DPME, Public Service Commission & National School of Government 1st Quarter 2015/16 performance

Meeting report

Public Service Commission (PSC) on its 1st Quarter Performance 2015
Dr Dovhani Mamphiswana, Acting Director General, public service Commission, noted that the Commission (or PSC) had progressed well with the implementation of the outputs on its work plan. However, due to limited funding available for goods and services, the PSC revised its Work Plan for this financial year in order to align it with available funds. He said he would cover an overview of performance per branch, organisational matters and engagements with stakeholders.

Overview of performance
In respect of the overall performance of the PSC per branch, Dr Mamphiswana said that as at 30 June 2015, 248 grievances had been lodged and 158 of these – or  64% - were finalised and closed. By the due date of 31 May 2015, the compliance rate for the submission of financial disclosure forms was 82%. Workshops on grievance management and the promotion of professional ethics were conducted at national and provincial level and the rate of engagements with stakeholders increased substantially. 

In respect of the performance of the Leadership and Management Practice branch of the PSC, he said that PSC was conducting a trend analysis on grievances to provide a statistical overview of the number and nature of grievances lodged in the public service. In furtherance to this, the PSC was also producing a Grievance Newsletter to empower departments to investigate grievances and interpret policies. A fact sheet on irregular appointments in the public service was being compiled. More important was the issue of delay in the processing of pension payouts, and here the PSC had commenced an assessment of the management of service terminations and pension payouts in order to determine the underlying causes and identify the best practices in this area. It was holding engagements with Government Pensions Administration Agency, pensioners and beneficiaries

A report on the audit of recruitment and selection processes in Gauteng, Department of Finance was being concluded. In order to improve the management of discipline and labour relations in the public service, an assessment of the handling of disciplinary cases was being conducted. The PSC submitted a report to the Presidential Remuneration Review Commission,giving an analysis of conditions of Service and salary scales of educators vs public servants. Engagement had commenced with the Eastern Cape Department of Health to provide support for the audit on human resources management in that department.

In respect of the performance of the Monitoring and Evaluation branch of the PSC, an integrated data centre in the public service was being developed to provide analysis to stakeholders and also enable them to draw information. An annual report on the tracking of PSC recommendations for the 2012/13 and 2013/14 financial years was being finalised. Evaluation of the high performing rural schools in Limpopo had been concluded. As a follow up on the support initiatives by other departments like the Operation Phakisa, the PSC was now drafting a document on lessons learnt. The PSC was conducting and monitoring implementation of the commitments by departments, like the Citizens Forum at Lekwa and Thembisile Hani municipalities held during the 2014/15 financial year. Engagements were held with the North West Provincial Government to conduct a Citizens Forum at Marikana and Matsaseng. Reports on service delivery inspections that were conducted in the Gauteng Province to assess the availability of medicines and medical equipment, and also the availability of Learner and Teacher Support Material (LTSM) had been concluded. The PSC found out that there are systemic challenges in the provisioning of LTSM, mainly related to unforeseen learner intakes at the beginning of the academic year. Service delivery inspections had also been conducted at hospitals in Mpumalanga, Free State and Gauteng. Preparations were made to undertake service delivery inspections of border gates in Mpumalanga and Gauteng. An assessment of the rapid central application clearing house set up to exchange information between universities on admissions of first year students had commenced, and engagements were held with the Department of Higher Education, Council on Higher Education and Education South Africa.

The performance of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption branch of the PSC, showed that 97 out of 340 complaints lodged (or 29%), in terms of the Complaints Rules and the NACH as at 31 July 2015 had been finalised and closed. A round-table discussion with national and provincial departments will be hosted by PSC in order to create a common understanding on what constitutes financial misconduct and to raise awareness on the importance of reporting financial misconduct. Investigations on the awarding of higher salaries in the Departments of Transport and Labour had commenced. PSC had also commenced a process on management of the Financial Disclosure Form, and 76% of the disclosure forms have been submitted via eDisclosure.  A report on the nature and extent of protection of whistle blowers and investigators was being finalised. Workshops had been held within various departments at national and provincial level in order to promote professional ethics in the public service.

Organisational matters
The organisational matters covered financial matters, human resources and office accommodation.

