Deputy Minister and PSC briefing on public service evaluated against Section 195 values; Committee Report on Department of Public Service and Administration Strategic Plan 2013

Meeting report

Introduction
The Chairperson welcomed the Ms Ayandla Dlodo, Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration, and noted the apologies of Ms. Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of Public Service and Administration.

Public Service evaluated against Section 195 values: Deputy Minister and Public Service Commission (PSC) briefing
Mr Ben Mthembu, PSC Chairperson, tendered apologies for Ms Phelele Tengeni, Deputy Chairperson, Commissioner Ms Phumelele Nzimande and for Prof Richard Levin, Director-General, who was on an official mission to the World Bank. In his place was Dr Dovhani Mamphiswana, PSC Acting Director-General and Deputy Director-General: Integrity and Anti-Corruption. The delegation also included Ms Noziphiwo Gwaza, PSC Parliamentary Liaison Officer.

By way of introduction, he said that this briefing was a follow-up to Committee’s recommendations arising from the 2010 State of the Public Service, in particular, two critical recommendation around the governance of all entities as well as annual evaluations. He noted that the PSC had already started to extend its mandate to local government.  He recollected the PSC’s 2011 briefing to the Committee. The PSC wanted to ensure that the Committee could have a set of data to enable it to track trends and be able to determine the extent to which departments were adhering to the nine principles set out under Section 195 of the Constitution. He emphasised the State of the Public Service Barometer which was still being piloted. The PSC would appreciate the Committee’s feedback.

Key message
Mr Jacobus van der Merwe, PSC Chief Director: Governance Monitoring, said that Section 195 of the Constitution provided a very sophisticated and demanding framework with which the public administration must comply. The PSC undertook a range of research and knowledge-generating activities, three of which were structured specifically around the nine Constitutional Values and Principles (CVPs). They continued to provide a coherent and sustained analysis of the state of compliance with the CVPs. The message that they delivered was that public service departments had improved in many regards but in crucial areas continued to struggle to meet the necessary standard required to be considered to be well governed and managed. Key strategic decisions made around the time of democratisation might need reconsideration. Certain aspects of human resources (HR) and supply chain management (SCM) might require recentralisation.

The state of the Public Service Barometer, as requested by Parliament, reflected information on each constitutional principle. It covered national and provincial departments, and would in future cover local government too. It would be updated as soon as information became available. Indicators had been identified for each principle based on data and information available from various sources, for example, Persal (Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA)), the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), National Treasury, and annual reports. (See slide 4).

CVP 1: A high standard of professional ethics
Indicators: the financial disclosure framework; the National Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH), which the PSC managed; financial misconduct; and management of precautionary suspensions. (See bar charts and text, slides 5-8).

The PSC noted that as of 31 May 2012 48% of departments had fully complied with the financial disclosure framework, of which 13 departments were at national level and 64 at provincial level.

The PSC noted that given the high rate of unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, the number of cases of financial misconduct reported to the PSC seemed low. There was insufficient investigative capacity in departments.

The PSC noted that discipline was not managed effectively. This resulted in long periods of precautionary suspensions.

CVP 2: Efficient, economic and effective use of resources
Indicators: planned outputs achieved; audited over/under expenditure as a percentage of adjusted budget; audit findings on pre-determined objectives; unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure. (See bar charts and text, slides 9-10).

The PSC noted that the percentage of national and provincial departments that managed to achieve more than 80% of their planned targets declined from 9% to 4% from the 2010/11 to the 2011/12 financial years.

CVP 3: Public Administration must be development orientated
Indicators: poverty and unemployment, for example, the poverty headcount (graph and text, slide 11); and reliance on the social wage, for example, the percentage of individuals receiving a housing subsidy (bar chart and text, slide 12).

CVP 4: Services must be provided impartially, fairly, equitably and without bias
Indicators: invoices over 30 days that had not been paid (bar chart and text, slide 13).

The PSC referred to the Public Finance Management Act (No. 1 of 1999) read together with Treasury Regulations.

CVP 5: Public participation
Indicator: Presidential Hotline (bar graph and text, slide 14).

