Government employees pensions payout: PSC, GEPF & PIC inputs; Gender & Disability equity in public service: DPSA report

Meeting report

Public Service Commission
Mr Dovhani Mamphiswana, Director General, Public Service Commission (PSC), presented the 2nd and 3rd Quarter Performance for the 2016/17 financial year and gave an update regarding the appointment of the Commissioners as voted by the Portfolio Committee on 23rNovember 2016. Advocate Richard Khaliphile Sizani, Ms Clara Phumelele Nzimande and Dr Tholumuzi Bruno Luthuli have assumed duty as Commissioners following their appointment by the President on 1 February and 16 January 2017 respectively. The President also designated Adv Sizani as the Chairperson of the Public Service Commission. There was merely one Commissioner vacancy existed and it was based in the Gauteng Province. Before the 2nd and 3rd quarters the Commission took a decision in May 2016 to manage the National Anti- Corruption Hotline (NACH), which took place upon expiration of contract with the service provider Deloitte on 31 December 2016 within the 3rd quarter. This was done on an in-house basis in order to reduce costs. Thus, as of 1 January 2017, the Commission was managing the NACH internally, of which the call centre was available five days a week and 11 hours per day. The Commission had also implemented the Video Conferencing facility to reduce travel related costs.

Mr Mamphiswana began with a summary of performance, which highlighted that the overall performance of the Commission was on track to meet 80% of its annual targets. The targets of most of the outputs of the Commission were set for completion in the fourth quarter of the financial year. Major challenges were due to a lack of financial resource capacity; the need for further research, and third party performance, such as slow or inadequate responses from departments as well as procurement of office accommodation by the Department of Public Works (DPW). Of the Annual Performance Plan 19% of targets were achieved in the first and second quarters; 12% were exceeded or achieved earlier than the due date stipulated to have achieved the target; 8% of targets were achieved, viz. 11 targets with one target achieved late, and 61% were on track to meet the work plan targets. During the period under review, the Commission continued with the investigation of grievances and of the 580 grievances lodged 78% were finalised. A trends analysis of grievances was also conducted and a Factsheet was accordingly published. The rules on the referral and investigation of grievances by the Commission were gazetted in October 2016 and various advocacy workshops were accordingly conducted, in order to raise awareness of these rules with the departments concerned. The PSC also had engagements with various stakeholders on the Promotion of Constitutional Values and Principles and commenced pilot assessments in three departments. The Commission was delighted to announce that inspections were concluded in health facilities in the Provinces of Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and North West, as well as border gates in the Free State and Mpumalanga. Inspections in respect of the value chain on the availability of learning material at selected schools were conducted in January 2017. 56% of the 283 complaints lodged with the Commission were investigated and concluded during the period under review.

Mr Mamphiswana noted a snapshot of the financial report, which was the expenditure against the budget as at 31st December 2016 that was the end of the 3rd quarter. The adjusted budget for 2016/17 was R229 million; expenditure as at 31 December 2016 was R170 million, resulting in an available budget of R58 million. The norm of expenditure by now should be 75%, of which the Commission had spent 74.26% of its allocated expenses, and thus, has a variance of 0.74%. The spending per Economic Classification highlighted that the bulk of the budget was spent on Compensation of Employees, which was R131 million, and next for Goods and Services, which was R37 million. Total budget of R229 million was allocated amongst Four Programmes as well as Commission; the Office of the Director General and Corporate Services. The Commission had an adjusted annual budget of R18 million with R14 million spent to date, of which was 77.88% on spending. The Office of the Director General had an adjusted annual budget of R11 million with R8 million spent to date, which was 75.52%. The Corporate Services had an adjusted annual budget of R72 million with R52 million spent to date, which was 73.25%. The Commission had colour-coded the targets, called Outputs, within the Programmes as ‘On Track’ in yellow, ‘Achieved’ in green and ‘Not Achieved’ in the colour red, for simplification in the presentation.

Programme 1: Administration
The adjusted budget for Programme 1: Administration for the financial year 2016/17 was R102 million; the expenditure for December was R7 million and the expenditure to date at the end of the 3rd quarter was R76 million, which was a total 74.38% of allocated budget spent. The Risk based annual and three-year Audit Plan developed and implemented, and Review of the Promotion of Access to Information Manual conducted outputs were on track. The outputs of PSC Annual Report to Citizens produced, Annual Performance Plan produced and Implementation of the Service Delivery Improvement Plans (SDIP) monitoring were achieved. The output of Expenditure against budget properly monitored to ensure that funds surrendered to the National Treasury did not exceed 2% was on track. Thus far, the output of Clean Audit Report received - 100% reduction of all audit findings relating to financial prescripts was achieved. The Efficient and effective asset management and 100% updated asset register output, as well as Supply Chain Management (SCM) policy implemented in compliance with prescripts and guidelines outputs were on track. The output not achieved was that of the Office of PSC that had leased immovable properties expected to be properly maintained. The videoconference and Internet Protocol Telephony implemented in five PSC offices with the hope that it shall garner results with the financial resources was an output that was achieved early. Similarly, the output of having five customised training programmes conducted was an exceeded target, because it was achieved before the set date of March 2017. Another output not achieved for Programme 1 was the Bi-Annual performance assessments conducted, which was to have been completed by the end of the first six months or 2nd quarter, but Bi-annual reviews for 14 employees were outstanding, due to the employees having been on sabbatical or maternity leave or there were disputes on the assessments of supervisors being attended too. However, the PSC had since addressed those.

Programme 2: Leadership and Management Practice (LMP)
The adjusted budget for Programme 2: Leadership and Management Practice for the financial year 2016/17 was R32 million; the expenditure for December was R3.2 million and the expenditure to date at the end of the 3rd quarter was R28 million, which was a total 75.11% of allocated budget spent. The output of Grievance Management has had 60% of the target already exceeded. In total, of the 580 grievances, 455 (78%) were finalised/closed and 125 (22%) were pending. Regarding the two Technical briefs on departmental grievance resolution compiled, one Technical brief on departmental grievance resolution was achieved and the other Drafting of second Technical brief was on track. The output of having one Factsheet on trends analysis on grievances conducted was achieved. The output of having two Newsletters published was on track.

Programme 3: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
The adjusted budget for Programme 3: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) for the financial year 2016/17 was R55 million; the expenditure for December was R3 million and the expenditure to date at the end of the 3rd quarter was R26 million, which was a total 80.79% of allocated budget spent. This Programme had nine outputs that were on track, as its targeted date for completion was the end of March 2017. Twelve outputs constructed for the Programme had either been achieved or exceeded to date. The output behind schedule was the Citizens Forum Toolkit applied in the North-West Province after which two reports were expected. The output held a meeting at Mahikeng Local Municipality in November 2016. There were delays, due to difficulty in securing the availability of stakeholders, especially because of local elections, given the collaborative nature of the project. PSC was aware that the provincial- based Commissioner had already started to engage with the Executive at that level, which was on track to ensure that the finalisation, in spite of the delay, would occur. Programme 3 had one other output that was not achieved, but deferred for the financial year of 2017/18.
           
Programme 4: Integrity and Anti- corruption (IAC)
The adjusted budget for Programme 4: Integrity and Anti- corruption (IAC) for the financial year 2016/17 was R55 million; the expenditure for December was R3.9 million and the expenditure to date at the end of the 3rd quarter was R38 million, which was a total 69.57% of allocated budget spent. The output of the Investigations conducted either of its own accord or on receipt of any complaint lodged and requests for investigations was not achieved on time. This was because PSC had envisaged having 80% of provisional reports on complaints approved within 3 months from date of receipt of all relevant documentation, but 72% of investigations were finalised within 3 months of receipt of all relevant documentation, which was a shortfall of 8% by the due date. Challenges were the delays incurred by departments to have provided the relevant documentation and the difficulty to secure appointments with complainants, which were necessary for effective investigation by PSC to evoke a decision of resolve. The other target not achieved in Programme 4 was the Investigation of complaints through early resolution, which should have had 80% of early resolution reports on complaints approved within 45 days from receipt of the complaint

Discussion
Ms W Newhoudt-Druchen (DA) thanked the PSC for the presentation, and asked for a breakdown of the kinds of grievances it received with reference to the 580 grievances that PSC received in Programme 2 as at 31 December 2016. What examples could be given? Secondly, could the Commission explain what Section 100 intervention entailed? It was cited as an unachieved target for Programme 3.

