Date: 13/03/2007

Source: Free State Provincial Government

Title: Marshoff: Free State Premier's Office Prov Budget Vote 2007/08

Budget address by Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff on tabling of the Budget of the Premier's Office in the Free State Provincial Legislature, Bloemfontein

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Colleagues in the Executive Council
Members of the National Assembly
Permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces
Honourable members of the Free State Legislative House
Distinguished leaders of political parties
Marena, Dikgosi le Mafumahadi
Honourable mayors and councillors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Honourable Speaker

It is with pride and a great sense of purpose that I stand in this House and deliver this address. It is an important occasion to reflect on the role of the department of the Premier within the context of the provincial government. In order to grasp the role of this department, it is important to remind the House once more that its vision is "Leading the Free State province towards service excellence." The mission is "To provide strategic direction and co-ordinated integrated service delivery within government in the Free State."

The fundamental law of the country namely the constitution together with the Public Service Act of 1994 provide the legal basis for the existence of the Office. The role of providing strategic direction and co-ordination is further accentuated by the mandate of government for the period 2004 to 2009. The Free State Growth and Development Strategy give provincial expression of this national mandate.

Honourable Speaker, when we addressed this house last year on the occasion of our budget vote, we committed ourselves to strengthen government's ways of working in order to be more effective and efficient in our service delivery and transformation mandate. Inspired by the conclusion of the re-organisation of the department from the historical 14 to now only three programmes, we set out to pursue our three strategic objectives in a much more co-ordinated and systematic manner.

The provincial government has just concluded the process of mid-term review. This process enables the provincial government to take stock of progress made with regard to integrated service delivery. This process, informed us that the cluster approach is indeed the most effective and efficient institutional arrangement of co-ordinating, planning, integration and management of the Provincial Government's Programme of Action.

Honourable Speaker, although the mid-term review provides evidence of the positive mood that prevails in the Free State and further provides witness account to the African Peer Review Mechanism Report which states, among others, that the majority of the people in the province view this government in a positive light. The Provincial Government refused to be lulled into complacency and a spirit of premature victory over poverty and squalor.

This confidence by our people only serves to make us more determined in our fight against poverty. We are, however, the first to admit that a lot still has to be done to streamline the delivery machinery of government and we shall waste no time in doing what is necessary.

The Free State Growth and Development Strategy

The conclusion of the Mid-Term Review has to a great extent coincided with the finalisation of the review of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy. This review was about deepening and sharpening its perspective.

The most important aspect of this work was to relate much more closely to all aspects of the existence of the people of this province. The National Spatial Development Perspective with its provincial implications gives further importance to this document.

The coming together of the Mid-Term Review and the finalisation of the revised Free State Growth and Development Strategy signify two aspects of our work, namely: where we are with regard to fulfilling the mandate of government and the strategies we need to employ in order to meet such a mandate.

Mr Speaker, the finalisation of the review of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy implores us to focus on the implementation of the Programme of Action of government and to further improve the capacity to do so. Although the Statistics South Africa survey indicates to us that we are well on course and that significant changes have occurred in the lives of the majority of the people.

The most strategic questions that we constantly ask ourselves as we continue to reflect on our mandate are:

* How best can the Office of the Premier co-ordinate social and economic efforts in order to meet government targets of service delivery?
* What levels of both public and private investment are needed to improve the quality of life?
* What level of outcome and impact should be expected of all government programmes?
* What quantity and quality changes should be anticipated by the people of the Free State from all sectors of the economy?
* What are the most applicable instruments of measurement that can be utilised to track service delivery and its impact?

Honourable Speaker, although we pose these as questions, in essence they define our role and responsibility as the Office of the Premier to provide overall strategic leadership over the rest of government.

The monitoring and evaluation system that is established, although very useful, is regarded as a first step towards a more comprehensive system of tracking development and measurement of progress.

A more comprehensive tool of measuring the social and economic impact of public and private investment is still necessary and we are currently looking at our monitoring and evaluation tools to fulfil this important function. We need to create capacity to measure the types of impact like employment, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), effect of low-income groups and so on. This information will guide us with regard to areas of policy emphasis and shifts where necessary within the context of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy.

Mr Speaker, such is the context of providing strategic direction and co-ordination and that role will be meaningless without greater determination by government to double many folds, its effort to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the people of the Free State province.