The PSC noted that as at July 2012 65% of national and provincial departments had resolved more than 80% of the cases referred to them. By February 2013 this figure had improved to 74%.  

CVP 6: Public administration must be accountable
Indicator: evaluation of heads of departments (HoDs) (bar graph and text, slide 15).

The PSC noted a steady decline in the number of HoDs evaluated over the past five years. Measures were put in place to fast track the evaluations for the 2010/11 and 2011/12 evaluation cycles.

Indicator: filing of performance agreements of HoDs (bar graph and text, slide 16).

The PSC noted that overall there had been an improvement in the compliance rate for the filing of these performance agreements.

Indicator: audit outcomes for national and provincial departments (bar graph, slide 17)

CVP 7: Transparency
Indicator: accessibility of the Manual on Access to Information on the departmental website (bar graph and text, slide 18).

The PSC observed that, as at July 2012 the Manuals of only 31% of departments were easily accessible on their departmental websites.

CVP 8: Good human resources (HR) practices
Indicator: vacancy rate - professionals and senior managers (bar chart and text, slide 19)

The PSC observed that as at 30 June 2012 almost 80% of national and provincial departments had a vacancy rate of above 10% in respect of professional and senior managers. Amending the Public Service Act (No. 103 of 1994) to locate the responsibility for HR management with HoDs should assist in filing posts more quickly.

Indicator: average length of time in months to fill a post (bar chart and text, slide 20)

The PSC observed that the long time to fill vacancies (more than nine months in more than 70% of national and provincial departments) impacted on service delivery.

Indicator: terminations backdated as a percentage (bar chart and text, slide 21)

The PSC noted that controllers must update the Persal system on time when an employee was terminated to avoid reclaims from departments of, for example, medical aid contributions.

CVP 9: employment equity
Indicators: black employees; female employees at senior management service (SMS) level; and people with disabilities (bar chart and text, slide 22)

The PSC observed that the public service was still grappling with the employment of people with disabilities.

State of the Public Service Report
The PSC would still produce a State of the Public Service Report (SOPS) report that reflected on and analysed key issues that arose from the whole body of work of the PSC in a particular year, as well as important work by other bodies. It diagnosed the causes of poor performance in the public service or the reasons why the public service did not achieve the excellence that it aspired to. The quantitative base for the report was provided by the barometer. The institutional/diagnostic assessments were also an important source of insights for the SOPS report.

The report was issue-based. For example, some of the issues that the PSC planned to discuss in its upcoming SOPS report included the effectiveness of the integrity system, causes of poor performance, and what could be done to improve the quality of results delivered by public service departments? The issues also included what constituted appropriate management action in the case of poor performance, what were the consequences of poor performance, and what could be done to make administrative processes more empowering and participatory? Further issues were the appropriateness of the current public service regulatory framework and the effectiveness of the performance management and development system.

Institutional assessments (monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system)
The PSC had an indicator-based tool that it would still use to assess the governance and institutional performance of departments. The tool consisted of indicators and standards for each of the values in Section 195 and a department’s performance against the indicators and standards was translated into a score for each of the values and a total score. The tool had been applied since 2001 and 169 reports had been produced (127 first assessments and 42 second assessments).

The reports allowed comparisons between samples of departments for the following years - giving a trend over time, of the same department with itself when it came up for reassessment, and between similar departments in a sector. The PSC had produced 11 ‘consolidated’ reports since 2001.

Institutional assessments: current challenges
The challenges were that the tool currently consumed an enormous amount of energy and institutional capacity, but its impact was limited, considering the investment required to implement it.

It had stalled at the level of an assessment of performance/compliance against a set of indicators and producing reports.

It had not yet shifted to the level of diagnosing underlying problems and assisting with their resolution.

Proposed solutions
Instead of stopping with the production of a report based on the initial assessment using the M&E tool, the process would continue into a follow-up improvement phase during which the PSC would support departments in developing solutions to real problems.

Developing solutions would include assessing whether the current regulatory framework for a particular administrative practice was appropriate.