Mr S Motau (DA) noted that presumably a report on the trend analysis was supposed to be done concerning the issues that arose to the PSC, and if so, what was the most common complaint received for review by the Commission? Secondly, why was there yet a problem with accommodation of offices for the National Office and one other provincial office? Had the Department of Public Works (DPW) incurred problems in securing a venue or was the problem financial; what was the issue? Thirdly, with reference to the target unachieved in Programme 3, page 30, it cites that there were “challenges to obtain the required documentation to conduct the study”. Why had PSC encountered challenges to acquire the relevant documentation from the departments or personnel? Was this because they had not taken the PSC seriously? Or was it a matter that the PSC had required more teeth so that co-operation could occur upon request, as previously deliberated in this Committee? Was it a matter that the public sector was insouciant or just unprepared to co-operate with the PSC?

The Chairperson added that PSC had wanted to devise a report based on post- evocation of Section 100 intervention, but had noted a challenge to obtain the required documentation to justify deferral of the target to the following year. This may highlight the neglect of IT transparency that its provincial website should have had, because departments should be transparent with particular information on its websites that were accessible to everyone. The PSC should, thus, pay attention to reporting done by the departments, as well as the clustering of the Commissioners, due to information that it should have. For instance, as late as December 2016/ January 2017 there was an issue regarding the delivery of books to a centre in Limpopo, which means that that report was critical to indicate whether an improvement had or not occurred after the removal of Section 100. Issues such as the problem of accommodation and the need to review targets of unreported cases should highlight the consideration that PSC should have of its perception in the public media amongst civil society. For the Committee - consideration should be made to re-invite (since 2015) the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation (DWS) to convene, as well as with Statistics South Africa (StatsSA). Since there was uncertainty regarding the role of StatsSA, where their role ends, its impact on other departments and the performance it had displayed amongst the departments. This may serve as means of assisting PSC for obtaining information, but had not meant that PSC should not elevate the concern accordingly. Another issue was the Monitoring and Evaluation aspect of Programme 3. This reflects the relationship that PSC had with the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), which seemingly appears as a thin line of dedication.  

Mr Ben M Mthembu, Deputy Chairperson, PSC, answered that there were approximately ten kinds of complaints, for example issues on salary disputes, performance or unfair appointments of personnel. The most common complaint or problem revolved around performance management, especially about the allocation of points related to point progression. Appointments were the second most common complaint that had followed this. For instance, the lack of short- listed candidates or unfair appointments. Next were salary related problems, for instance some public servants had not received their salaries timeously or at all. In the analogy of PSC those three were the most common complaints received. On another matter, with relation to DPW, the demarcated building was told to have been temporary accommodation, because the building that PSC had wanted for permanent residence was told to have had non-alignment to the standards set, of which its choice was then rejected. PSC was told that its accommodation should be within the heart of the CBD of Pretoria for the sake of relevance, but even so the location had proven problematic. However, the most serious factor about accommodation was that the building itself was an old building, which was left unused for approximately five years. This had evoked a severe problem with the health of the employees. A number of employees had alerted that their doctors had diagnosed the attribution of their sicknesses to the quality of the air. More than four officials had doctorcCertificates that had explicitly indicated such. The problem that this further evokes was that as an employer PSC might be sued. Some employees have requested permission to work from their homes, due to the desire to preserve their health and prevent attraction of air-borne sickness. As an employer granting this permission had proven complicated, because should the initial employees be granted this privilege other employees would hear of it and request the same, of which cannot be denied, because refusing them may seem partial.

Therefore, this seemed a big challenge. It also seems that the DPW was not up to speed as it meant to be. Hence the summons that had occurred due to non-co-operation, but a timeline of three months was given after which no resolve further should occur DPW shall no longer be responsible for securing the building of PSC, but alternative avenues, such as National Treasury would be exhorted. However, other problems and complications had since emerged compounding the problem, even though it was already severe. Thus, PSC would like to appeal to the Portfolio Committee to consider this problem, because there is a possibility that its employees may sue PSC and such would incur significant financial repercussions. Regarding the challenges to obtain the documents PSC does have the power to summon whomever necessary to submit it. Hence, the relevant province would be called to account for its personnel that had failed to submit the relevant documents, because constitutionally it was unacceptable. Section 100 could be explained that when a department or provincial government was unable to carry out its mandate and such gross maladministration had occurred that either National Treasury or National Government (NG) have had to evoke its powers to take over and conduct whatever necessary to address the causes of the maladministration. National Ministers from the Departments of Public Works, Education and National Treasury were sent to Limpopo to evoke a difference that had been indicated to manifest in a year or so. Thus, the intentions of the PSC were that it would assess the extent to which those measures of interventions have had adequately addressed the issues and causes of maladministration.

Mr Mamphiswana elaborated that regarding outstanding delivery of the books in Limpopo, the PSC was conducting inspections in the provinces, after which the reports of happenstances would be available for presentation after its finalisation to the Committee.

Mr Motau noted a follow-up query on the issue of the National Office building. Some of those present would recall the ‘Sick- Building- Syndrome’ that occurred a few years ago. It appears that the PSC have had the Sick-Building Syndrome in their building. This means that PSC needs to get hold of the Department of Health (DoH) to conduct on-site inspections in order to either fix or condemn the building. On the other matter, it is agreed that due to the power that PSC was constitutionally endowed with, public servants should not defy the PSC when co-operation was requested of them.

The Chairperson added that PSC should have consolidated a report of Health and Safety Risks, which could have warranted a stance of the condition of the building, whilst DoH would conduct on-site inspections to ascertain the probability of further utilising the building and its risks for the employees.

The Chairperson concluded with a request of PSC to revert to the amendments to the Bill under review by mid- June 2017, as its amendments had been pending since late 2015, of which further delay would equate unfairness. The Committee would want to convene with DPW, due to the challenges that had been identified by PSC. Also, the report stipulating Health and Safety Risks from the building of the National Office location was necessary to garner appropriate support from the Committee. Lastly, since PSC was investigating the delivery of schoolbooks in all of the Provinces, could future reporting include the challenges incurred that would prohibit early or timely delivery of schoolbooks? What prohibits delivery of schoolbooks by December for the following academic year, so that panic would be prevented in January? Delay due to whatever reason would merely extend the negative cause into the new academic year, whereas efficiency would deal with whatever the hurdle was, by preventing it to advance into the new academic year. Hence, PSC should assist the departments pertaining to education. Additionally, what stops the release of results in December, because whatever trauma the pupils would encounter due to the results was inevitable, but it was merely delayed? The Chairperson concluded by noting that the Department of Education was weary to alter such tradition, but it was an unwritten tradition. It merely required, however, of PSC and the Committee to apply teeth for its change. She thanked the PSC for the presentation and asked that it ensure that targets cited as “on track” would be met by means of full application of it, as opposed to decreasing the targets should inability be foreseen. Should any other department not co-operate with PSC it would be highlighted to the Committee, which shall assist accordingly.  

National School of Government
Mr Dino Poonsamy, Chief Director: Strategic Cycle Management, Department: National School of Government (NSG), presented the 2nd and 3rd Quarter Performance for the 2016/17 financial year.
There was an improvement in performance, as compared to the first quarter performance, particularly regarding the figures of training offered. There were other forms of work that NSG was involved with at the level of Local Government (LG). Also, there were engagements with state entities that were quite keen in training through the NSG. On the highlights of the performance of NSG (see slide 4); in August 2016, the NSG entered into an MOU with South African Local Government (SALGA) to collaborate in capacity building in local government, targeting top leaders in local government and induction programmes for councillors and senior managers. 8 154 newly elected municipal councillors and traditional leaders have been trained during the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the financial year in five weeks. In terms of the performance targets in the APP, a total of 30 against 34 targets were achieved in the third quarter. This translates to an overall achievement of 88%.

