Date: 08/06/2011
Source: The Department of Public Service and Administration
Title: SA: Baloyi: Budget vote speech by the Minister of Public Service and Administration, in the National Council of Provinces

Honourable Chairperson
Cabinet colleagues
Deputy Minister for the Public Service and Administration
Chairperson of the Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Members of the Select Committee
Representatives of SALGA
Deputy Chairperson of the Public Service Commission
Honourable Delegates of the House
The Portfolio Leadership in the Ministry of Public Service and Administration
Our distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Thank you for affording us an opportunity to address this Honourable House and to debate our Budget Vote for the Financial Year 2011/12.

We tabled our Budget before Parliament, in terms of which we committed ourselves to deliver services through the following institutions,
• The Department of the Public Service and Administration (DPSA)
• The Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA)
• The Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA)
• The Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI)
• The State Information Technology Agency (SITA)
• The Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS)
We also partner with the Office of the Public Service Commission in our relationship where we feature as good governance facilitators and them providing administrative support to the Public Service Commission, an independent body which is a custodian of good governance.

About two weeks ago we debated the Budget at the National Assembly, and we raised the following issues:
• That our work is focused on the minimum of having to overcome one of the twelve outcomes of government, under the theme “Building an efficient, effective and development-oriented public service, as well as an empowered, fair and inclusive citizenship”.
• That the maximum focus of this portfolio has to deal with all those issues that will ensure the total consolidation, stabilisation and activation of the state machinery around the sustenance of the values of our Administration, and affecting all the three spheres of government as well as the State-owned Entities. In this aspect, we committed to give special attention in supporting the local sphere of our government.
We also indicated:
• That we will continue to give unwavering support to the work of the Public Service Commission to ensure response to and compliance with their recommendations.
We reported:
• That we are reviewing the Ministerial Handbook
• That we continue to give support in the settlement of disputes between Executive Authorities and the Accounting Officers
• That we are championing a project for the repositioning of the public service for accelerated service delivery.
• That we are intensifying the fight against corruption through the activities of the anti-corruption unit and we are playing a leading role in the work of the National Anti-Corruption Forum, in partnership with government and Civil Society.
• That our journey in the SITA turn-around strategy implementation is gaining momentum and focused to reposition the Agency in accordance with its original mandate.
I will come back to this point later in my speech.
Chairperson,

As the country’s focal point on the African Peer Review Mechanism, a voluntary instrument for peer review by African Union member States, we led the country into writing the second report accounting on the implementation of the National Programme of Action.

We are proud to announce that we have been found to be in compliance with the instrument.

We are currently leading a project of writing the third and final report to be submitted in the year 2013.

We committed ourselves that the third report will largely focus on the subject of xenophobia, so that we give our peers an opportunity to engage with us on this difficult topic, and ourselves to use the opportunity as a mirror of self introspection.

Consultations have started and we will appreciate the involvement of Parliament, as we have previously made a call for such, particularly this Honourable House, due its legislative coordination role across the three spheres.

Chairperson,

Two weeks ago, we said the following on SITA: “We will give a targeted record of SITA performance during the presentation of the same Budget at the National Council of Provinces in two weeks time, under the theme SITA today, SITA tomorrow, SITA to the future, where we will give an account as to why we embarked on a turnaround strategy, what the strategy entails, what we achieved through the strategy and what we are doing to consolidate the gains arising from the strategy”

Today we are giving an account on such matters as follows: After extensive consultation with stakeholders during 2009, we resolved that serious interventions were required to address the challenges faced by SITA.

The challenges that required serious immediate attention spanned across areas of:
• poor service delivery,
• the absence of an integrated Customer Relationship Management approach,
• Procurement processes fraught with weaknesses, culminating in irregular expenditure and non-compliance with regulatory frameworks
• The perceived high cost and pricing models
• The high turnover of leadership at Executive level and lack of core skills
• Poor governance leadership
The SITA Turn around Strategy has identified seven (7) strategic outcomes for the period 2011 to 2014:

1. Quality service delivery to the public sector
2. Proficient lead agency in public sector Information and Communications technology (ICT)
3. Effective and integrated public sector ICT supply chain management
4. Competitive pricing and financial sustainability
5. Effective ICT Regulator
6. Effective governance and monitoring and
7. Employer of choice.
SITA has achieved the following deliverables to date as set out in the Turnaround Strategy:
• A fully constituted Board of Directors, was appointed during April 2010
• The Chief Operations Officer was appointed during November 2010
• The Chief Executive Officer, was appointed during January 2011
• All outstanding Executive appointments will be finalised during the fourth quarter of this Calendar year.
It should be noted that, whereas there has been so much talk on SITA challenges, which we are addressing as per the strategy, we can still refer to a record of service delivery, such as the following highlights,
• A Telemedicine Project is currently underway at the Department of Health and Department of Social Development in Limpopo. This project entails the upgrading of infrastructure to ensure suitability for the utilisation of telemedicine equipment and facilities, thus ensuring that citizens in the rural communities receive adequate health consultations for effective health care. Of the 14 sites identified, 10 has successfully been upgraded;
• The national network upgrade program for the South African Police Service has made some progress and the ICT teams deployed have ensured the high service delivery levels.
• The high level of service excellence on the Active Directory support at the Mpumalanga Department of Education, has raised the potential of the integration of IT support functions.
• SITA successfully hosted the Independent Electoral Commission’s call centre during the local government elections of 2011;
• The development of a Master Systems Plan (MSP) for the Mpumalanga Department of Social Development is well underway and phase one of the project is nearing completion;
• The printing of the preliminary results for the Matric Class of 2010, was successfully completed by 30 December 2010. On 1 January 2011 the printing of the Grade 12 examination results as well as the Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) results started. The period 1 to 3 January was critical as the results had to be completed by 5 January, ensuring that SITA met the expectation of the Department of Basic Education;
• The poverty Index system that was implemented as a pilot for the City of Johannesburg, in collaboration with the Departments of Housing, Social Development and Health provides a composite view of indigent citizens, which enables the City to track human development in its constituencies and support government objectives on the war against poverty.
• In order to regain the lost confidence and to give space for the implementation of the turn-around strategy, we led consultation processes and we continue to do so with national and provincial government departments. Through these engagements, SITA is expanding its client base
• Five out of the nine Integrated Finance Management System modules have been built or acquired
• SITA Provide Thusong Centre connectivity
• SITA Library Information Management System (SLIMS) has been implemented to replace legacy systems at provincial & public libraries nationally, in which case so far six provincial libraries, 1 Metro (City of Cape Town) and 85 public libraries have been migrated. SITA is on track to meet the deadline of Dec 2011 for full migration.
Chairperson,

As I share with you the report on those results, allow me to restate that the reasons why SITA was established in 1999 were primarily in order to:
• Ensure that government reaps the benefits of bulk purchasing of ICT goods and services
• Deliver e-Government services as part of improving citizens’ access to public services
• Re-engineer the business processes of government in order to improve public service efficiency and processes
• Facilitate public-private partnerships on risk and reward sharing in the acquisition of ICT goods and services
• Develop, in collaboration with other government institutions, the National Information Management, Systems & Technology (IMST) strategy and its implementation plan; and
• Develop an ICT skills development plan
In terms of the turn-around strategy, we are now at reconciling the SITA performance profile with the objectives of its development.

The provision of government services on the internet means that SITA must provide wider service coverage for government through the government network and therefore the network costs must drastically be reduced whilst the government network utilisation is optimised. The optimal utilisation of the SITA Next Generation Network (NGN) must result in the reduction of overall voice and data costs.

SITA will drive the programme to ensure that all government departments use the value-added services of the network.

Through SITA, we will soon unveil an electronic mechanism for the declaration of interests by sms members.

Mi nge hi pfala bulu ra hina hi ku kombisa leswaku Vatirhela-Mfumo I vanhu va nkoka swinene hikuva hinkwaswo leswi hi tibohaka leswaku hi ta swi endla tani hi Mfumo, hi endla tano hi ku tiva leswaku va kona, naswona va tihlengeletile emiehleketweni yavona, ku korhokela tiko. Hikwalaho kee, hina va Ndzawulo hi simekile pfhumba le’ri hi lerisaka hi ri tiko leswaku hi veka mahlo ya hina ehenhla ka vona, hi vula hi ku “Mutirhela-Mfumo wa Mina, I vumundzuku bya mina”, hi ri karhi hi londza leswaku na vona va tlherisela hi xandla, va vula leswaku “Hi kona ni ku tiyimisela ku tirha”.

We continue with our consultation on the project, “My Public Servant, my future, and yesterday we had a session with the Black Business Executive Council, which is a forum of CEOs’ at the private sector. We appreciate their view on this matter and we surely take them on board.

It is time to give focus to our public servants for information-sharing and empowerment.

I thank you.