Discussion
Mr J Marais (DA) was always impressed with the PSC’s work. However, he was worried that its poverty headcount in which it found that there was a decline in the proportion of the population living below R422 per month did not reflect reality by taking into account inflation (slide 11).



Mr D du Toit (DA) thought that things were backwards in many cases. He understood that it could take three months to fill a post. However, for it to take more than nine months for more than 72% of departments to fill posts was incredible. There was a management problem. The previous week the Minister had explained that there was a high turnover of directors-general. He could understand if some of the posts were being reviewed as to their necessity. Otherwise it was necessary to get these departments to take notice.

Ms S Sithole (ANC) supported Mr Du Toit. When the head of state called for the filling of posts in the public service, but the public service did not respond, it meant that the public service was not supporting government’s mission. It also meant that the public service was not supporting the reduction of poverty.

Ms Sithole, who also served on the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General, said that while the departments had improved in terms of unqualified audits, this had happened because the Auditor-General had gone out of his way to support them. This was not a desirable state of affairs. It was necessary to have a civil service that was doing its work without having to be pushed.

No auditor under the sun would ever report on what he or she had not seen. Auditors must see. The matter of managing documents and information in a department was critical. There were times when the auditors wanted information but it was nowhere to be found. Moreover, such difficulty in obtaining information and documents increased the cost of auditing. It was crucial to make sure that departments looked after their documents. She also wondered what documents departments shredded. How did they know that the Auditor-General might not want to see a particular document. Such shredding or losing documents might be a contravention of the law as there was a certain period for which one had to keep documents.

Ms M Mohale (ANC) asked if new HoDs were the ones who had failed to submit performance agreements (slide 16).

Responses
Filling of posts (Mr Du Toit and Ms Sithole)
Mr Mthembu replied that one of the challenges was that the PSC spent a great deal of money and energy on monitoring, evaluating, and making recommendations. One could not keep issuing reports year after year while there was no impact. Therefore the PSC had taken the position that it should not just keep on reporting but that it should be more diagnostic. In other words, it would move away from simply checking compliance in order to become more developmental and to intervene more. It had to ask the underlying causes of this problem, make recommendations, and then engage the department concerned to ensure improvement. This was one way of trying to deal with this challenge. Secondly, the PSC would advise reconsidering the policy of decentralisation and instead suggest recentralising (slide 3). One of the challenges linked to the high turnover of directors-general was the current regulatory regime as to the extent that the executive authority had human resource powers. More often than not it could only delegate them. Part of the problem had been decentralisation. Perhaps this power needed to be restored to the heads of departments or to the directors-general. This would expedite the filling of posts. There was need to revisit the current policy framework. He reiterated that the PSC would engage on a more diagnostic approach. 

HR delegation
Mr P Helepi, PSC Commissioner: Free State, replied that policies always had intended and unintended consequences. It was how one managed the balance between the two that made them work. For example, the PSC was now examining HR and finance delegation. Commissioners had gone out to interview HoDs.  One HoD had said that he had a problem with Executive Authorities (EAs) having HR delegation for the simple reason that it was like being chosen as the coach of Bafana Bafana, but not being allowed to choose the members of the team, while being expected to win the World Cup. HR delegation had financial implications and was with the HoD in terms of the PFMA, but the same people who had financial delegations did not have any say with regard to HR delegation, which had financial implications.  One needed to deal with that quite decisively, because in professional life in the public sector, it was necessary to be very honest in one’s approach. 

Abuse of the Performance Management and Management System (PMDS)
If one wanted to turn around the public sector, there were two things that one had to do.  Firstly it was necessary to manage performance, and in particular poor performance, more tightly than one was doing now.   The PSC’s studies and those of the DPSA had shown that there was abuse of the Performance Development and Management and Development System (PMDS) as one knew it today.

Need to review the legal framework for HR
The second point was that it was necessary to follow prescripts to the letter, especially in dealing with issues of procurement, as the flouting of laws and processes would never lead to the professionalism of the public sector, including recruitment and selection itself.  It was almost a disaster how recruitment was dealt with.
There was need to review the legal framework governing HR and HR practices. It was necessary to examine whether there had been compliance and willingness to implement those legal prescripts and this would be the first step to professionalising the public service.

