of the state. The reality is that in building a developmental state, the public service has to address a wide range of complex and difficult problems. We wish to build a culture within our public servants and across our communities that actively engages in seeking new and creative solutions to problems that directly impact on them. We also need to more actively support engagements between the public, private and non-profit sectors, in the interests of improved service delivery and general growth and development.
Early this year we launched the FutureWatch Report on Reducing Red Tape in government, entitled 'From Red Tape to Smart Tape' in an effort to stimulate thinking about new technologies, processes or approaches to critical issues that hamper effective service delivery. Arising out of this report we are challenging public servants to submit ideas on red tape reduction and the removal of unnecessary bureaucracy. Public service can still submit ideas until 31 July 2004, after which time the most creative and productive ideas will be selected for implementation. Members of the public can also submit their ideas for improvement to redtapetosmarttape@sita.co.za.
During 2004/05, government will strengthen its monitoring of performance of institutions to facilitate timely corrective interventions. In this regard, we will phase in an early warning system (EWS) on service delivery. The purpose of the system will be to provide early signals on areas of service delivery that face the risk of being compromised. The system will enable managers to make informed, planned and timely interventions before service delivery collapses.
The roll-out and enhanced usage of CabEnet will provide an additional effective tool for monitoring and evaluation.
On Building Capacity In Government's Service Delivery Machinery
The G&A cluster promote the capability of the Developmental State through human and institutional development, namely, the Public Sector HRD Strategy, for which SAMDI is a critical driver. SAMDI has developed and offers programmes that are geared towards the development and sharpening of competencies among the public service employees. Inherent to the concept of a Developmental State is the need for a public sector that is populated by individuals whose norms, values, attitudes and orientations are consistent with the objectives of the developmental state. It is within this backdrop that in addition to the focus on technical skills, our HRD strategy focuses on the holistic development of the public service employees.
In the spirit of supporting innovation in government, SAMDI and CPSI will launch an Executive Development Programme in Innovation Management in the next two months. The programme will equip a cadre of managers who will understand and support innovation and build a problem-solving and creative culture in government.
On Fight Against Corruption South Africa is ranked amongst the strongest and more established democracies with regards to fighting corruption. Only last month, the highly regarded USA-based Centre for Public Integrity released an exhaustive study on the strength of our integrity framework and, generally, found us to be strong on those integrity mechanisms that fight corruption. In this regard, our anti-corruption mechanisms were favourably compared to those of the USA, Australia, Italy, Portugal and Germany. This is testimony to the success of anti-corruption measures that are aimed at preventing, detecting and punishing corruption by government which are built on strong participation from, and collaboration with, civil society, business, labour and the international community.
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy and the setting up of National Anti-Corruption Forum demonstrate government's commitment to fight corruption and improve efficiency and service delivery. The successful IMTT intervention in the Eastern Cape reflects a government that is combating poor performance, corruption and institutional inefficiency.
We will now focus on the outstanding implementation requirements of the Public Service Anti-Corruption Strategy and meeting our regional and international anti-corruption obligations.
On Immigration Regulations
At its meeting of 4 February 2004, Cabinet established a committee of Ministers to consider proposals and inputs aimed at finalising the regulations for the Immigration Act. The Committee of Ministers included the Home Affairs Minister, as the Convenor, Ministers of Education, Trade and Industry, Safety and Security, Public Service and Administration, Foreign Affairs and Justice and Constitutional Development. The Committee has agreed to finalise the process by the end of August 2004, in line with President's directive.
On NEPAD
The G&A cluster is aware that regional and continental development is critical to South Africa's success, and that we need to support and enable governance and public sector improvements in Africa. Through NEPAD Governance and Public Administration programme, our anti-corruption work and direct support interventions such as that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a number of practical programmes are underway across the continent. Partnerships have been forged between African governments, public administration organisations and research institutes, which aim to collectively build good governance practice, and directly address poverty.
People's Contract
The G&A cluster will implement strategic interventions in the national, provincial and local spheres of government when needed, in so doing, make a direct contribution to the improvement of governance and service delivery. Izimbizos, CDWs, Letsemas, Gateway and MPCCs are all strategic interventions to bring the government closer to the people and to ensure effective service delivery. A healthier and more vibrant engagement between government and communities in issues of policy and service delivery will ensure that problematic areas receive urgent attention. The implementation of these G&A cluster priority programmes and better performance by the state will make the People's Contract a reality.
For More Information Contact: Madoda Mxakwe
Tel: (012) 314 7231
Cell: 082 462 7771
Issued by: Ministry of Public Service and Administration
27 May 2004
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