The co-ordination role is intended to cover the strategic importance of co-operation between government and the private sector. Let there be an environment where public and private sector are bound tighter by the commonly shared objectives of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy.

Let there be more information sharing between these sectors regarding the following:
* the levels of investment projected for each sector of provincial economy
* detail of output and outcome of such investment
* its link or relation to Free State Growth and Development Strategy
* anticipated barriers and bottlenecks which both government and its social partners can deal with
* the extent to which Vision 2014 inspires the Corporate Social Investment.

There is an urgent need to create a platform where these and other issues relating to growing the economy and meeting social needs are discussed in detail and this is necessary for all the sectors of the economy.

Honourable Speaker, it is my firm view that these strategic priorities together with the need for a continuous improvement in the effectiveness of governance and administration, motivated our Provincial Treasury to increase our budget by 13% from R91 million to R103 million in this financial year.

I now wish to give a brief analysis of progress with regard each programme and the allocations for each of them in the new financial year.

Administration

An amount of R27 041 million has been allocated for this programme in the new financial year. This figure represents 26% of our total allocation. This programme ensures that both the Premier and the Executive Council are effectively supported in achieving government's goals and objectives.

Over the years, the Office of the Premier has improved in the manner in which it interacts with the other government structures, the general public and the international world. This could be ascribed to the success and improvement of the administrative support provided to various systems. The department intends strengthening the Chief of Staff by engaging this important functionary in good governance practices.

The Secretariat service has been instrumental in developing and improving the ways of working of the Free State Provincial Government's Cabinet system. The department will strengthen the accountability system in the area by encouraging the introduction of a central procurement management in the financial services through the implementation of Supply Chain Management services.

There has been a marked improvement in the Office of the Director-General over the years. Given the various responsibilities of the Director-General, an effort will be made to continue the improvement in the turnaround time of various documents and information to the other units and the entire provincial government.

The Institutional Enhancement Sub-directorate was only established in the 2006/07 financial year and is envisaged to improve the image of the Provincial Government as well as dealing with customer care and Batho Pele related issues. The Security Advisory Management Services has provided a good foundation in the coordination of security matters in the province particularly with regard to the follow-ups and the implementation of a central hotline system in the Republic of South Africa. However, more needs to be done in the area of the implementation of anti-corruption and Fraud Prevention in the province.

The Internal Audit unit and Audit Committee are relatively new in the department but they already have offered invaluable support to the Accounting Officer on Auditing functions of the department.

The department has shown great improvement over the years in its financial management and it is continually striving to build more capacity. Furthermore, the department continues to pay more attention to the implementation of the Asset Management Strategy. Testimony to this improvement is the fact that the Office of the Premier has received unqualified audit opinions in the last two consecutive years.

Corporate support

We have allocated R34 682 million to this programme. This figure constitutes 34% of our total budget.

This programme focuses on corporate support and ensures that the Office of the Premier strategically guides and co-ordinates all provincial departments with regard to transversal corporate support functions.

The Programme has succeeded in laying the foundation to ensure the optimal functioning and utilisation of human resources in the Free State Provincial Government through the reconfiguration of the Free State Training and Development Institute (FSTDI) and the finalisation of Human Resources Development and Management Strategy. We will come back to this point later.

The co-ordination of the grading of jobs and its ways of working in the Free State Provincial Government has been improved through the configuration of Job Evaluation Committee now chaired by the Director-General. The co-ordination of human resource matters has also improved through the revival of the inter-departmental Human Resource Forum and the maintenance and administration of human resource matters.

The Legal Services minimised the risk and exposure of government to claims significantly and contributed to legally sound decisions making to the extent that court challenges were limited to the absolute minimum.

In general, given the nature of the functions of the programme and its dependence on co-operation from role players, activities relating to co-ordination were not effective enough.

Logistically, constraints are being experienced in the Information Technology Directorate. Co-ordination of transversal issues will be improved through a rigorous approach to obtain buy-in and ownership of the role players involved and the structured management of the various co-ordination forums. The sharing of information in a structured approach will also assist.

The logical problems at the FSTDI are being addressed through interaction with the landlord and good progress has been made. An investigation is currently underway into the configuration of the Information Technology Directorate to meet the latest development in the field of information technology, to establish sufficient capacity and to ensure that the activities of the Free State Government are optimalised through the application of the latest and most appropriate information technology.