Clear linkage between the creation of jobs and a developmental state and the payment of service providers
There was a clear linkage between the creation of jobs and a developmental state and the payment of service providers, because the ruling party’s documents said that if one wanted to deal with poverty and unemployment and inequality one had to grow the economy. If one did not pay service providers on time for the services that they gave, it meant that one was working against what the President had said in terms of creating jobs. One was not allowing a free flow of enterprise and innovative ideas in growing the economy because there was no flow of finances to those entrepreneurs.  The issue was thus consequential. He noted that there seemed to be no political will to deal with officials who flouted the law. Most of the issues were interlinked.

Further questions
Mr L Ramatlakane (COPE) did not understand the apparent relationship between the delegation of HR and the nine months taken in many instances to fill positions. The Executive Authority (EA) delegation had always been fairly limited in terms of human resources.  Was it true that within the current policy framework there was not sufficient mechanism to obviate the problem that one faced currently with respect to the layers of leadership that existed? Thus he was battling to grasp the response. He would have thought that with the EA having the final say, and with the accounting officers, and with the prescripts, there was sufficient room to implement and translate the policy directive which was the President’s statement that one needed to move faster into practical implementation through this machinery that one had. What was the prohibiting factor that had the consequence of non-delivery? The Committee could not ‘crack the whip’ if the EA did not perform its function in its respective sphere. 

Further responses
Mr Helepi said that the issue was whether the Executive Authorities were willing to delegate those powers, especially to the HoDs. Even when those powers had been delegated, the law allowed the EA to exercise those powers. This meant that the delegate could be overruled in terms of the law as the powers lay with the EA. 

Secondly, there were the moratoria on appointments. What was the logic behind them? Moreover, it was strange to find in some departments a high ability to spend money even though there was a moratorium on appointments.

There were many grievances about appointment processes, and a clear flouting of procedures. Sometimes these grievances would drag on and on.

Suspensions were another crucial matter on which the Commission would do well to report. There was, as far as he could see over the years, an apparent abuse of suspensions.  At the same time, such suspended personnel were being paid. At the same time the charges were changed. If a charge was found to be weak, another charge was made.

It was time to consider criminalising non-performance. He referred to the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) (P.L. 103-62) of 1992 [amended by the GPRA Modernization Act 2010 (GPRAMA) (H.R. 2142)] of the United States of America (USA).  Under the GPRA directors-general were bound to perform. If they failed to do so it was a criminal act. 

He also gave the example of India where there were severe consequences for non-performance.

Mr Van der Merwe replied that the figures for the poverty headcount were based on real incomes and so took into account inflation (slide 11).

Mr Van der Merwe replied that the figures for the performance agreements would be more meaningful if the PSC had analysed them into how many HoD posts were vacant and how many HoDs were new and consequently did not submit a performance agreement on time. With many of these indicators it would be good to give further analysis in order to give more nuance to the figures, for example, the vacancy rates if analysed according to different occupations and levels.

Mr Mthembu said that the issue of delegation was part of the problem. Perhaps he could restate what he had said earlier that the PSC must move away from merely focusing on compliance towards a developmental approach. It was necessary to examine causes and thereafter determine possible solutions and identify culprits. Also, without pointing out culprits one should find the reasons.

Mr Helepi said that the PSC was now busy because the government had said that it wanted a developmental state. The PSC was investigating how to move towards a developmental public service and administration. It was necessary to determine appropriate indicators. It had commissioned two papers – Leadership for the developmental state, and the Developmental state: its nature and origin. The PSC wanted to develop a common idiomatic grammar amongst all public servants. Unless and until there were those common attributes, it would not be possible to define the way forward.  Perhaps the PSC could share those papers with the Committee in due course.

