Restructuring of Public Service: briefing

Meeting report

PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
5 March 2003
RESTRUCTURING OF PUBLIC SERVICE: BRIEFING

Chairperson: Mr P.J. Gomomo (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Presentation on Restructuring of Public Service

SUMMARY
The Minister referred to the State of the Public Service Report that was recently published by the Public Service Commission. She commented specifically about the disparity between the 'pockets of excellence' and the areas experiencing difficulty in management. One of the objectives of the restructuring process in the public service was to meet the challenges identified by the Report. The Departments were reporting to the DPSA on progress with restructuring but the Department was also closely monitoring the process so that deadlines could be met.

MINUTES
Mr Gomomo (ANC) noted that the focus of the presentation by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) would be limited to the restructuring of the public service.

Program for Planning Session
Mr M Baloyi (ANC) outlined the programme for the planning session to be held the following week, 9 to 11 March 2003.

Address by Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi
Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi introduced the DPSA presentation by highlighting current issues affecting the Department of Public Service and Administration. One major priority of the Department was to ensure the implementation of Resolution 7 of 2002 of the Pubic Service Coordinating Bargaining Council. There has been a national workshop where the respective Departments reported to the DPSA on the restructuring process.

Minster Fraser-Moleketi also touched upon the State of the Public Service Report that was published by the Public Service Commission (PSC). She commented specifically about the disparity between the 'pockets of excellence' and the areas experiencing difficulty in management. She clarified that the restructuring process in the public service was aimed at, inter alia, meeting these challenges identified by the Report.

The Minister commented that she would be intrigued to find out how many public officials, even those attending the meeting, stood in queues to get driver's licenses in the past week. She clarified her curiosity by explaining that public officials should lead by example in changing the broader attitude of doing things at the last minute.

Presentation by Department
Mr Kenny Govender (DPSA) conducted a power-point presentation.

Discussion
Mr M Waters (DP) asked whether the redeployment referred to in the presentation would take place between provinces or within the same province. More specifically, Mr Waters asked how the DPSA intended to redeploy the sixteen thousand public officials in the Eastern Cape.

Mr Govender responded that their restructuring process did provide for the redeployment of officials between provinces. National Government would provide for the redeployment of officials at a national level. He said that he was not sure of the figure provided by Mr Waters about the public officials in the Eastern Cape, but that their redeployment would be carried out in alignment with the restructuring plan.

Mr Waters referred to the presentation which mentioned that officials declared in excess would be approached with severance packages. He asked how many retrenchments the DPSA was talking about when referring to officials, declared in excess, who are applying for severance packages.

Mr Govender replied that they were not able to provide a figure at that present moment.

Mr Waters asked whether the revised severance packages would mean a reduction in benefits and if so, which benefits would be reduced.

Mr Govender noted that the severance packages would not be handed out on a voluntary basis. He said that the new packages were slightly better than the older ones, but were still in line with section 17 (b) and (c) of the Public Service Act. He noted that there were amendments of medical benefits, but overall it would be difficult to give a rough estimate of figures at that moment.

Dr Roopnarain (IFP) asked how the DPSA was planning to make the Departments reach the deadlines they had set in their revised timelines.

Mr Govender responded that this was an issue that they were currently looking into. They were even considering the avenue of getting additional people to go into the Departments and help them reach the deadlines.

Dr Roopnarain asked if the Departments were reporting regularly.

Mr Govender answered that the Departments were reporting, but the DPSA were also following up on the reports themselves.

Dr Roopnarain asked how the DPSA planned on bringing government Departments who were lagging behind in their restructuring process on board. She also asked what steps they would take should these Departments not reach their deadlines.

Mr Govender explained that they would be using the Ministers and Heads of Department to identify areas within the Department that were not co-operating with the rest of the Department in terms of reaching the deadlines. They would target these areas in trying to get the Departments up to date. They would deal with these areas accordingly should a government Department default by not reaching the proposed deadlines.