Policy and governance

A total amount of R39 393 million has been allocated to this programme and this figure represents about 40% of our budget. This programme is responsible for the alignment and integration of activities of municipalities and departments towards the achievements of the Growth and Development Strategy.
Over and above progress that is reported on the subsequent sub programmes, the following highlights of the programme can be mentioned amongst others. This programme managed to fulfil its mandate successfully particularly with regard to improving our reach to communities through Multi-Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs).

The establishment of the first and the second generation MPCCs made this possible. The programme will still continue to improve services at MPCCs and begin with evaluating the impact that the MPCCs are having on communities that are being served.

The filling of the post of Chief Director

Governance programme co-ordination has strengthened the ability of the department to do its co-ordination role particularly on Project Consolidate, Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme, Urban Renewal Programme, the Extended Public Works Programme and the five-year local government strategic agenda.

The Programme also facilitated the revision of decision-making structures so as to improve intergovernmental relations and promote good governance. Provincial Clusters have been aligned to the national cluster system. These clusters are also being cascaded to district municipalities (with membership of Local municipality) to ensure and facilitate information sharing across the various spheres as well as implementation of government programmes and we hope to conclude this programme by April this year.

In addition, the Forum of Heads of Departments (FOHOD) has been extended to include all municipal managers with the purpose of ensuring information flow and improving co-operative governance.

The Cluster Programmes of Action have been incorporated on the e-Monitoring and Evaluation System and is being monitored on a monthly basis. The programme intends on drastically improving quarterly reporting to enable improved Annual Reviews. The programme will continually guide programme managers and sub programme managers to report in line with planned inputs. In addition, the programme will ensure total reconciliation of the plan with the budget by ensuring that the budget inputs are closely linked to the service delivery targets.

During the 2007/08 financial year the programme will convene quarterly reporting presentation sessions by various programme managers and critically look at all sub programme reports and advice accordingly.

The electronic monitoring and evaluation system is being realigned with the reviews of FSGDS. The department has started training as many users as possible to enable reporting electronically and avoid having to track reports manually as it is currently being done. This is particularly for reporting on FSGDS, provincial and national programmes of action.

Local Government or Intergovernmental Relations (IGR)

Last year we welcomed the Inter-Governmental Relations framework Act, and congratulate the IEC for the job well done in conducting the local government elections. I further emphasised the way these elections strengthened popular participatory character of our democracy. The question that is currently facing us is how best can we utilise and support this sphere of government to further strengthen the resolve of government as a whole to deliver as one.

The IGR act has enabled greater process of co-ordination. The bodies this act establishes like the Premier's Co-ordinating Forum should be seized more with integration of development strategies and monitoring of implementation. We need to do more in this regard than we have done in the past.

The involvement of the Premier's Office in the Integrated Development Plan process of the municipalities remains one of the shining examples of such co-operation. Our confidence continues to rise in relation to credibility of the Integrated and Development Plans (IDPs). The experience of working together of these spheres of government, becomes more important when we work together to develop the District Growth and Development Strategies.

We are gearing ourselves to make sure that the knowledge and experienced gained in developing the Free State Growth and Development Strategy enriches the District processes.

Our expectation is that such a process cannot but deepen our common resolve to assault poverty and joblessness. Our experience Mr Speaker is that the Cluster system is the most efficient and effective way of integrating government programmes for greater development impact as we have already stated. The sooner this system is extended to District municipalities, the more common the systems of delivery of government can become between spheres.

Evidence at our disposal indicates that the cluster system has ensured that we are more effective and efficient in:

* effective co-ordination and integration of cross cutting strategic provincial priorities
* implementation of projects and special focus programmes emanating from the alignment of the FSGDS, IDPs of municipalities and cross cutting initiatives in support of national initiatives such as Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA), Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) and the National Spatial Development Perspective
* effective redress of barriers and challenges in supporting lead departments in co-ordinating Province wide projects
* implementation of effective evaluation, strategic support and monitoring in respect of the implementation, impact assessment and sustainability of key projects implemented in the province by provincial departments, municipalities, state owned enterprises, public entities and national departments operating in the province as well as key private sector and role players operating in the province.