In respect of organisational matters, the reviewed Governance Rules that were made to ensure effective functioning of the PSC had been gazetted and took effect in April 2015. Delegations to provincially based Commissioners were gazetted in June 2015. The delegated powers include:

- Management and investigations of grievances and complaints timeously in the provinces through panels
- Conducting announced and unannounced inspections
- Management of the financial disclosure framework
- Interface with all relevant stakeholders of the PSC in the provinces.

In relation to its own financial matters, PSC had, in this quarter, spent 31% of its budget. In order to better manage costs, PSC had realigned its budget on non-core items. Expenditure was being closely monitored to ensure that the overall budget was not exceeded. A financial circular on cost cutting measures was issued in June 2015. The measures included:

- A reduced budget for travel, accommodation, catering and communications
- Institutionalised detailed project to identify savings
- Review of selected capacity to ensure the optimal utilisation of staff in relation to increased demand for services by stakeholders
- Reduced number of reports printed; reports were now placed on the PSC website
- Departments were requested to provide venues for the PSC’s engagements.

In respect of of Human Resources, the vacancy rate as at 4 August 2015 was 7.9%.  The filling of the posts was being delayed to generate savings for operations. PSC had prioritised the strengthening of its capacity through initiatives such as customised training on research and a public lecture series with UNISA.

In respect of office accommodation, PSC was experiencing challenges in procuring office accommodation for its national office, as well as selected provincial offices. Most of the leases had expired and were currently running on a month to month basis. The PSC National Office relocated in July 2015 to temporary accommodation in Pretoria Central while it was waiting for the Department of Public Works (DPW) to advertise a bid for permanent accommodation. A meeting had been held with the Minister for Public Works to support the PSC in securing appropriate accommodation for its offices. The temporary accommodation was not conducive and had an impact on the operations as well as the morale of staff.

Engagements with stakeholders
Engagements were held with the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on the assessment of the Department#s compliance and adherence to applicable procedures. Engagement had also been held with the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, on the PSC strategic plan and Annual Performance Plan (APP) and the effectiveness, efficiency and relationship with stakeholders, and on financial misconduct in the public service. Engagement was held with the Portfolio Committee on Health on the availability of medicines and medical equipment. Further engagements were held with the Minister of Transport, and the Minister of Trade and Industry, on the 30 day payment of service providers.

In conclusion, Dr Mamphiswana said that the limited financial resources had had an impact on how the PSC implemented its mandate. In order to better align its planning to the National Treasury Framework, the PSC held its strategic planning session in July 2015. The main objectives of the strategic planning session were to reflect on the PSC’s mandate and develop strategies to take forward the proposals made in the Developmental State discussion document that was produced by the PSC. PSC also reviewed its strategic outcome oriented goals and goal statements to ensure that they were more relevant and measurable.

Discussion
The Chairperson thanked the PSC and asked if it was following parliamentary debates on television as the issue of corruption was hinted at. She asked the PSC to elaborate on its capacity and programmes to fight corruption.

Dr Mamphiswana said that the PSC through the financial disclosure framework, promoted the highest standard of ethics in the public service. Departments in the public service had to complete the financial disclosure forms and in those forms the officials had to declare their financial interest. According to the regulations they must ensure that forms were submitted by 31 July and PSC will scrutinise the financial disclosure forms, in order to identify any actual conflict of interest. The scrutiny was still ongoing and had not been finalised. Once it was concluded the PSC would present the results to the Committee. PSC has also established a study to determine the nature and extent of protection of whistle blowers and investigators. It happened often that calls received through the corruption hotline were anonymous because the callers were worried about their identities being known. Workshops had been conducted both at national and provincial level so that PSC could deal with the issue of promotion of high standards of professional ethics. The Code of Conduct became a key document through which PSC engaged with officials. The PSC has noted that the Code of Conduct document was 10 years old and the PSC was of the view that during this financial year the document should be reviewed so that the current trends would be reflected in the new document. He noted that the complaints ranged from irregular procurement in the public service, to irregular appointment within the public service and usage of state resources.

Ms Sellinah Nkosi, PSC Commissioner, said that the PSC had a Chief Directorate where public officials reported allegations of corruption occurring in their departments. The PSC would investigate and communicate its findings to the executive authorities.