Programme 1 had 16 targets of which 15 were achieved as planned. The unachieved target related to the business process mapping within NSG, of which the broader work around it had been undertaken. 11 training functions were reviewed with mapping processes regarding the re-engineering of those processes to garner maximum administrative efficiency out of all of it. Hence, the work outstanding was the development of the Standing Operative Procedure, of which it was hoped that by the end of the financial year that target would be achieved

Programme 2 had 18 targets planned for the quarter, 15 targets were achieved whilst 3 targets were not achieved. The targets of training versus its delivery in April to December 2016 reflected 82% achievement towards annual target. The target for training was set for 52 600 trainees, and 43 233 trainees were trained in face-to face settings; via e-Learning or Councillors Induction. This means that NSG was merely short of 9 367 people to train to meet the annual target. In terms of the training streams NSG had seemed to be on track for the financial year. The Induction Stream was slow, as the target was 29 850 for the compulsory induction, but only 22 255 individuals had undergone induction to date. A quarter target not met for Programme 2 was to orientate 700 unemployed youth graduates through the BB2E Programme, of which 613 unemployed youth graduates were trained through the BB2E Programme. Overall above the quarter target NSG have had trained 1700 unemployed graduates year-to-date. Remedial action included processes to explore other sources of funding, for instance the funding received from the European Union (EU). The target for generated revenue remained a challenge, because the revenue generated was projected at R40 million for the quarter, but revenue generated amounted to R28 775 370, which was 80% of the projected amount
           
Mr Poonsamy cited the Financial Performance, Human Resource Management and Corporate Governance. Financial Performance entailed the Vote Account, which was spent at 73% of the annual budget to date, but had been spent at 93% of the 3rd quarter budget. The 3rd quarter Actual Total Revenue received regarding the Trading Account was R83.7 million, which included training granted as well as interest on accounts. NSG noted the shortfall pertaining to figures of those trained, and there was pursuit to complete the target amounts for the financial year, of which there was hope to escalate revenue from it

Human Resource Oversight encompassed a total of 227 posts on the approved establishment for Programme 1 and Programme 2 with 207 posts filled, representing a vacancy rate of 8, 8% by 30 December 2016, which was below the target set for vacancies. Employment equity entailed ratios of 39.1% of male employees; 60.9% female employees, and 1.9% of employees with disabilities respectively. In terms of employment equity for Senior Management there was almost an equal split, which was 51% of Senior Manager Staff (SMS) being female and 49% of SMS were male. Corporate Governance environment encompassed that a new Internal Audit Committee was appointed and the first audit meeting was held with them on 31January 2017. Work was on track regarding Risk Management. The Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) was being closely monitored and managed in order to ensure institutional compliance. Performance Agreements of all new employees were signed within the required timeline. All NSG staff members were encouraged to fill their financial disclosure forms. One member of the SMS did not disclose on time, and disciplinary action was accordingly taken. In conclusion, whilst the progress of NSG was acknowledged, as overall 82% of the targets were achieved, there were some areas that yet remained a challenge for NSG, but it had since been prioritised. Also, NT had approved funding for the establishment of a Sales Unit within the NSG, of which such initiative was aspiring for more rigorous marketing.

Discussion
Mr Motau noted that he was a manager by training, thus targets were important, but now that he was a politician by profession, the interest was whether the training given had an impact down to the ground-level. NSG existed to ensure that public servants received the proper training that was deserved to evoke efficiency. It seemed to be a recurring issue from time-to-time over the years, but the question now poses, was the NSG making an effort at ground level amongst public servants it had produced? It seemed there was always the problem that departments refused to send their employees to NSG for training, which then posed another question, why was it yet available? Could NSG from its own perspective note that it had indeed made a difference and if not, why not? The other matter of concern was the cited conclusion that NSG would market itself rigorously by means of establishment of a new Sales Unit. By now, NSG should have been well known and familiar amongst governmental departments as the preferred choice to UNISA or any other Higher Education Institution (HEI). Hence, was NSG certain that its new marketing strategy would ensure renown?

Ms Newhoudt-Druchen requested clarity on slide 17 that indicated that 227 posts were appointed for Programmes 1 and 2, of which 207 posts were filled - had this meant that 20 posts were yet vacant?

The Chairperson commented that since performance of the 2nd and 3rd quarter was under review, NSG would indicate whether it could assure that at the end of the financial year issues previously raised by the Office of the Auditor-General (AG) would have been addressed. Since NSG had previously received a Clean Audit Report, but particular issues of concern that required attention in this financial year were highlighted, and left unresolved the issues would perpetuate. Secondly, how had NSG concluded that its employment equity had merely 1.9% of people with disabilities? What had informed that conclusion, because the target was supposed to have been 2%? Thirdly, what conditions were set upon receipt of the funds given by the EU? Since all funds received came with conditions. Additionally, had NSG managed to spend all of the funds allocated to it, or was the situation of “rollover funds” of last financial year going to be repeated? Which other countries were benefitting from the said funding of the EU? Fourthly, had NSG garnered a relationship with the unemployed graduates that would result in employment for them post-training? If this was not occurring, it was advised that such relationship should form for their economic self-sustenance. Fifthly, other modes of marketing other than that which was known should be pursued to popularise the existence of NSG and its products amongst the departments, some of which were oblivious of the existence of NSG, as well as amongst the youth of South Africa. An example of this would be via means of social media to attract youth to the public sector.

The Chairperson wanted to know clarity in regard to the pre-paid methods of payment, could NSG confirm whether the MOU had stipulated amounts of managers or personnel that it should have trained as public servants? What would happen if the money allocated were not utilised, would the funds be returned and if so, how would the accounting books be balanced? Was that funds regarded as a revenue collection received within the accounting books? Or was the pre-paid payment method a forgotten form of payment, such as a fiscal dumping? Regardless, it should be accounted for one way or the other to ensure accounting accuracy. Next, the relationship with SALGA should prove profitable since the country had recently emerged from the elections. Was there any specific training which were still provided for municipalities? Perhaps answering this would prove difficult, due to some of the training being outsourced, neither were all of the training accredited.

Mr Poonsamy responded that the extent of impact could be explained as follows; there was work that the NSG had conducted from a monitoring and evaluation perspective to try and understand the application of learning and how it was changing in some of the programmes. There was currently a process that had four applications of learning studies undertaken, in terms of reviewing the difference that the training had made on an individual basis, from the time preceding the receipt of training to the time that training was done. This was an important area that NSG should focus on, as it broadly considers the public sector as a whole and the skills required for competence from the ground up and the impact that the training had incurred. Thus, there existed some work that NSG had done to review the impact of the training. Largely, NSG was considering the kinds of compliance training required to put in place that would make an impact regarding changing the manner how public servants were delivering public service, such as the issues around financial delegations and so forth. This was some area of work that NSG have needed to consider beyond what it was currently monitoring and evaluating the programmes and really review the impact that it made within the public service in general. This risen concern had been noted and shall be discussed with the Principal to revise the impact of the training given.

The Chairperson clarified that by no means NSG was suggesting by the cited answer that it had never considered the impact of its training conducted?

Mr Poonsamy answered that indeed the application of learning studies was the current means of considering the impact of its training on an individual basis, but a deeper level of the impact pertaining to the community of public service would now be revised. In terms of the marketing much more rigorous work was yet required within the public sector, because NSG was known in the public sector, but many times it was misunderstood as the predecessor organisations that had amalgamated. Thus, there was a whole changed process that NSG needed to undertake for the marketing initiatives. NSG was trying by all means to engage with institutions and engaged with individuals. The more recent platform of social media had provoked thought on how NSG could market and engage around it. Funding received from NT would at least establish the Sales Unit that would advance the extent and type of marketing that NSG aspires for.

