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Date : 15/11/2006
Source: Department of Labour
Title: Mkosana: Labour road shows


Address by the Department of Labour Director-General (DG) Dr Vanguard Mkosana during the culmination of his road-shows

Introduction of the road shows

Ladies and gentlemen,
Fellow staff members of the Department of Labour,

We, as the Department of Labour have learned from our own experience that our most important asset is you the staff of the Department of Labour, the people who make the Department of Labour what it is. Equally so we have learned that we give better leadership when our decisions are informed by the views of the staff and the people we serve. Those of us who are based at the labour centres have the coal face experience in dealing with our clients more than those who are based at Head Office.

Your day to day shoulder rubbing with the members of the public makes you the right people to sensitise management on how best to service our clients. On the other hand we, who are based at Head Office, are more exposed to matters of development of policy and strategies whose implementation is carried out by you locally. This makes it imperative that interaction between the two sites be maintained.

In line with this we have taken a decision that all Senior Managers of Department of Labour from Directors, Chief Directors, Deputy Directors-General (DDGs) up to DG should conduct road shows from 15 to 30 November 2006. These road shows will cover all Department of Labour centres, provincial offices, Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), Compensation Fund and Department of Labour Head Office.

During the said road shows the managers throughout the country will communicate some of the new policy initiatives and solicit views of the staff. They will also use this opportunity to have first hand experience of the work away from their usual workplaces.

Among issues to be addressed during the road shows are:

Integrated Business Strategy (IBS) decentralisation

So much has been said about IBS. We are here to talk about IBS as a strategy to bring services of the Department of Labour closer to clients. IBS is about decentralisation of functions and delegation of authority to service delivery points. This will ensure quick decision making and improve service delivery. It is important to state that there will be nobody who will lose their jobs as a result of IBS.

Department of Labour resources, both human and monetary, will be deployed such that they strengthen the labour centres as Department of Labour delivery points. Capacity building will be prioritised to enable meaningful delegation of authority. A project of this magnitude cannot be implemented at once hence the decision to adopt a phased approach, starting with quick wins this financial year.

Management of Department of Labour resources

The Accounting Officer has a duty to ensure that departmental resources are secured and well managed. We have put in place an Internal Audit (IA) outfit, which we think is functioning well in identifying areas of weakness. However, the staff of the department is slow to effect corrective measures as recommended by IA. Some of the issues are picked up by the Auditor-General (AG) and when no suitable answers are forwarded the AG reaches conclusions, which may be negative. The Department of Labour got a qualified report, the same as the Compensation Fund, and National Skills Fund; while Sheltered Employment Factories got a disclaimer. This is not good for the name of our department.

As one of the measures to change this we have established a project team dedicated to cleaning up audit queries organisation-wide. Whatever we may try as long as the staff fails to manage the Department of Labour assets well and report on issues timeously, we are bound to fail and this we cannot afford.

Under expenditure, payroll certificate reports not forwarded, poor debt management, poor asset management, BAS Persal reconciliation problems on travel and subsistence, employee terminations not reported, are some of the issues highlighted which put our resource management in bad light.

The Department of Labour got negative media coverage on Performance Management, with allegations of bonus paid to people without signing performance agreements. This proved to be misinformation and has been corrected. When we suspended the Director-General trophy for financial management we said an all-inclusive recognition award system will follow. Work is underway and we will begin with the awards in 2007/08.

We take this opportunity to inform you about new Strategic Projects dedicated to Scarce Skills to support the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and Provincial Growth and Development Plans. In line with the Department of Labour Positive Employee Philosophy, we decided that it will be the provincial structures of Department of Labour and Premiers' Offices which will be the key players in these Strategic Projects. The launch is on 2 December at Dutywa in the Eastern Cape.

In conclusion, the Department of Labour is handling a number of issues which impact on other stakeholders beyond us. Currently we are discussing the Impact of Labour Laws on Job Creation and Small Business Development in South Africa. Information on this is available at LP and LMP and on our website. Your views are important. The emerging view is that our laws are sound save that there is too much proceduralism at implementation stage.

Occupational Health and Safety integration across government is unfolding with a presentation scheduled for the coming Directors-General's Social Sector Cluster.

During these road shows we expect to gain insight on how you think we should move forward and continue to improve the quality of life of our staff and that of our clients.

We hope we will all find this initiative fulfilling.

I thank you

Enquiries:
Mokgadi Pela
Cell: 082 808 2168
Issued by: Department of Labour
15 November 2006

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