Mr Mike Seloane, PSC Commissioner, said that the PSC had access to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) database where PSC would be able to check whether employees at SMS level were disclosing their interest. The National Treasury had given PSC indirect access through which the PSC would be able to see all the payments that had been made to the companies by officials, and also to check whether there was actual conflict of interest. PSC had consulted each individual SMS member, and this had made the SMS member aware of the need to disclose companies that they have established to avoid conflict of interest.

The Chairperson asked if it would be possible to win the fight against corruption.

Commissioner Nkosi said she was confident that, even with the little that the PSC was able to do, the fight would be addressed.

The Chairperson said that a new vocabulary should be used to distinguish between maladministration and corruption. She commended the PSC for the cases that had been finalised and closed in many provinces. She asked why the PSC was only investigating the Department of Transport in terms of awarding of higher salaries. She asked why the PSC did not plan properly for the filling of vacancies, seeing that vacancies had an impact on service delivery. She commended the PSC on the effective work on irregular appointments in public service, the pension pay-outs and best practices. She asked that the PSC should  bring a report on the impact of the assessment on the pension pay-outs. She asked why the Monitoring and Evaluation branch was focusing on one province. In respect of rural schools, she asked why it was focusing on only Limpopo. She commended the PSC on the protection of the whistle blowers and investigators which had been finalised, but again requested the report when it was finalised. She also commended the PSC on good spending against the budget. She finally reminded the PSC that it derived its powers from the Constitution.

Mr A van der Westhuizen (DA) commended the PSC on its presentation. He expressed concern that some of the work being done by PSC was overlapping with that done by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME). He asked where the two entities had drawn the line on their respective work. He asked to what extent PSC could say that its work and the money spent on service provision had yielded results.  

Ms P van Damme (DA) commended the PSC officials on their excellent work on corruption. She asked if PSC proactively investigated cases or waited for matters to be brought to it. She noted that eyebrows had been raised on the high salaries that those running State Owned Companies (SOCs) were getting, despite poor performance. She asked if the PSC was involved in the performance management of Heads of SOCs and whether there was any policy for remuneration.

Mr S Motau (DA) said he felt a bit depressed from the presentation, as it seemed the PSC was set on the path of self-destruction just at a point when the country really needed this entity. He said that the Commission did not have implementation and enforcement powers. He asked what had been done with the health issues in Gauteng. He wondered about the morale of staff in PSC, in relation to the financial constraints that it faced.

Ms Z Dlamini-Dubazana (ANC) commended the PSC on work well done, particularly the numbers of cases finalised and closed. She said that the PSC was not going down, as there had been improvement since the officials last appeared before the Committee. She proposed to the PSC that it should make the instrument of Batho Pele practical during its service delivery inspection in hospitals. She expressed satisfaction on the engagements with stakeholders and told the PSC that it should perhaps take it further to the health insurance industry. She said that there is problem with the medical health insurance companies as there was a perception that they were exploiting poor people. She requested the Health division of PSC to do the research.

Mr M Ntombela (ANC) commended the PSC and asked that the document on support initiatives should be made available to the Committee. He corrected the spelling of Phakisa. He also commended the participation of the Commissioners. He asked for more details on the measures put in place to protect the whistle-blowers, since they were helping in the fight against corruption. He commended the improvement with regard to management of the Financial Disclosure Framework and asked for information on the types of cases that were being reported on, province by province. He asked what would be the processes of lodging complaints? In relation to the representation of disabled people, he asked what the Committee could do to help achieve the 2% representation benchmark. He asked whether disclosure emphasis lay more on the fact of disclosure, or the content of it. He asked if there were verification processes done by PSC to make sure that what was being disclosed was up to scratch.

Mr J McGluwa (DA) commended the PSC for fulfilling its obligations in terms of the Constitution. He asked how soon the problem of office accommodation would be solved since it had an impact on service delivery. He asked whether the housing project in Marikana had been looked, particularly with regard to allocation of the houses. He said that the community complained about the houses not being for miners.

The Chairperson asked the Acting Director General of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) to respond to the issues of Marikana, and to tell the Committee what were the systems that had been put in place at Marikana?

