Minister of Public Service and Administration on the Department's Progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Public Service and Administration

29 March 2011
Chairperson: Ms J Moloi-Moropa (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Committee received a briefing from the Minister and the Department of Public Service and Administration on the progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as it related to the Governance and Administration Cluster.

The Governance and Administration Cluster contributed to the achievement of the following Goals, MDG 1: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, MDG 3: To promote gender equality and empower women, MDG 6: To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and MDG 8: To develop a global partnership for development. The Cluster would focus on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Cluster would develop a global partnership for development and combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.

The Cluster would attempt to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger through the Community Development Worker (CDW) Programme. It would do so by establishing an anti-corruption unit with a focus on stomping out corruption in key focus areas. The Cluster would take on a results-based Monitoring and Evaluation approach which would be helpful in effectively contributing to the MDGs. The Cluster would address the problem of combating HIV/AIDS through the implementation of an HIV management policy, and through the mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS training. The Cluster would address the promotion of gender equality the empowerment of women through attempting to reach a 50% quota in most Departments and through interventionist policies and programmes to address the problem. The Cluster would develop a global partnership for development through the promotion of international bodies which it was a part of such as India Brazil and South Africa, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the African Peer Review Mechanism.

Members asked about the Community Development Worker programme. They asked why there were a limited number of services in Thusong Service Centres and why CDWs were not more closely aligned with the Centres when conducting their work. They commented that more needed to be done on the African Peer Review Mechanism; progress on that matter had been slow especially at a provincial level. The African Peer Review Mechanism would be important in assisting to attain the MDGs.

They asked whether the Department’s emphasis in trying to attain the MDGs should not be on economic development and growth as opposed to emphasising smaller issues. They commented that CDWs needed to have offices to report to on the progress of their work. They commented on the special Anti-Corruption Unit established by government and said that it was a good move to establish such a unit. They commented that the report which would be forthcoming from the Department should include challenges and obstacles which impeded progress. They asked why the impact against corruption was not greater considering the amount of bodies established to deal with the problem.

 

Meeting report

Opening Remarks
The Chairperson emphasised the importance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the need to seriously address the issues surrounding those goals. She highlighted the need for South Africa to comply with the MDGs. Other Cluster groups would come before the Committee and present on their contribution to the attainment of the MDGs. Parliaments role in monitoring progress on MDGs would be important and would predominantly be around oversight to ensure that the MDGs were met. The Public Service Commission (PSC) would have a role to play in making sure that the stated objectives of the MDGs were achieved and would collaborate with Parliament to ensure that that had been done. 

Briefing by Minister of Public Service and Administration on the Department’s Progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Honourable Richard Baloyi, Minister of Public Service and Administration, expressed his appreciation for the Committee’s welcome. The MDGs were very important and the government viewed them in that light. The MDGs mirrored some of the country’s domestic policies and would be helpful in improving those policies.

Mr Themba Maseko, Director General: DPSA, delivered the Governance and Administration (G & A) Cluster’s presentation on the MDGs. The Cluster contributed to the achievement of the following MDGs, MDG 1: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, MDG 3: To promote gender equality and empower women, MDG 6: To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and MDG 8: To develop a global partnership for development.
The G & A Cluster would focus on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Cluster would develop a global partnership for development and combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.

The Cluster would attempt to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger through the Community Development Worker (CDW) Programme. It would do so by establishing an anti-corruption unit with a focus on stomping out corruption in key focus areas. The Cluster would take on a results-based Monitoring and Evaluation approach which would be helpful in effectively contributing to the MDGs. The Cluster would address the problem of combating HIV/AIDS through the implementation of an HIV management policy, and through the mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS training. The G & A Cluster would address the promotion of gender equality by attempting to reach a 50% quota in most Departments and through interventionist policies and programmes to address the problem. The Cluster would develop a global partnership for development through the promotion of international bodies which it was a part of such as India Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

The CDW Programme was established to identify poor households and develop profiles of those households. It was set to link those households with government services and monitor progress regarding delivery. The CDW Programme would prepare and mobilise communities for participation in the campaigns and other activities in that regard, it would promote social protection by empowering the rural and farming communities by intensifying the social grants registration drive and supporting the registration of birth and application of ID campaigns. The progress to date was that CDWs in all 9 provinces were participating in profiling households that were vulnerable in partnership with Statistics South Africa.