He also answered that the number of vacant posts was correct, as it resulted between the number of the Vote and Trade account. There were posts at different levels starting right at the very senior level of management, such as the Director- General, which had vacant posts, going down to SMS positions as well as lower-levels of the organisation. However, processes were in place to fill these posts, such as interviews conducted and advertisements thereof. The employment equity of 1.9% of employees with disabilities entailed that the number of people taken was measured against filled posts. In total, and this stands to correction, there were about three or four persons with disabilities employed by the organisation. Of municipal training, municipal footprint continued to expand, with the NSG signing a three-year MOA with the City of Cape Town, as well as with the Buffalo City Municipality, for the delivery of identified Leadership and Management Training programmes. Also, the MOU signed with SALGA to collaborate in capacity building in Local Government (LG) would help with further municipal training. Some programmes related specifically to LG and the Minister of Finance.

Ms Phindile Mkwanazi, Chief Financial Officer, NSG, responded on pre-paid payments. NSG had MOU with the departments, of which the opportunity was warranted that should they change their minds about the original training that they had signed up for they could swop it for something else or even request reimbursement of their payments. Thus, within the accounting books it would reflect as money owed, which meant that those who had requested their funds back would be classified as Creditors. Their reimbursements were, thus, not reflected as revenue received, but as finances that would outflow. On the matter of the relationship with the MRDP, it should be assured that NSG also uses its database to attract youth for training.

Ms Newhoudt- Druchen asked for clarity, if the training could be swopped or stopped inasmuch that they could request reimbursement, was the training presumably not compulsory?

The Chairperson also asked for an update on the Business Model Unit in terms of internal revenue to sustain the organisation. What financial assistance was self-derived, as opposed to heavy reliance on NT, as external dependence cannot be an ongoing concern?

Ms Mkwanazi answered that some of the training was not compulsory, but were pursued on the basis of choice. This was because some of the courses were constructed for areas of speciality, for instance a public servant in the finance sector may need to complete certain courses after his/her degree for practical competence, which would be completed via NSG. There were some compulsory courses such as the Service Delivery Programme and the Induction Programme. Other courses were chosen beyond it based on the expertise required for the occupation. Regarding funding, it had still served as a challenge, because NSG was competing with universities and other private sector trainers. However, the training offered by NSG was tailor made for public servants, inclusive of how to execute the service required of them, as universities would grant the theoretical overview of the functionality of government, but it faltered to teach practical know-how of applying the knowledge for public servants. NSG and NT were in discussion to devise a plan of how the organisation would best be funded. Since if the mechanism of teaching would be exclusively moved to online learning, such as eLearning, because it was easier to pursue, the outcome would reflect a drop of revenue received for NSG, which would result in lack of sustenance for the organisation. Therefore, it would be required of NT to consider funding NSG in a better way. Regarding the plans, the Principal upon his return could do a presentation to the Portfolio Committee indicating that which was requested.

The Chairperson added not only the Plans, but the progress regarding its implementation should be presented as well.

Ms Mkwanazi also clarified that regarding the AG, the organisation had checked upon the issues raised by means of the Internal Controls. Thus far, the NSG could foresee a Clean Audit for the financial year of 2016/17, but surely the Auditor- General would divulge matters that may have been missed. However, it should be reiterated that NSG was positive that it would receive a recurring Clean Audit.

Ms Mary Ledwaba, Chief Director: International Relations and Communications (ISPAC), NSG, answered that the NSG received an amount of €10 million from the European Union, and the money shall only be available for usage as of 1 April 2017. Conditions for using the money were as follows: firstly, the EU has a category called the Direct Management and a category called the Indirect Management. There were four Key Result Areas that shall be funded under this project. Key Result Areas 1-3 were the improvement of the systems of the departments, of which Mr Poonsamy had addressed when he referenced the mapping of the systems. NSG had also included strengthening of the curriculum and programmes taught, as well as improving the actual trainers to ensure that they were sufficiently competent to deliver training and adequately qualified. Key Result Area 4 included local institutions; regional institutions as well as international institutions. Thus, the first three Key Result Areas would fall beneath the category of Indirect Management, which meant that the EU shall procure part of the NSG and any activity that was budgeted for or carried out under such categorisation. However, the NSG would be involved with the drafting of terms of reference to acquire a service provider who could carry out the mandate on behalf of the organisation. The Direct Management, which was the Key Result Area for collaboration, the NSG would receive funds, delegate it and directly procure its management. This money would be deposited into the RDP fund under NT, of which whenever NSG would need to procure a service it would need to submit a request for funding to NT.

The Chairperson noted that NSG would take an interest in the content to ensure that the mind-sets of public servants produced would enhance and advance South Africa, as opposed to adhering standards that were applicable elsewhere. Hence why Committee Members requested the relevance and impact of the training received. Once NSG reverts the impact of training in specific areas should be highlighted. For instance, after the evocation of Section 100 the impact of training in Limpopo should be advised, as there should areas that would require training, because it had initially lacked it and have subsequently incurred maladministration?

The Chairperson thanked the National School of Government, the Portfolio Committee anticipates the report of the 4th quarter of the financial year 2016/17, of which reporting on the business plan for the following financial year 2017/18 was expected too. Lastly, resolve of the concerns that arose, such as the extent of impact, pre- paid payment and rigorous marketing, expected to be addressed by then too.

Briefing by the Centre for Public Service Innovation
Ms Thuli Radebe, Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Public Service Innovation introduced Mr Schoonraad who would do the presentation.

Mr Pierre Schoonraad, Chief Director: Research and Director, CPSI presented the 2nd and 3rd Quarter Performance for the 2016/17 financial year. The report by the Auditor- General resulted as a Clean Audit Report, of which the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) was delighted about, because it was the first independent audit and its outcome was positive. However, the AG had advised that it was one matter to achieve the Clean Audit and it was another matter to retain it. Subsequently, the CPSI was still working hard in that regard.

During the 2nd Quarter period the organisation had 21 Targets. As at the end of September 19 (90%) targets were achieved and 2 (10%) targets were not achieved. At least three service delivery challenges were investigated and possible solutions identified. The 2nd quarter unachieved target was to have had one service delivery challenge investigated and potential solutions identified. Progress during the 3rd quarter was that a process was initiated to post challenge on the OpenIX Exchange to find a new solution, which had meant that the target was on track to be achieved by the end of the financial year. However, admittedly it was one of those targets that could take on a life of its own once investigations of the challenges began, which meant that solutions possibly may not be acquired by the end of the financial year and even if so, the solutions shall then require a development process, which further entails that it could either be completed before or after schedule. At the moment one of the challenges that was worked on, was with the Department of Home Affairs, such as the needed upgrade to service delivery at its front offices, as they were not satisfied with the reporting in the media that took place on their service delivery and any challenges that they encounter, for instance the length of the queues

During the 3rd Quarter period the organisation had 22 Targets and 20 (91%) of the targets were achieved and 2 (9%) were not achieved as at end of December 2016. Highlights in the 3rd quarter of Programme 1: Administration included the formation and signing of seven policies, inasmuch that CPSI have become self-sustainable and no longer just adopted the policies of DPMSA. Highlights in the 3rd quarter for Programme 2 were the replication programmes and some pilot projects. It should be reminded that some of the projects had derived from the awards programmes or approach from governmental departments. Its completion would take place over several years, thus the process to scale it within the financial year may result that the programme shall then reflect within financial reports over six or seven years, which means that the Committee shall hear of the same projects for a few years until its completion. It was called multi- year projects. In Gauteng Province, Chris Hani Baragwaneth, Far East Rand, Leratong and Tembisa hospitals have had their Chief Executive Officers and clinical managers trained for the implementation of the Blood and Blood Products Saving Programme. This was achieved with various stakeholders, which had trained up to 300 doctors and clinical managers.