Ms Nolwazi Gasa, Acting Director General, DPME, said that this Department and the Minister for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation has put in place a lot of initiatives on the revitalisation of distressed mining towns to make sure that the interventions were moving in Marikana.

The Chairperson asked about the system that had been put in place to make sure that there would be no illegal occupation of houses, and revitalisation of public consultation processes.

Mr Ntombela asked how recommendations could be defined as being specifically against corruption. 

Ms R Lesoma (ANC) asked that she be excused after raising her issues, and asked if there could be a written response to the issues raised. She wondered if the declaration of interest was now mandatory. She asked how well the five prioritised departments were performing. She suggested to the PSC that it must speed up its processes on office space.

Ms van Damme asked about the nature of cases investigated, who was involved, whether these cases were high profile, or involved high profile ranking political officials, and why the cases or reports were not publicised?

The Chairperson said that the media chose what to publicise.

Mr van der Westhuizen asked that an indication of the 64% cases closed be given.

Ms Ayanda Dlodlo, Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration, agreed that the media sold stories based on sensation. She said the parliamentarians should give information to their constituencies, and likewise departments should find a way to interact with the public. She said there was distortion in what the media reported, and so there was a need to take care to ensure that the public received the correct information.

Committee Members agreed that written responses should be given to the questions.

Adv Richard Sizani, Deputy Chairperson, PSC,  thanked the Committee and said the PSC would respond in writing. He said the Department was pleased to have the support of the Committee. He emphasised that most of the PSC's reports were initiated by it, of its own accord, but some were occasioned by the heads of departments asking for advice. He also said that the powers of the PSC were wide. He said that Commissioners were all in place in the provinces, thanks to the Committee. He also asked that the Committee help the PSC to obtain more budget. 

The Chairperson said that a presentation on the Chapter 9 Institutions would be organised, focusing on how they were fighting corruption. She said the presentation would investigate how these institutions related to one another, their procedures, systems in place, overlaps, and challenges. She also that the different institutions would define corruption. She asked that the PSC prepare, in particular, on the impact of pension payments and best practices, and protection of whistle blowers. In relation to the medical aid insurance, and their stance on HIV/AIDS, the PSC would need some time to investigate, since this was a new issue. She also noted that the report on the filling of the vacancy of the National Commissioner would be tabled on Thursday, and she apologised for the delay in filling the post.

Mr McGluwa asked that the PSC should also outline some of its challenges in the next presentation.

National School of Government (NSG) on its 1st Quarter Performance 2015/16
Professor Richard Levin, Director General, National School of Governance, said that the presentation would give a summary of performance per branch and organisational matters. He noted, firstly, that the National School of Governance (NSG or the School) was managing to pay invoices within 30 days, as required. The NSG had introduced prepayment, was filling the vacancies, and had a proposal in place for the Minister to approve the establishment of a programme management office, which will also bring internal capacity to service delivery rather outsourcing. A total of 775 public servants had been identified and trained as facilitators for the Compulsory Induction Programme (CIP). 

He highlighted the objectives of the National Development Plan as they affected the NSG, as follows:
- Drawing on existing expertise rather than creating new training bodies
- Identified a need for a strategy for recruiting dedicated young people, developing their skills and building an ethos of public service
- The need for staff of all levels to have authority, experience and support they needed to do their jobs
- The need for the public service to be immersed in the development agenda, but insulated from undue political influence.

The biggest influence on the priorities as set out the NSG's 2015 - 2019 strategic and annual plans were the Ministerial Directives, with  a particular focus on the induction and SMS training, and the priorities as set out in the May 2014 budget speech of the Minister of Public Service and Administration. The NSG was now prioritising options for the future as a way of testing integration and cooperation towards high volume education and learning.

NSG had responded to the development imperatives of the State through provision of customer-driven training provided by in-house training facilitators, provision of demand-driven training provided by outsourced training facilitators and partnerships, and provision of mandatory and demand-driven teaching and learning, using a hybrid model of provision and facilitation.