Mr Du Toit, with reference to performance agreements, had heard previously, on that occasion from National Treasury, that it appeared that there were no consequences in government. Also former US President Ronald Reagan had said that state departments were like babies, which had healthy appetites on the one hand but no responsibilities on the other. He appealed to the PSC to fix the consequences. Was there not need for some legislation? Research papers were not enough. Committee recommendations had more teeth. 

Committee Chairperson’s overview
The Chairperson recollected the CVPs. It was important for the Committee when it exercised its role of overarching oversight that it kept in mind those values and principles.  The Committee should call those who did not comply with the requirement for timely submission of performance agreements.

The Chairperson said that the Committee’s Budgetary Review and Recommendation Reports (BRRRs) could complement the collaboration that the PSC had already begun. She also suggested a that the Committee hold a seminar. She noted that the issue of local government was critical.  The Committee had not done enough to focus on every organ of the state. For example, who oversaw the courts? The Committee should broaden its scope. It was also necessary to pay attention to the public enterprises. She alluded to the Committee’s forthcoming legacy report for the next Parliament.

The Chairperson endorsed Ms Sithole’s point that when the public service did not respond to the President’s call to fill positions, it was as if the public service was counter-revolutionary. It should be ‘a line of march’ [marching orders] for the nation. If there was no response, there should be consequences. The Committee had the potential ‘to crack the whip’ if there was no response to the President’s call.

The Chairperson said that the issue of HR in the public service was of major concern. There was need for further interaction. There were some aspects of the Public Service Act which needed to be tightened. The other issue to be discussed further was the single or integrated public service. The Chairperson reminded Members that there had been a meeting with the Forum of South African Directors-General (FORSAD) in which there had been discussion on aspects that were not working well such as the audit function. There was need for tightening of such interaction. She was very grateful for the PSC’s input provided today.

PSC Chairperson’s overview
Mr Mthembu thanked the Chairperson. He highlighted the importance of practising what one preached. The Portfolio Committee was one of the PSC’s key stakeholders and the PSC had to be very responsive to what the Committee said. The PSC was very pleased with the State of the Public Service Barometer and took it very seriously. The Committee had highlighted collaboration and partnership. He agreed that they were very important. The PSC had signed memoranda of understanding with the Financial and Fiscal Commission, with the Public Protector, and with the Auditor-General of South Africa. It was important to collaborate by having joint projects with Chapter Nine institutions to maximise resources for the benefit of the country. Thus the PSC was taking the issue of collaboration and cooperation as opposed to competition very seriously.         

Public Service Commission and Department of Public Service and Administration Budget Vote 12: Committee’s Report - consideration and adoption
Mr Marais supported the report but not recommendation 7.1, as it was the right of Members to debate the budget in the National Assembly before deciding whether to support it. 

The Chairperson said that recommendation 7.1 engulfed everything. In other words, Mr Marais did not want the Department of Public Service and Administration to have a budget.

Mr Marais said that was not what his party was saying.

The Chairperson said that Mr Marais did not want to approve the budget, but he approved the content. 

Mr Du Toit said that this report should not be married to the automatic approval of the budget. If Members entered the debate on 22 May, the DA Members would have a discussion with its caucus beforehand, and tell them their view. However, the DA Members wanted the report to go to the National Assembly. It just wanted removed from the report the words to the effect that the whole Committee recommended [approval of the budget].

The Chairperson asked if any other Members had reservations on the budget. Did Members adopt the Report as a Committee?

Mr Ramatlakane had no objection to the content of the Report. The Committee could adopt it. However, recommendation 7.1 should be reformulated. There had been the same issue in another Committee on which he served [Appropriations Standing Committee]. He advised consulting the Chair of Chairs. The budget should be debated in the House.

The Chairperson said that the Committee would consult on that matter. However, she hoped that the Committee would adopt the report.

Mr Ramatlakane proposed adoption of the report, subject to his reservation expressed above.

Ms Mohale seconded.

The report was adopted, subject to the reservations of Mr Marais, Mr Du Toit, and Mr Ramatlakane.

The Chairperson noted that many committee meetings had been set aside because of the extended public committees (EPCs). There would be no meeting for this Committee next week. She adjourned the meeting.