Other highlights for the 3rd Quarter included the CPSI Innovation Awards Programme, which had identified projects adjudicated and the Finalist workshop was conducted on 30 October 2016. Also, for the first time in response to a request from NT, a new category on “Saving Government Money” was added to Awards Ceremony, and it had resulted in interesting projects. Limpopo Revenue Enhancement Project was the winning project in this category, as in the past Limpopo had only generated a total of 1.4% of their budget. The increase went from R500 million to R800 million revenue generated. An innovation that eliminated cable theft in a municipality was another strong finalist. The GEMS Award for the best innovation in the health sector was also introduced. Subsequently, eight projects from the CPSI Awards were entered into the All Africa Public Sector Innovation Awards (AAPSIA) Programme. Of these, two runners-up and one category winner were rewarded during a ceremony held in Addis Ababa on 9 December 2016. 

Mr Schoonraad concluded that when the targets that were not achieved in the 3rd quarter was reviewed, it reiterated the issue of service delivery and the posting thereof, such as the OpenIX Exchange. Discussions were held with Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJCD) to support in-house innovation programme to address challenges. Investigation of DoJCD identified challenges will commence and be concluded in Quarter 4. Expenditure performance for the 3rd Quarter 2016/17 indicated that CPSI had spent 68.92% of its budget for April – December 2016. Slide 13 reflects the expenditure per component and slide 14 reflects expenditure per economic classification respectively.

Discussion
Ms Newhoudt-Druchen thanked the delegation of CPSI for the presentation, and noted that there was no questions to ask, but there was a comment about Home Affairs to be made. Notably, the progress made within Home Affairs offices was commendable as it was impressively more efficient. However, the queues outside it had proven still quite long. She gave testimony that her father would be 80 years old in July 2017, and about two weeks ago, he stood in a queue at Home Affairs that was quite long, whilst her mother had longed to stand in a queue for her Smart-ID card, but could not do so given the length of the queue. Yet once inside of the Home Affairs office the process was impressively very efficient. During the vacation a deaf-and-blind person whom queried his passport was asked to revert the following day, due to the long queues, of which he had and, thus, was assisted immediately. Hence, behind the counter there was efficiency, but before reaching it the waiting was much too long, which could be troublesome for the elderly as well.

Mr Motau echoed what was just highlighted as exactly the point. Right now, there were couple of programmes during the past week on both Cape Talk and SA Fm radio stations and on both of it all of the complaints that they had received from callers were about the tedious lines at Home Affairs. He appealed to CPSI to assist Home Affairs, especially regarding the registration of the youth as first-time Identity Document holders, it could optimise efficiency in the long run. Another matter of curiosity was the issue of cable-theft. It was a huge issue in the country, therefore what happened in this particular case that cited its minimisation?  

The Chairperson noted excitement on the improvement of revenue collection in Limpopo based on the previous deliberations by the Committee. However, it was hoped that there shall be no government official who shall claim a performance bonus because of the R300 million increased revenue collection. If the accounting books were to be entirely balanced it would be nonsensical to award a correction that should have been standard, let alone a contradiction of the core mandate of public service. Yet such concern was not in the scope of CPSI to be concerned about, but was a consideration that had needed to be forewarned. Could CPSI revert with a manner to standardised e-Filing. For instance, a relative deceased earlier in this year, and according to the memory of family members the gravesite was purchased, but the proof of payment could not be found. Consequently, the undertakers/burial personnel claimed that they could not assist unless a mountain of other paperwork to suffice proof was submitted, such as the proof of residence, proof of marriage and several other particulars. The exorbitant number of particulars was requested just because the undertakers could not ascertain, by means of the Identity Document, on their system that the purchase was made. Therefore, there should exist an innovative manner that could digitalise documentation when relevant, as when a gravesite was purchased, so that the system would reflect the transaction instantaneously with the input of the ID number. This process of scanning or digitalisation was imperative given the possibility of offices that could be burnt down and so lose hard copies of information. CPSI assistance on such matter was required.

In relation to the multiple-year projects that were cited, the Chairperson observed that CPSI have not previously noted the milestones of most of its programmes, and so it seemed as though a repetition of reporting, as opposed to progression of a project, which made it difficult to know to which extent the project was at and how far it had still needed to grow given the initial cited timeline. Lack of milestones given made it seem as though the projects were stagnate and its growth could, thus, not be appreciated accordingly. The CPSI should continue to do the good work that it does. It should also proceed with a robust and active relationship with the sector of Science and Technology, particularly regarding activities of innovation.

Mr Schoonraad answered that regarding the outside queues of Home Affairs; CPSI was excited about the attitude of the Home Affairs officials, because they have made the mind shift to find solutions and have subsequently requested the assistance of CPSI. The leadership of the Minister of Home Affairs had been critical in this regard. The Department of Home Affairs should also be thanked as they had invited the Minister to a conference held by the CPSI two years ago, and he had actually attended twice since the invitation. Exposure to the conferences have helped trigger engagements with the Minister, thus one should not underestimate the ministerial panels of departments, as their leadership encourages the culture within the departments. The tedious queues outside of Home Affairs were the very catalyst that sought the assistance of CPSI. Since they have not had real-time information of the occurrences at their offices intervention for the problems as it was happening could not occur, which was why some offices have had fast-moving queues and others could not account for their slow-moving queues. Home Affairs had felt that the current instrument that they had used was unsatisfactory, thus it was a positive notion that they had realised that it was unhelpful for proper service delivery. CPSI will be working directly with its innovators in the National System of Innovation, which shall help Home Affairs develop an in-house solution for the slow movement of queues and the complaints of citizens that should be directed to Senior Management would be done timeously. This formulated part of the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Office Improvement Initiative.

Regarding cable theft, CPSI would prefer bypassing granting too much information about this project at this stage, but it was worth being excited about. In essence, it was a local entrepreneur who had worked with the municipality and has reviewed the problem from the ground up. He had deduced the approach that the thieves had used to cut the cables at particular points for maximum length after which it was pulled with their vehicles. The solution introduced to address the cable theft was very innovative, but quite simple. It was to pinpoint the hotspots and anchor the cables in such a manner that it could not be towed with a vehicle. Also, it had obscure” the position of the cables in such a way using discarded material, such as old rubber tyres that the cables were unrecognisable and theft thereof was prevented. It was, therefore, innovative in its simplicity and the implementation thereof had cost the same as it would have cost for the replacement of a 20-30 meter of cable. Past occurrences included that once the cables were stolen the municipalities were obligated to replace it, but within the two- three-day process that replacement had taken place the new cables would get stolen as well. Since the manner in which the theft occurred was highly organised. Hence, the same spot would lose its cable three or four times in a short span of time. The proposition of the entrepreneur had successfully reduced cable theft to zero occurrences. Incidentally, CPSI had worked with its counterparts, which had allocated a R600 000 grant to develop this further as well.

On revenue collection, CPSI would follow-up on its development and devise plans to maximise outputs. It should be emphasised that CPSI was not responsible for the initiatives enlisted in its awards programme, but the incentive of awards had proven to drive public service, as it had become a vehicle to identify whether the initiatives could be replicated elsewhere and if it would be successfully completed. E-Filling and its mechanisms were already available, but its usage was peripheral on the will of the partners to implement it, as there was no plausible reason for further usage of hard copies. There was a prospective problem of forgery that departments should look out for, which meant that certified copies may need to be submitted, but even so there was a way to reduce hard copies altogether. CPSI had noted the request for reporting on its milestones, such as a comprehensive outline of the milestones, how far into the project it was and the obstacles to-date.

Ms Radebe explained that the National System of Innovation that CPSI kept referring to was driven by the Department of Science and Technology. There existed a close relationship between them. The reports on service delivery challenges on the OpenIX Exchange platform was warranted by one stakeholder of the Innovation Hub, which was why the Minister of Science and Technology had attended the conferences held by CPSI as well. This was also why the conferences were held in the Cape Town Convention Centre, as it was easily accessible to the Ministers. The issue of repetitive reporting on the same projects shall be stopped and adapted by giving it a new name. Since as the project develops, it would be taken to a new site, the project would then take on a life of its own and become new altogether with different stakeholders and dynamics.

The Chairperson thanked the delegation of Centre for Public Service Innovation for their presentation.