The NSG strategic outcomes goals for 2015-2020 included that it must show:
- A fully established, well-resourced and high performance institution
- Improved learning and development opportunities influenced by impactful research
- Cutting-edge learning and development tools, quality-driven curriculum, programmes and services responding to public service needs and training

The strategic objectives of NSG with regards to administration included:
- Implementation of effective policies that comply with legislation
- Efficient and effective fiscal, infrastructure and human resource planning to support the sustainability of the institution
- Co-ordination of utilisation of donor funded resources towards improving human capacity development

Objectives with regards to public sector staff and organisational development included:
- Implementation of effective research, knowledge management and diagnostic strategies to inform learning and development needs
- Implementation of an effective monitoring and evaluation framework to monitor the quality of learning
- Provision of reliable and accurate learning development information through the integration of core record management systems.

Prof Levin said that the summary of the 1st quarter performance showed both good and bad sides. The greatest challenge was in relation to the training management and delivery, as NSG had achieved below the set target. For training policy all the set targets were achieved, and for specialised services 100% was also achieved. Targets achieved in  corporate services were at 81% and those for finance were at 88%.

The specialised services organised by NSG included in-house course development, planning implementation of NSG programmes in collaboration with the provinces, getting academics for the Lead Facilitator Development Programmes, and training of 30 ETD staff from the Western Cape Provincial Academy to design and develop its e-Learning platform.

The average conversion from quotes to actual training in 2011-2014 had been at 47% but in 2015/16 only 24% actual training was done.

Revenue generated from training fees for the period to 30 June were R7.5 million, excluding prepayment invoices for future periods.

For the Training Policy and Planning branch, there had been scoping for projects on research capacity and culture in the public sector, development and customisation of a training needs analysis tool for Finance and Human Resources, and the NSG had undertaken 19 selected on-site evaluations of education and learning programmes and courses.

In the Corporate Management branch, 14 positions had been filled, reducing the vacancy rate from 15.4% to 11%. The 2014/15 external audit had been completed, with an unqualified audit result, and the annual internal audit plan was finalised. There had been IT hardware and solutions upgrades. Two donor funding proposals were completed and approvals had been obtained in principle.

The outstanding debtors’ book at 30 June 2015 was R33.6 million, made up of R 5.2 million for 2011, R2.3 million for 2011/12, R1.1 million for 2012/13, R6.2 million for 2013/14, R16.6 million for 2014/15 and R2.0million for the current year.

Organisational matters
Prof Levin reported that the 1st quarter performance target was significantly lower than projected, and this impacted directly on the revenue-generation. The CIP roll out was still accumulating a backlog on a monthly basis, but the NSG had engaged with State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and the ICT infrastructure projects, towards improving business efficiency. The NSG acknowledged the lack of capacity and strength in its marketing initiatives and was committed towards a new approach.

The NSG asked that the Portfolio Committee should note the 1st quarter performance and acknowledge the low numbers of public servants trained. NSG also recommended that the Committee supports the initiatives of prepayment by government departments, to ensure financial sustainability of the NSG.

Discussion

The Chairperson thanked the NSG. She expressed dissatisfaction with the NSG curriculum. She enjoined the School to focus on its internal capacity, for good achievement. She asked what had contributed to the low performance for the 1st quarter, and how this had affected the running of the institution. She wanted to know what measures were in place for the backlog of CIP, what the cost was in the assessment centre and whether the NSG would be able to implement in this coming financial year.

Mr McGluwa said there were a lot of shortfalls and areas of concern. He asked what was the time-frame for the CIP backlog and when implementation was likely to happen.

Mr van der Westhuizen asked to what extent the curriculum provided for the needs that were unique in the public service. He wondered why people were asking for quotations, but not following up on them. He asked what were the prepayment modules for booking, and he too was concerned about the CIP backlog and what the NSG was doing to address it. He asked how the NSG was aligning its programmes with the national qualifications framework. Finally, he asked if the NSG was permitted to issue certificates?

Mr Ntombela asked for an update on the current position of the 775 people trained, where they were placed and what was their current status?

Ms Dlamini said that if it was not the task of the NSG to identify people to come to the school, but that of the individual employers, then she would have thought that the NSG should at least organise a road show.

Mr van der Westhuizen asked how the 775 people trained were chosen, were they already in training, and would they utilise the impact of training. He asked how the NSG was using the assets that there were in the civil service to assist with the online training.