The Cluster’s fight against corruption was aimed at stopping the plundering of state resources and directing those resources to fighting poverty and hunger. The Special Anti-Corruption Unit was launched on 25 November 2010 to investigate corruption and conduct disciplinary processes in the public service.  Local government established the Anti-corruption Inspectorate Unit for municipalities and a Multi-Agency Working Group was also established to investigate corruption in procurement. The Anti-corruption Task Team was established to coordinate the work of law enforcement agencies and watchdog bodies and an Inter-Ministerial Committee was established to coordinate anti-corruption efforts, promote policy coherence and align programmes.

The MDGs reflected a new emphasis on results/outcome.  They highlighted poverty reduction as the overarching mission of development; in response to this, the Cluster was currently institutionalising Monitoring and Evaluation across government.  This was aligned to the paradigm shift of Government towards results/outcome-based management, which helped policy makers track progress and demonstrate the outcomes and impacts of a given policy, program, or project. Projects undertaken to date included the development of Performance/Management Assessment Tools; Data Quality Assessments through Forums; Development of User Satisfaction Surveys Methodology and Tools; Persal Clean-Up Project; Capacity Development on monitoring and evaluation; and development of frameworks and policies for monitoring and evaluation.

In the public service, the Cluster had ensured that policies, strategies and programmes were free from explicit gender discrimination and that they promoted gender equality and mainstreaming. In the arena of combating HIV/AIDS, the Cluster had set up an effective scale-up of implementation of voluntary counselling and testing, prevention of mother to child transmission services was being provided in more than 95% of health facilities. There was a drive for the distribution of condoms, an increase in provision of antiretroviral therapy and the introduction of a dual therapy policy in 2008 for the prevention of mother to child transmission amongst other initiatives to combat the epidemic.
The Cluster was active in regional and international partnerships in order to share and exchange best practices on the implementation of the MDGs. It had done so to create synergies on the implementation of MDGs between government, Civil Society and the Private Sector. It had done so to engage the international community and mobilize resources to support the implementation of the MDGs. Create a reference group for peer review and learning in the implementation of the MDGs amongst other steps it had taken.

Discussion
Mr A Williams (ANC) asked about the Community Development Workers (CDWs) and whether they were receiving sufficient support from the Department. He asked why there were a limited number of services in Thusong Service Centres (TSCs) and why CDWs were not more closely aligned with the Centres when conducting their work.

Mr Maseko replied that CDWs constituted an important link between government and the citizenry and Thusong Service Centres were a one-stop shop for people in remote areas. The thinking behind CDWs and the Centres had been to attempt to improve access to government services in remote areas. The CDWs received adequate support from the Department but more could be done and the Department would pursue that. The Department could compile a comprehensive report on CDWs for the Committee. Different TSCs provided different services according to their location, the Departments of Social Services and Home Affairs were the main constants in the Centres as they provided key services.

Minister Baloyi added that CDWs were to an extent alienated from TSCs and the approach from the Department was to try and make CDWs activists so that they acted in the interests of the communities they worked in as opposed to merely toeing the government line. CDWs were supported by the Department and were regularly provided with manuals, which detailed new legislation relevant to their work and issues which they had to pay attention to. TSCs were meant to have as many government services as was possible but sometimes the Centres were staffed by different Departments according to the needs of a particular area. The Department had sought to create a Thusong Service Centre in each municipality in the country but it had faced challenges due to resource constraints.

The Chairperson echoed the points made by Mr Williams and highlighted the importance of looking into the CDW issue as there was a lack of clarity.

Mr Maseko responded that he had taken note on the comments on the CDWs and appreciated the importance of their existence. The thinking behind CDWs and the Centres had been to attempt to improve access to government services in remote areas. The CDWs received adequate support from the Department but more could be done and the Department would pursue that. The Department could compile a comprehensive report on CDWs for the Committee.