The Five Year Strategic Local Government Agenda identifies three strategic priorities. Firstly, mainstreaming hands on support to local government to improve municipal governance, performance and accountability. Secondly, addressing the structure and governance arrangements of the state in order to better strengthen, support and monitor local government. Lastly, refining and strengthening the policy, regulatory and fiscal environment for local government and giving greater attention to the enforcement measures.

These strategic priorities place an additional responsibility on the department to provide leadership, support and co-ordination. The Premier's Co-ordinating Forum will continue to focus on these priorities and to consolidate the progress we are making; community mobilisation, social cohesion and solidarity.

The provincial government has once again demonstrated that it possesses strategic capacity to build social cohesion and solidarity, as well as to entrench a people centred and people driven approach. A community mobilisation programme was then unfolded which sought to lead the rest of society in the pursuit of a common vision of a better life for all.

The Executive Council (ExCo) meets-the-people campaign took forward our message of a national partnership to build a better life for all. Through this campaign we touched each and every municipality in the Free State and strengthened our inter-governmental perspective. It continues to be a platform for direct interaction with communities. Four key areas of interaction are the following:

* governance and administration
* social and human development
* economic and job creation
* safety and security.

It can be expected that this year, there will be changes in the format of these interactions. The aim is to enrich the purpose of these interactions and strengthen area of weakness identified. A new programme for the year will commence in May.

It was indeed these interactions that revealed to us the positive mood that prevails in the Free State community. Although the development needs remain huge, there is great sense of confidence in the ability of government to deliver on them.

We had an opportunity as the provincial government to welcome both the President and the Deputy President on the Presidential Izimbizo held in Thabo Mofutsanyana in April and Xhariep in December respectively. We also took part in the Imbizo focus weeks of April and October. The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) also visited our province where they spent a week in the Fezile Dabi district. All of these mass outreach programmes gave a voice to those who would not necessarily have the opportunity to interact with their elected representatives on a personal level.
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Special programmes

We managed to collect data on all policies regarding special programmes and created a required database. We also drafted a provincial gender policy in line with the national gender framework. We established a district disability forum in Thabo Mofutsanyana district and are currently in discussions with all districts to roll out the establishment and strengthening of HIV and AIDS, disability desk, children's rights unit and gender forums in all the district municipalities.

Soon this year, we will be launching the Free State Provincial Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Implementation Strategy (GEWEIS). The GEWEIS sets short, medium and long-term objectives, which are to be fulfilled by the provincial government and its line-function departments.

The province of the Free State has been identified by national Government to be the host for the launch of the 16 Days of Activism against Women and Child Abuse. We welcome this honour and look forward to perform our national duty in this regard. It can be deduced that the manner in which we continue to feature on national agenda regarding gender issues can only give us a sense of pride in abilities to host such events, warmth and hospitality.

The youth programme will be given even more attention this year. More capacity will be developed for this programme in line with the resolutions of the conference of the Youth Commission last year. There is great need to scale up the youth programme and give it more content and width.

We welcome the new HIV and AIDS Strategy announced by the national Minister of Health as a creative and determined plan to reduce the levels of infections. The target group of 18 to 24 remains strategic in the fight against the pandemic.

The Policy Unit together with the provincial Department of Health will be working together to effect the necessary policy implications of this strategy.
The disability sector

The department of the Premier will continue to pay special attention on the people living with disability to ensure that they are fully integrated within the mainstream of society. We will this year, endeavour to improve the content of this programme, starting with assessment regarding employment figures by government.

Indications currently are that the Office of the Premier has a higher percentage of people living with disability as compared to other departments. Mr Speaker, I have singled out employment as one indicator among many, the reason for this is that social and economic inclusion largely depends on disposable income that one has.

I would like to once more challenge the private sector as creators of jobs and employment opportunities to pay special attention to these and other vulnerable people in our society. Let us continue to build a caring society that is inclusive.

Excellence awards

Once more this year, Premier's Award ceremonies will be held to recognise special efforts by the people of the province, in various categories. A point needs to be made that we have thousands of unsung and uncelebrated heroes and heroines.

I have in mind those individuals within our communities, in their small but profound ways, sometimes in public but mostly in their private homes, struggling against all odds but continue to live and let live. We salute those achievers and confirm that their efforts are not in vain. Their time will also come when they will be elevated to the pedestal of life itself.