Briefing by the Department of Public Service and Administration
Ms Linda Shange, Deputy Director General: Administration, Department of Public Service and Administration, presented the consolidated 2nd and 3rd Quarter performance report, even though it was available separately expansively in detail. The report had been verified by the internal auditing team of DPSA based on the evidence submitted by the managers. At the end of the 2nd quarter there were five targets that were not achieved, but these targets had subsequently been achieved, which entails 100% achievement of the 2nd quarter targets based on its monitoring and eventual progress. At the end of the 3rd quarter 31 December 2016 there were two targets outstanding for the quarter, however, to date one of those targets were achieved, resulting in yet one outstanding target. In other words, as a percentage the 2nd quarter had 88% achievement and the 3rd quarter had 95%, which had achieved 40 out of 42 targets for the quarter. There was clear progression during the year, but it was not advisable for the Department to make an indication at this stage whether it would achieve its annual targets, but the 95% achieved for the 3rd quarter had given a level of assurance that at least more than 90% of the projected annual targets shall be achieved.

The consolidated quarter performance report (see slide 5 of attached) quantified the success of the targets achieved per programme. Programme 1: Administration had partially achieved the one target that reflects as unachieved in quarter 3, which pertained to the submission of a report by the Communications Unit to the Executive Committee, of which the manager had since submitted it and it was acknowledged as received after December. Programme 1: Administration encompassed particulars of compliance such as the financial information required by National Treasury; internal auditing and risk processes with its submissions required by the Audit and Risk management committee; presentations of the statistics of the composition of Human Resources to the Executive Committee would be made on a quarterly basis, as an element of support for effective decisions to made regarding personnel, and it involved reports that were devised for the Minister for the implementation of the multi-lateral international relations agreements.

Programme 2: Policy, Research and Analysis had managed to achieve all of its targets in the 3rd quarter unlike the 2nd quarter that had two targets unachieved, which was inclusive of work conducted towards the regulations of the Public Finance Management Act. Currently, there was development on the next set of regulations that would prohibit public servants from doing business with the State. Public servants that had done business with the State were given the deadline of 31 January 2017 to either resign from Board membership of private companies that had business relationships with the State and retain their positions in public service, or they were to resign from their occupations in the public service. The media had already highlighted the deadline. The second sets of regulations were development for Local Government and other areas of public service as indicated in the Act. There was also work devised regarding the institutional model for the coordination of the Thusong Service Centres, it was as means of assisting service delivery departments at offices to decipher where to best locate services and the centres. Much work in terms of connecting the appropriate services to the communities was done, of which it was decided that services should be available at least within 5km of distance, because many citizens had spent excessive time traveling in the past for services and due to economic standing, it may have cost them more than they could easily afford to have travelled. This work had advised Cabinet of other benchmarks as well, such as the proposal of two additional Thusong Services Centres to be established to ensure that citizens could access services offered. Of the key activities under this Programme that the Department was excited about was the development of norms and standards on all of the public administration prescripts. Over the years, the DPSA had realised that the ongoing noncompliance of public administration prescripts was due to the lack of standardisation, hence a lack of standardised interpretation and implementation was also evident. DPSA had called on SABS to enable the development of specific standards for the different policy areas
           
Ms Shange elaborated on Programme 3: Labour Relations and Human Resource Management, which deals with areas of performance management development, discipline management and salary negotiations of public servants. The programme has been slightly struggling. In the 2nd quarter six out of eight targets were achieved and within the 3rd quarter five out of six targets were achieved. One of the key activities for the Programme for the year was the continuous monitoring of the average percentage of vacant posts on PERSAL. Currently, the average was 11% vacancy rate against a target of 10%. Some of the challenges discovered revealed that with the reduction of Compensation of Employees budgets, departments were no longer sufficiently funded to fill their vacant posts. Thus, even though departments were still allocated funds for vacancies it may have been restricted to a timeline of one year only, which meant that the post would remain unfilled in the long run, because its appointment was a recurring expenditure. This was besides the other problems such as the tendency of the systems of recruitment that was quite slow. Hence, DPSA had anticipated that departments should in response clean up their systems of PERSAL and remove the unfunded posts that would be deemed as abolished. This would warrant an accurate reflection of personnel in their departments. Also, DPSA had conducted work on the PMDS with the Senior Management Staff.

Regarding disciplinary cases, it was imperative to note that departments were expected to submit the information of their disciplinary cases on PERSAL as DPSA had relied on that information for overall statistics in the public sector. However, it was realised that not every governmental department had captured such information on PERSAL, which warrants an obscure sense of the reality of disciplinary cases undertaken in the public sector. Yet of the submitted information there was, as of end of December, a regression of the targeted average 90 days to resolve a case to an average of 123 days. Delays identified included the inability to timeously secure a Chairperson for the Hearing or public servants would appeal by means of their private lawyers. This was also ongoing work. In 2013, Cabinet had established a pool that would deal with precautionary cases or with those who had been put on pre-cautionary suspension. The housing scheme offered for public servants involved continuous work too, and it pertained to employees of level 1- 12 who had qualified and registered. It also served as a saving facility for public servants who currently had not qualified to purchase a house, due to low credit score or a variety of other reasons, and so were renting accommodation in the interim. The target to appoint youths into learnership, internship and artisan programmes saw recruitment of 9700 youth from January – September 2016, of which 6000 had been absorbed into departments or its entities. To date the programme had appointed 92 000 youth altogether since its inception

Ms Shange noted that Programme 4: Government’s Chief Information Officer (GCIO) had continued to achieve all of its targets and it had related to the ICT of the Department. One of the targets was One e-Enablement value proposition for a Data System on a Learner which will be utilised by the Health, Social Development, Home Affairs, Higher Education and Basic Education Departments has been developed to assist faster service delivery. Value proposing did this, which would identify a service and propose technology as an advancement of the service that was currently being delivered by the departments. It would be presented to the departments for endorsement and then SITA would develop the necessary Intel to execute the systems. Work was also being done around the ICT-cost management guidelines; as it established that government spent much money on ICT without receiving the proper return on investment. This was subsequently developed to serve as a guideline so that CIO could reduce how much they had spent on ICT. The intention of this was also to use government buying muscle in order to gain competitive prices, as opposed to the inflated prices that government had been charged in the past. For example, a purchase of a laptop would cost government R20 000 from a service provider, but the same laptop would be available to purchase at Makro for only R5 000. This Programme had also dealt with ICT security, of which its guidelines were approved and workshops to evoke understanding amongst departments were done. As of April 2017, the difference that the guidelines should enforce will be monitored.

Programme 5: Service Delivery had also achieved all of its targets. The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) had assisted departments regarding their turnaround times to help the efficiency of their business process. There was also support provided to improve the quality and implementation of Service Delivery Improvement Plans (SDIPs) to 17/28 (61%) departments who submitted SDIPs that did not meet the minimum standard during the 2015/16 financial year. In the past, merely paper compliance to complete it was necessary, however, now there was emphasis on its implementation and feedback of quality to prove the SDIP. The NDP and MPAT tool had required prioritisation of service departments to develop standards for “Batho Pele” Principles, because although public servants had known of it, its implementation was omitted. Civil citizens were yet not treated in a proper or dignified manner by public servants, and its correction was long overdue. The development of standards would enable citizens to review and evaluate service without bias. For instance, if the situation called for courtesy citizens should have been able to note what characteristics they should have seen, experienced and be spoken with. With its knowledge in civil society, DPSA would be able to better monitor its efficacy other than just having it on paper. Therefore, the departments should be able to implement the different principles in a standardised manner.


