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

Public Service and Administration

01 March 2017
Chairperson: Ms M Khoza (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Department of Public Service and Administration briefed the Committee on the monitoring report on gender equity and people with disabilities in the public service.

The Department enlightened the Committee that every Department has to arrange a meeting for women senior managers during the last week of August to discuss pertinent issues such as barriers to advancement, advances made by women and challenges that hinder them.

The programme is working towards providing growth and development on issues that affect women in the world of work today; strengthening the management/leadership capacity of women and promoting economic development; and building strategic alliances, coalitions and affiliations that are empowering.

The Gender Equality Strategic Framework became operational in April 2009, and during that year sensitisation workshops on the framework were held for provincial and national departments. The Gender Equality Strategic Framework in the Public Service has as one of its points of focus increased women’s access to management and leadership.

This Framework has institutionalised the Heads of Departments’ 8-Principle Action Plan for Promoting Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality within the Public Service Workplace which was launched in 2007. To track the implementation of the principles, the Public Service Women Management Week offers departments an opportunity to monitor themselves by observing the Public Service Women Management Week at the end of August each year.

The Department further reported it is still giving support to departments with regard to compliance to legislation promoting mainstreaming of disability and gender. The strengthening of the implementation of the two frameworks, namely the Gender Equality Strategic Framework and the Job Access Strategic Framework for the Recruitment, Appointment and Retention of People with Disabilities resulted in improvements by departments. Departments submit plans and reports annually on 28 February.

Departments that have not yet met the 2% and the 50% targets are required to develop remedial plans to show how they would address the gaps, while those that have met both targets are required to develop retention and maintenance plans to guard against losing the targets.

The Government Pensions Administration Agency has started a modernisation programme. Its objective is to decrease payment turnaround time from 60 days to 30 days; to create a paperless environment; to implement self-service; to automate the benefit payment process end to end; and to enhance the client experience through innovation. This comes after the Public Service Commission published findings that found the Agency to be lacking in educating and reaching out to members and departments; delaying pension pay-outs; and being inefficient in customer service.

 As a result, the Agency has designed various initiatives, which include a regulation passed for data sharing with SA Revenue Services on economically active members and pensioners. The Agency is also collaborating with employer departments on data sharing and cleansing activities. The Agency has further appointed ten tracing companies to assist with the tracing of beneficiaries of unclaimed benefits. 6000 cases were handed over to tracing companies during December 2016. To date, 300 confirmed traces have been received. There are targeted engagements with employer departments to assist in the tracing efforts. The Agency is also making use of Client Liaison Officers to support employer departments.

The Government Employment Pension Fund also briefed the Committee; it is currently the largest pension fund in Africa. In terms of Assets, it has over R1 638 billion and has 1.269 million active members. It comprises 423 000 pensioners and beneficiaries. It is one of the few Defined Benefit schemes in SA. The is growing every year and is seeing a return on investments. The Fund received contributions amounting to R60 billion and awarded benefits to the tune of R83 billion during 2016

Members asked the Public Service Commission why Mpumalanga Province did not participate in the study; asked how many people were interviewed for the study; and enquired if the sample of the study was adequate.

To the Government Pensions Administration Agency, Members wanted to know if the entity provides advice to members when they retire or resign, and asked if interest is paid or not; asked if the entity’s system is linked to the Department of Home Affairs; enquired about the average waiting period for pension pay-outs; and wanted to establish what percentage of interest is used when a pensioner has not been paid out in time.
commented that more time is needed to interact with GEPF. The GPAA has to give more information on things the GEPF highlighted in its presentation. More information is needed on mobile offices, frequency of visits to rural areas, training of personnel, etc.

The Chairperson agreed that the Committee needs more information on what the GEPF spoke about. She asked the GPAA to provide a written response on the status of unclaimed benefits, specifics on the 6000 cases referred to tracing companies, rand value of the unclaimed benefits, demographic profile of unclaimed benefits, and tools used to communicate with members, and if they had no emails, what alternatives are used. She asked what language is being used to communicate with the members of the unclaimed benefits.

Members asked the Department to provide specifications of offices for civil servants with physical disabilities; remarked that most women in senior positions are in acting capacities and wanted to find out what discouraged them from applying for top posts because most of these posts are occupied by men; wanted to know what the Department is doing to make it a priority to employ the disabled; and asked if the disabled are coming together on what they need. A Member asked the Department to provide a written response on disciplinary cases.
 