Mr L Suka (ANC) commented that there were areas where CDWs were working well and there were areas where they were not doing well. Smaller towns in remote areas needed more assistance from CDWs whilst in metro centres, great strides and progress had been made. More needed to be done on the APRM, progress on that matter had been slow especially at a provincial level. APRMs would be important in assisting to attain the MDGs. A unit should be created to oversee the work of the different clusters to ensure that work on the MDGs was carried out proficiently and timeously. The unit should also be tasked with monitoring to ensure that the MDGs were successfully carried out. He said that he would make further recommendations on the MDG issue after having assessed the report to be produced by the Department on the goals.

Mr Maseko replied that he had taken note of the comments on the CDWs.

Minister Baloyi replied that work was being done to improve APRMs but that more coordination was needed to improve the Mechanism. The Department was not yet at a point of satisfaction with the issue but it would continue to work to review the Mechanism.

Ms A Dreyer (DA) expressed her satisfaction with the comprehensive and detailed presentation. There were areas which were good, areas which were bad and some which had gotten worse. She asked whether the Department’s emphasis in trying to attain the MDGs should not be on economic development and growth as opposed to emphasising smaller issues.

Mr Maseko responded that the Economic Cluster would provide information on economic aspects of the MDGs and would be best placed to respond to those concerns.

The Chairperson said that the Minister would speak on APRMs to address Mr Suka’s comments.

Ms J Maluleke (ANC) commented that the presentation was commendable and that if Ms Dreyer took it to the public, they would be impressed with the amount of work the government had done to assist people. She commented that CDWs needed to be reformed to widen their scope and strengthen their ability to work in remote areas. CDWs needed to have offices to report to on the progress of their work.

Mr Maseko replied that he had taken on the comments of Members on the CDWs and could provide a comprehensive report on the programme should Members see it fit to do so.

Minister Baloyi said that the Department was working to make CDWs more mobile and increasing their ability to operate in remote areas through the provision of mobile offices. CDWs sometimes found themselves at loggerheads with local officials and Community Development Officers (CDOs) and Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) which created problems. 

The Chairperson reminded Members that other government clusters would present to the Committee on MDGs and they should be cognisant of that fact. The Economic Cluster would be best suited to brief on economic issues.

Ms M Mohale (ANC) asked what services were provided at TSCs. She asked where the TSCs were housed, were they accommodated in political party constituency offices or independent buildings? The Department needed to follow up on cable theft at some service centres. She commented on the special Anti-Corruption Unit established by government and said that it was a good move to establish such a unit. It would be important to get a progress report from the Unit on areas which it had worked on and identified.  

Mr Maseko responded that different TSCs provided different services according to their location, the Departments of Social Services and Home Affairs were the main constants in the Centres as they provided key services. TSCs were government centres and were therefore disassociated from political parties.

Minister Baloyi replied that some TSCs were located in the constituency offices of some areas and that those constituency offices were branded by the political party in power in that area. This was a wrong practice and created an erroneous impression of TSCs, the Department was working to stop this from happening and advocated for constituency offices to not be branded by party symbols. Minister Baloyi recalled that he had tried to address this matter when he was the Chairperson of the Committee, before becoming Minister of the DPSA.

Mr Suka commented that the report which would be forthcoming from the Department should include challenges and obstacles which impeded progress. There should be a section dealing with the fight against corruption and fraud. 

Mr Maseko responded that there would be a section on challenges and obstacles in the report.

Ms Dreyer asked why the impact against corruption was not greater considering the amount of bodies established to deal with the problem.

Mr Maseko replied that action was being taken against corrupt individuals and there were definite signs of progress. The impact on corruption could be greater if the level of coordination between Clusters and Departments was raised; this did not mean that there was a lack of progress in that area.

Ms Mohale said that the private sector did not seem to be assisting with the public sectors goals.  

Ms Ayanda Dlodlo, Deputy Minister, DPSA, said that the major issue with achieving the MDGs was caused by shifts in budgetary focus and financial constraints in light of the world economic events. The country and the Department by default were affected by world events. The Department would look into other ways that government could work to achieve the MDGs and continue to work to improve the lives of the citizenry.

The Chairperson thanked the Minister and his delegation for the presentation and time.

The meeting was adjourned.

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