International relations

One of the major achievements of our co-ordination responsibilities has been the manner in which international trips have been managed; whereas in the past these trips were undertaken without due regard to the investment philosophy as articulated in our Growth and Development Strategy. We now have all of these trips arranged in accordance with guidelines determined by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

There is now better co-ordination between municipalities, the provincial government and the Department of Foreign Affairs resulting in improved monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes of such missions.

AsgiSA and JIPSA

Cognisant of the challenges of co-ordinating the implementation of the AsgiSA initiative in our province, a unit has been established to deal with the co-ordination and implementation of these programmes; whereas the national AsgiSA framework identifies two projects for the province versus the Harrismith Logistics Hub and the Bio-Fuel initiative. We will use the economic opportunities unleashed through the AsgiSA initiative to unlock some of our own economic growth sectors and focus on their development.

We have finalised an implementation plan for both AsgiSA and JIPSA and we intend to launch both at the beginning of the new financial year.

Premier's special projects

I am glad to bring to the attention of the house an update of our continuing programme of supporting micro enterprises in poor communities. So small are these businesses that they deserve a special attention. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Flemish Government for their generous contribution in supporting the Business Centres. I would like to assure the people of Belgium that the level at which they have targeted this support, is the level at which it is mostly needed. This is a special intervention by my department in order to chart the way towards well targeted service delivery.

The business centres will be providing the following services:

* basic non-financial business advice and information
* provide active, continuous training and mentoring to micro businesses on entrepreneurial, technical and generic skills
* assist small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) with market information and, where necessary, assist in organisational development
* tendering advice
* placement of individuals
* training soft and technical skills and innovation and technology
* assistance with job placement and mediation
* research and development on the level of social development.

May we all of us put our shoulder to the wheel in order to achieve more out of this humble effort.

Human Resource Development

Last year, Mr Speaker, I announced a human resources strategy process aimed at assessing current government human resources regulations and management issues. That study has been completed. Currently human resources practitioners are working on a programme and timeframes to address areas of weakness and those that need special attention.

We will continue to look at the public service environment in order to ensure that we retain skilled personnel and those who deliver quality and efficient service. Employee wellness, motivation and skilling remain our priority.

The Free State Training and Development Institute, as we stated earlier, has been restructured to enable it to:
* ensure the effective and efficient provision of transverse human resource training and development services in the Free State Provincial Government and to create a culture of life-long learning
* establish and monitor the implementation of human resource training and development partnerships
* co-ordinate skills base within the Free State Provincial Government in line with the prescripts of the National Skills Development act of 1998.

During the first three quarters of the 2006/07 financial year, a total of 774 officials were trained on the variety of courses targeting executive and other management levels.

The Free State Society for Public Administration and Governance, which we launched last year, will provide a necessary platform for all our public servants to engage on policy and other strategic discussions and it will further unlock professional development opportunities locally and abroad.

Honourable Speaker, we have raised the need to build enough capacity within the department so that our role of strategic leadership provision is executed with distinction. It is for this reason that we established two new units, which elevate our programme coordination and stakeholder management to new heights.

These are the Government Programme Co-ordination unit and the Community Liaison Unit. Both units will be instrumental in creating additional capacity and mobility with regard to the interface with civil society.

We will also in the new financial year improve on the capacity of the policy unit particularly research, monitoring and evaluation. The implementation of the five-year strategic agenda for local government, plus the responsibility of meeting national targets such as the bucket eradication, free basic services, housing etc, requires of the department to play a leading co-ordination role.

This additional capacity will furthermore ensure that effective oversight and monitoring occurs to evaluate the impact of services rendered on the lives of the citizens of the Free State.

Honourable Speaker and members of the house, we stand today at the halfway mark of our mandated period. We are greatly inspired by the strides we have made and are confident that moving forward, we can only improve on our people's contract to create jobs and fight poverty.

We recall the resolve of the people of the Free State to work together with our government to fulfil the 2004 mandate. We renew our pledge towards a national partnership of building a better life for all. We will use all our collective energies to mobilise all our social partners and our communities to work together with us as we leave behind us a legacy of:

* strong partnerships and unity
* an accelerated advance towards a better life for all
* a growing economy that benefits all
* better service to the public and participation for development
* safety and security for communities and citizens and
* a caring society.

Honourable Speaker, the time to act is now!

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Free State Provincial Government
13 March 2007