The Chairperson asked that the NSG should give a written response.

Prof Levin agreed that he would but just wanted to answer the questions on timeframes and backlogs, and said that the necessary authorisation from the executive was needed. A new module would be tested and if it worked, then this would be run. Costing had been done, which estimated the cost to be at R2.6 million, but the NSG was looking for funding. 144 courses were already in the curriculum. The CIP had been overly ambitious in terms of the length of time. NSG had engaged with SITA on that point.

The Chairperson asked the NSG to prepare an analysis of the curriculum, and to outline the relationship with institutions of Higher Education and Training. She said that the professionalisation of the public service entailed having servants that would perform well on ethics, adhere to Batho Pele and be ready to serve. NSG was strategically placed to make sure that South Africa would move to professionalisation.

Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) on its 1st Quarter 2015 performance
Ms Nolwazi Gasa said that the mandate of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME or the Department) included monitoring and evaluation, implementation of the medium-term strategy, ensuring synergy and improved use of resources for effectiveness and efficiency, improving the responsiveness to the needs of the public, and enhanced ability.

The Department had achieved many of the stated targets, amongst others was the payment of invoices within 30 days, obtaining a clean audit and resolving all disciplinary cases within 90 days of the cases being initiated, The Department had produced two Operation Phakisa reports by 31 March. It had produced customer satisfaction survey reports by the end of each quarter, citizen based monitoring had been implemented, there was an annual report on stakeholder engagements, and production of three briefing notes on the status of mining towns and labour sending areas.

She noted that partial achievements had been made on the production of the annual risk implementation plan and quarterly risk implementation reports, and the production of an annual communication plan . Other targets with annual aims included achieving an average of 85% systems availability on an annual basis, submission of a youth policy to Cabinet, production of four monitoring oversight reports within one month after the end of each quarter, and provision of quality advice to political principals by preparing briefing notes on 75% of Cabinet memoranda

Certain targets had not been met. The DPME had not managed to maintain a vacancy rate of less than 10% annually, and it had not produced a three-year rolling strategic internal audit plan. The vacancy rate remained high due to the staff turnover and internal promotions, and new posts had been advertised.

The under spending was R37.9million and the reason was linked to the staff turnover, some ICT and evaluation projects being behind schedule and expenditure in programme 4 being affected by the end of the term of the National Planning Commission (NPC). However, Ms Gasa was confident that the expenditure in programmes would increase once new commissioners had been appointed.

Discussion
Mr McGluwa asked that the DPME should do some investigations and a report on how many commissions were doing assessments, monitoring and evaluation, as he was worried about the possible duplication of efforts. He asked why, in some of the programmes, even where there had been achievements, less money had been spent than in some of those which showed lower or partial achievement, yet more spending.

Mr Motau asked what was the delay in filling the vacant posts, and whether this was because of lack of speciality or expertise on the part of those applying. He asked what the suitability criteria would be. He commended the DPME on those areas where it had managed to achieve 100% submission and compliance, but asked that it should reflect what it could do about the areas of non-compliance.

Mr van der Westhuizen asked about the reasoning and future plans to fill the vacant posts. Too many government entities were monitoring departments, and he agreed that there were likely to be duplications, then asked what the DPME would do about this issue. He asked to what extent it might be consolidating the data collected by all these departments who were doing monitoring.

Ms Dlamini asked when the Department was appointing a National Planning Officer. She wanted to know what comprised the capital assets.

Mr Ntombela asked who constituted the evaluation steering committee. He too wanted to know what were  the mechanisms to minimise duplication? He asked what value for money was being achieved through the evaluations.

What is the value of money in this evaluation?

Ms Gasa agreed, but commented briefly that there was coordination of evaluation reports. The Department partnered with other entities, with the DPME taking the chair. Cabinet had approved the appointment of a National Planning Officer, and announcements would be made.

The Chairperson enjoined the Department to see itself as the heart of government services, and to function as such. She reminded the Departmental officials that they were in place to make sure that people received services and to ensure that other departments would deliver services timeously. She would like to the DPME to speak to any programmes to ensure this, at its next engagement.

The meeting was adjourned.