Programme 6: Governance of Public Administration, had also achieved all of its targets in the 3rd quarter. The delegation standards, together with all other MPAT performance standards, were workshopped by the DPME with DPSA policy owners and where necessary, revised performance standards were included in the MPAT 2016 revised standards. Delegations were put in place to ensure that there were clear lines of responsibility and accountability, starting from the Executive Authority that was the Ministry and HoD to the different levels of officials. One of the areas highlighted was that there was no consistency implemented by delegations. For example, some delegations felt that recruitment of employees level 1- 12 was within the scope of the HoD, which had sped up the appointment process, but other delegations felt that the appointment of the same levels pertained to the Executive Authority, of which had delayed the appointment process. Therefore, this work would outline the exact particulars of the responsibilities of the delegations from a decision-making perspective. Currently, only SMS officials were expected to disclose their financial particulars. However, research conducted revealed that degrees of corruption occurred on levels beyond the SMS, because those officials were not monitored neither was it expected of them to declare their financial information
           
Mr Masilo Makhura, Chief Financial Officer, DPSA, noted that the budget allocated for the 2nd quarter inclusive of the entities of the Department was R779 million, of such actual expenditure and transfers amounted to R395 million that was 50% of the budget spent. In the 3rd quarter R582 million was spent against a budget allocation of R779 million also, which was 75% spent. The Department was content with its spending trends, as the fourth quarter merely required additional expenditure of 25% only. The budget solely for DPSA was R447 million and by the end of the 2nd quarter 51.36% was spent and by the end of the 3rd quarter 75.24% was spent respectively, which were also in line with spending compliances. Regarding the entities DPSA only reports on transfers made to it (see slide 62). The expenditure as per economic classifications was as follows: Compensation of Employees was 46.87% for the 2nd quarter and 70.81% for the 3rd quarter; Goods and Services were 57.48% for the 2nd quarter and 79.92% for the 3rd quarter; payment for financial assets was 100% for the 2nd quarter and 525% for the 3rd quarter; transfer and subsidies amounted to 49.73% % for the 2nd quarter and 74.28% for the 3rd quarter, and the payment of capital assets was 74.48% % for the 2nd quarter and 109.89% for the 3rd quarter. During the 2nd quarter, the total expenditure on consultants was R5 820 million amounting to 3.57% of the total budget of goods and services that was R163 164 million. During the 3rd quarter, total expenditure on consultants was R8 313 million amounting to 5.09% of the total budget of goods and services that was R163 164 million. It should be empathised that although the term consultants were referred to, DPSA does not outsource core business. These figures of R5 million and the R8 million was indicative of mandatory services, such as payment for the Auditor General, audit fees and the claims for the Portfolio Committee as well as costs regulated for SITA.  

Discussion:
The Chairperson requested future quarter presentations to comprise of an indication of the extent of goals achieved that were projected in the onset of the financial year. The presentation explained the purposes of each programme without focusing on the milestones achieved year-to-date.

Mr Motau noted that there were times when much should be said and there were times when silence was necessary. Upon listening to the presentation, thoughts of “we have been here before” had resonated. Everything said was quite correct, and the only response necessary to it was, “Just Do It” as the Nike slogan goes. Should DPSA just do everything cited it would result in a public service that really delivers. It was essential that the changes proposed for improvement should be implemented.

Ms Newhoudt- Druchen thanked the delegation for the presentation and queried the issue of consultants. Upon review of the budget the term of consultants was used, which immediately evoked the concern of money spent on outsourcing. However, the description entailed that the consultants were mandatory, which did not seem as outsourcing. Could a different term be used, as opposed to consultants? Since if anyone else had not had access to the explanation that the delegation had given, their assumption would be that the consultants were outsourced. The term consultants in this context should be altered to a description that was appropriate to the given explanation. Another issue was the capacity of Human Resources, because the departments required assistance for improvement. Could DPSA inform the Committee of the departments that had required assistance for improvement of their HR capacity the most? Also, it was cited that 30 January 2017 was the deadline for public servants to have resigned from private sector boards or resign from public service work. Would the Committee receive at a later stage a report that included statistics and names of those who had resigned?

The Chairperson queried that the disclosure of financial information was focused on the level of senior management, but what had prevented DPSA of enforcing the same expectation on those on lower levels, such as the supervisors for example? The DG, DDG and other SMS job designations were not the ones who had made the department tick, but it was the employees on the lower levels who had. Even previous investigations had proven that people who had contributed to the perception of corrupt public service had derived from the lower levels of public service. It should not have taken over twenty years to finally decipher that low-level corruption was possible, but its expression could be different to a higher-level employee, for example employees who had refused to take leave. On another matter, which does not necessarily require response today- how much longer would the procrastination of securing legal locations for the two Thusong Service Centres occur? Yet the presentation included an additional Thusong Service Centres. Having the Thusong Service Centres had already put financial strain on the municipalities, as they were expected to have it, because it was meant to serve as “one-stop shops”, although they had no budget for it. DPSA was expected to prescribe the protocol and standards for it, and the processes to secure its locations legally should be finalised. It should be reminded that there were just two years left before 2019, and it would be unfair that merely within 2019 the visibility of it was begun upon, despite that DPSA had been aware of its need prior. When DPSA shall revert the issue of Thusong Service Centres should be elaborated upon.

Another concern that did not require immediate response was the need for DPSA to revert to the Portfolio Committee with a dedicated presentation that addressed salary negotiation within the public sector. The cited programme of Young Graduates Scheme, notwithstanding that departments within their single basis had already recruited young graduates, would it be an overlap or was the intentions the same as some graduate programmes were established for placement anyhow? It seems fit that South African youth should also be encouraged to be self-employed and not merely conditioned to be job seekers.

To the CFO, it was assumed that when dealing with the financial particulars, financial protocol and compliance as required by the AG would have been highlighted. Since within the previous financial year the AG had noted that the financial protocols were disrespected by DPSA, such as the Supply Chain management that had not fully followed proper procedure. The other issue was that of PERSAL, which was not highlighted in the quarter reports. In 2015 the Committee advised the upgrade of PERSAL or change of it altogether, because it was overloaded due to the continuous feeding of information into it that had duplicated HR- related statistics. Upon return, DPSA should grant feedback of the extent of its change, because it had required a dedicated budget from NT. It should also be amplified that preceding the elections in 2014, there was a saga in the Province of North West, which stands to correction, of ghost employees that was an issue that the Committee had raised. Which compels the notion that the Committee would not merely call attention to concerns for DPSA just for the sake of it, but that ‘sins’ in the public service would be addressed and punished accordingly as well as for the relevant measures of implementation to occur. This also reiterates the purpose of having the departments present their business plans and financial particulars, because it was a manner of highlighting or deducing whether the issues previously raised by the Committee had been adhered to after it was spotlighted. In so doing, an accurate reflection of progress due to oversight would be evident and it was a sense of assurance that the Committee was taken sufficiently seriously. The issue of PERSAL was an obvious example of this need, because having unnecessarily remunerated employees who were supposedly recruited had already wasted so many months. Examples were remuneration of former employees who were deceased or had no longer worked for their department or entity.

A concern that DPSA could reply to via written response was the Service Delivery Improvement Plans (SDIP). How many departments had submitted it? The Public Service Commission (PSC) had submitted a report in early 2014 specifying that most of the departments and the Provinces were not keen on devising SDIP, as they had not seen the value added in developing and implementing SDIP that was required of them. Off hand, it was the Department of Correctional Services and the Department of Water and Sanitation that could be remembered amongst five departments that were prioritised as non-compliant to the submission of SDIP. The Offices of the DG of those departments had not seen the sense in a SDIP, because they had reported on their Business Plan, which entailed service delivery- it seemed as excessive duplication for them. However, there was a viable reason why Parliament had expected it in addition to their Annual Reports. It was urged that some answers, which required expansive detail, be submitted in writing as well.

Ms Shange replied that admittedly not all of the questions could be presently answered, but shall be submitted as a written response.

The Chairperson added that the DG of DPSA should revert within the final quarter and specify exactly what had constituted as the role of Director General and the responsibilities that comprises such role within the public service. Was the KPI of the DG in line with their immediate subordinates and units? Since it was noted in the report of DPSA that the individual units would assess them as having had performed and subsequently granted themselves performance bonuses, notwithstanding that the entire department had under-performed. Yet the collective performance and its incentives had squarely relied on the capacity of the DG. Why was this problem of incentivised units against non-performing departments merely discovered now? Why were the targets of governmental departments and its entities not aligned with the goals of the country? This reflected a lack of patriotism, yet it was the funds of National Government that was requested for. Lastly, the DG should revert to answer the following- why had DPSA a perpetual mantra to evoke progression amongst the public service sector, but had faltered to fully implement it? Was it a matter that the DG of DPSA should be recycled or were others the cause of the drawback?