Mr Mohlala (ANC) made the point that for a public official to be labelled 'excess personnel' does not mean that they are redundant. There were other areas within the Department or within government where that particular public official would be suited for employment. It was therefore important for Departments to have proper strategic and human resource (HR) plans. He expressed his shock at the non-existence of-and the existence of incomplete- strategic plans in departments.

Mr Govender concurred with Mr Mohlala's views on the importance of strategic plans, but stated that it was unfair to say that some departments do not have strategic plans. He explained that in some cases, it is just a matter of strategic plans not being finalised. The DPSA did not want Departments to reproduce old strategic plans, but rather to go back to the drawing board and formalise new ones.

Mr Mohlala commented on the proposed use of excess personnel from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in the South African Police Services (SAPS). He said that he was not in agreement with it because of the difference in training between the SAPS and the SANDF, explaining that a soldier is trained to kill while a policeman is trained to keep peace.

Mr Govender replied that he was not in total agreement with Mr Mohlala's views. The SANDF and SAPS did have training programs in place to deal with the potential problems arising from redeployment and retirement. He cited the 'Soft Landing' program of the Defence force, which is aimed at preparing a former SANDF member for civilian life.

Mr Mohlala asked whether the DPSA plans of meeting representivity targets in public Departments could not be misconstrued as the blatant removal of one population group and replacing it with another.

Mr Govender explained that their plans of meeting representivity targets in public Departments would not be as blatant as that. They would be using the targets as a 'barometer' in cases where there was debate about who should get a particular post.

Mr Mohlala asked whether, as part of the restructuring process, it would be possible for a local government employee to be redeployed as a national government employee, thus meaning that redeployment could occur between all spheres of government.

Mr Govender replied that this was an area that they would look at as an additional form of redeployment.

Mr Mthembu (ANC) expressed his suspicion that there was a deeper problem causing disorganisation in Departments with regard to strategic plans and human resource plans. These were key management tools for any Department and they had been demanded from Departments from as early as 1994. He suggested that a further probe be undertaken to get to the root of the problem.

Mr Govender stated that government departments had been developing strategic plans, but that the difficulty they were being faced with was that of aligning them with their restructuring plans. He mentioned that there was a lack of capacity in certain Departments and there had also been a number of new Departments, contributing to the challenge of aligning strategic plans with their restructuring plans.

Mr Mthembu revealed the existence of allegations that some managers would use the redeployment process to 'settle scores' with those they do not favour in a personal capacity. He asked whether this phenomenon was indeed rife.

Mr Govender replied that they had not been approached with such disputes at the DPSA so his feeling was that it was not rife.

Mr Bell asked, with regards to the subject of employee profiles, what criteria would be used in drawing up these profiles. He expressed concern that these profiles could surely be used positively and negatively.

Mr Govender replied that they drew up employee profiles by using objective criteria and they did not base these profiles on performance. They used criteria such as 'qualification', 'current and past experience', 'training requirements' and 'additional skills and competencies'.

Mr Bell asked who would be monitoring the policy of meeting representivity targets in Departments to ensure that it is being used fairly.

Mr Govender said that the DPSA would be responsible for monitoring this.

Dr Mbulawa-Hans (ANC) asked whether the DPSA, in developing their redeployment strategy, had evaluated cases where redeployment had failed to avoid repeating the same mistakes. She mentioned the disastrous manner in which redeployment was carried out in the Eastern Cape Education Department as an example.

Mr Govender mentioned that he had been part of the failed redeployment process in the Eastern Cape. He said that the assessment of such case studies had been done, but he felt that it had not been done as extensively as it ought to have been.

Dr Roopnarain asked whether the imposition of early retirement was a fair labour practice or not.

Mr Govender answered that it was a fair labour practice and that it was designed as a mechanism to allow the officials to leave on a voluntary basis.

Mr Gomomo (Chairperson) said that in order for Departments to reach their targets by June, the Premiers of the Provinces needed to be involved.

The meeting was adjourned.