Ms Shange answered that the DPSA had planned 40 targets for the 3rd quarter and had achieved 38 of them. She requested that the details of the departments supported by MPA be provided to the Committee in writing, along with the concerns noted by the Chairperson. In the past, it was expected of the SMS level of management to disclose their financial affairs and declare their financial interests, but as the years had elapsed evidence of variation of corruption was discovered on lower levels of public service too. Even though the report highlighted financial disclosure of SMS public servants, what was actually being done was that other areas within the departments which had potential of corruption, such as Supply Chain Management, were expected to disclose their personal financial information too, although it was not necessarily lower levels of public service yet. The adoption of the disclosure system used on senior managers was an expensive system, but should the budget allow it the intention going forward was to use it within particular categories. This aspect was one of things that with practice and implementation there was the realisation that things needed to be done differently. Similarly, with PMDS for HoDs, at the moment the outlines of the Performance Agreements of the Director General were not significantly different to those of other senior management roles, such as the DDG and Chief Directors. One of the challenges was that DDG, over and above the implementation of the APP, have had other responsibilities specific to their role that were different to those of the Chief Director viz. the issues highlighted by the AG and the execution of MPAT. The MPDS had not been revised since 2001 and its articulation now requires review due to the National Development Plan. However, the Department had noted the request for the Director General to revert and update in person, since he also chairs the cluster of director generals that deals with the processes to be tabled inclusive of their inputs regarding review of their performance management system.

A dedicated presentation of salary negotiations was noted. Much work had been invested in the decision on the locations for the two Thusong Service Centres, as well as for the funding of it. One of the challenges incurred was that within the Thusong Service Centres there existed multiple departments, but none of it was willing to assume responsibility for the funding of either management of the building. Therefore, the longstanding question was, was the management of the Thusong Service Centre correctly the responsibility of DPSA? Initially the GCIS and Information Centres were responsible for its management. Yet another department, such as COGTA could be better suited for its management. However, since the Thusong Service Centres had evolved with its provision of public services there were many institutional arrangements and added responsibilities. A report indicating the extent of progression on this project was being worked on with recommendations for improvement and it was due to be submitted to Cabinet, which would pronounce whether the programme would remain within the management sphere of DPSA or COPTA that seemed as the best for the coordination of the Thusong Service Centres. The request for statistical update of the departmental resignations by the deadline of public servants would be requested from the relevant DDG. Also, DPSA shall compare with the relevant branches that offer graduate internship as well and note the differences to the NYDA graduate scheme that DPSA had offered. The issue of ghost employees was raised a couple meetings ago with the Portfolio Committee, of which at that time DDG of Programme 3 was present to mention that each month before the public servant was paid, the office of the CFO would disperse salary slips to the HR managers who should sign as means of validation that the stipulated employees had indeed existed.

Mr Makhura confirmed that the payment procedures just explained were correct. One of the controls that the office of the CFO would execute was that before date of payment, which was either the end of the month or 15 of each month, all managers were supposed to certify by means of signing a certification that would accompany the salary slip to verify the existence of the employee, but such certification would be returned to the office of the CFO and not given with the salary slip to the public servant. However, the development of this mechanism was in the scope of National Treasury, as well as the issue raised regarding the classification of consultants. Yet the division of outsourced consultants was clearly indicated in the financial expenditure of Annual Reporting of every department. Concerns rose by the AG on compliance, Supply Chain and Financial particulars could be assured that DPSA was currently aligned to compliance expected from the AG.

The Chairperson requested clarity of the Key Performance Index or job descriptions of Senior Management, such as the office of the Director General.

Ms Shange replied that it was called the Key Result Area (KPA), which indicated the key results anticipated for the financial year. It had also included Core Management Competencies, for instance the financial management. Currently, the Director General Performance Agreements have had several KPA as well as an outline of Core Management Competencies, but if the Performance Agreement of the DG were compared with the Deputy Director General or any Chief Director it would be identical. Thus, the revised PMDS of HoD will specify that whilst DG was responsible for oversight of the department and the implementation of projects, there were additional areas that the role of the DG was responsible for, so it was impractical to assess the DG in the same manner that the DDG or Directors were assessed, due to the greater responsibilities expected of him/her. The revision was ensuring that with review of the Performance Agreement of the Director General or HoD, there was a distinction of higher responsibilities, as opposed to a Director, Chief Director or any other subordinate. As mentioned, the Performance Agreement of the DG currently does not include findings of the Auditor General neither MPAT, which the revised PMDS shall attempt to include going forward. The distinction that the DG was responsible for an entire department, as opposed to a DDG whom was responsible for a branch or a Chief Director who was responsible for a unit, shall be made by the revision and the differentiation of weight of role will be properly assessed accordingly.

The Chairperson responded that the role of DG and DDG could be collapsed into each other. In South Africa, much attention was given to the top structure of any organisation, when attention should really be given to the bottom structure where the work matters most. DPSA should consider this, because perhaps that was the reason for inflated expenditure of governmental departments. Since when their budgets were scrutinised most of the funds were allocated to the Upper Level, whilst the balance of the funding was compressed amongst the bulk of the employees, which was why there were many vacancies in the lower posts and unnecessarily so. As a former administrator, sufficient eyewitness accounts had occurred to justify such claim. It was imperative that South Africans rethink its systems of organisational hierarchy, because it was faulty that DG, DDG and Chief Directors were tasked with the signing off of papers, when the subordinates have been the hands and feet to prepare the information on the paper to be signed. It was wrong that those at the higher levels were remunerated for the work executed by their subordinates. As the Public Sector evolves, these were the concerns that should be evaluated, particularly since the Rand was dwindling economically.

There is a need to consider how the public sector could best deliver on its core mandate, as these concerns were actual issues that surfaced in 1994 when the Republic of South Africa had become democratic, but no resolve had occurred, instead much that was unnecessary was added. Hence, the aspect of innovation from CPSI was appealed to for best manner of resolve. Thus, the job descriptions of DG, DDG and Chief Directorate should be taken into account and innovation to save the public-sector money should be devised, because there were limited finances available for government. To be clear, it was not advised that retrenchment should occur, but an evolution of thought instead. For instance, it was cited by the CFO that to verify personnel the Payroll Officer had to sign to verify the existence of the employees, but some departments had workforces of up to 3000 bodies, which would result in the Payroll Officer reduced to signing for the whole month. Hence the earlier reference to the need for e-Filing and upgrading of IT, as falsification of manual documentation could occur due to the possibility of bias, but electronic submissions could be crosschecked and audited. If an office were burnt down, valuable information would be lost because of the usage of hard copies, but to prohibit the atrocity of such happening DPSA should revolutionise the operational thinking of governmental departments. Particularly since the second layer of regulations would be introduced, due to the amendments of the Public Service Act. Therefore, DPSA should analyse how it could save money for the country, as opposed to increasing the amount of high- level occupations. It would minimise the possibility of having a DG who was directionless and had actually relied on the subordinates to have done the work and merely required the signage of approval from the DG. Also, the lower level personnel had more vacancies amongst them causing the workload to be more expansive of those employed, but the excuse was limited financial resources. These types of situations called for creativity.

 In conclusion, the delegation of DPSA has done a fantastic job regarding the responses and the written responses were anticipated by Friday. Going forward, implementation of the proposals of positive change was strongly encouraged.

In conclusion, the Chairperson noted to the Committee that the outstanding minutes would be deferred to 1 March, because two sessions of meeting shall be held then. The first session shall comprise of the business of the day and at 12pm the outstanding minutes shall be adopted. It was imperative that the Committee Members who were present for meetings from 15 August to October 2016 would receive a copy of the minutes. These should be tabled chronologically and with topic headings of issues deliberated, as well as with reflection if any of whether adopted or not.

The meeting was adjourned.