Meeting report

Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF)
Major General Dries de Wit, Vice Chairperson, GEPF Board of Trustees, in his brief presentation, informed Members that the GEPF is currently the largest pension fund in Africa. In terms of Assets, it has over R1 638 billion and has 1.269 million active members. It comprises 423 000 pensioners and beneficiaries. It is one of the few Defined Benefit (DB) schemes in SA.
The Fund is sponsored by the government, but is separate from government. It is governed and managed by a Board of Trustees. The Fund is growing from year to year and is seeing a return on investments. The GEPF has received contributions amounting to R60 billion and awarded benefits to the tune of R83 billion during 2016. Resignation figures per month from March 2013 to September 2016 are standing at 3000. This is due to poor communication of information on pension funds.

The GEPF has the following key strategic objectives:

To improve Benefits Administration (including ICT system modernisation)
To improve Member and Beneficiary Communication and Education
To see improved Investment Monitoring
Risk Management Architecture
To improve Stakeholder Relations

Immediate priorities for the 2017 year are the following:

Asset Liability Model
Strategic Asset Allocation
Review of PIC mandate
Statutory Actuarial Valuation
Relevant benefit changes
Financial literacy
King IV compliance
Value added benefits
Complaints Handling Mechanism
Enhance communication

(Graphs and tables were shown to illustrate the fund growth, financial position of the fund, pension increases, resignation trends, benefits vs contributions, and return on investments)


Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA)
Mr Jay Morar, General Manager on Employee Benefits, Operations and Finance: GPAA, briefed the Committee.
The Agency paid attention to the findings of the Public Service Commission Report. The findings are on insufficient and incorrect documentation and information received; lack of education and outreach to members and departments; technology challenges in respect of GPAA new systems but also employer departments technology capability; delays in pension pay-outs; and client care inefficiencies. As a result, the GPAA has designed various initiatives.

The GPAA has started a modernisation programme. Its funding comes from the GEPF. Its objective is to decrease payment turnaround time from 60 days to 30 days; to create a paperless environment; to implement self-service; to automate the benefit payment process end to end; and to enhance the client experience through innovation.

Key initiatives for the 2016/2017 period include client focused communication to members via email; simplified claims submission by employer department, improved client experience via the call centre; improved turnaround time of claims payment via automation; and self-service functionality.

With regard to claims received and paid, it was reported there is an increase in resignations. The pension reforms are seen as the main contributors. Other things cited are the financial burdens of the members and bad working conditions in the workplace, and that young professionals want to study and further their careers.

Ms Kedibone Madiehe, General Manager of Client Relations Management: GPAA, added that the e-channel has been enhanced and all provinces trained in it. The PCM would be introduced at a later stage. It is seen as employee user-friendly. It is similar to SARS’ way of filing tax returns. The Benefit Payment Automation (BPA) is going to take 15 days instead of 60 days to pay the benefits. It has reduced administrative costs and it makes provisions for bank verification prior to making payment and it reduces fraud.

Regarding client and employer management, the entity has achieved SLA Compliance of 81% against the target of 80%. In every province, there are regional offices. 482 908 visits have been done. Where there are no offices, there are mobile vans, especially for the rural areas. The call centre has responded to 707 814 calls. A group of Client Liaison Officers (CLOs) are in place. The entity is working on more initiatives to ensure more calls are attended to.

Concerning client outreach, the entity has achieved client satisfaction of 97% against a target of 80%. 513 pre-retirement workshops have been conducted for those aged between 55 and 65. 2769 member awareness sessions were held. 127 135 mobile office visits were done, and 706 mobile site visits covered rural areas. Road-shows are increasing the momentum and the GPAA is making use of community and public service radio stations.

The client self-service portal is in the final stages of development. Benefit statements are sent every year. Anyone can get the statement, but the challenge is that the work contract between the employer and the employee is unknown. Pensioner statements are sent quarterly.

Other initiatives include a regulation that has been passed for data sharing with SARS on economically active members and pensioners. The GPAA is also collaborating with employer departments on data sharing and cleansing activities. Pertaining to Unclaimed Benefits Management, the GPAA has appointed 10 tracing companies to assist with the tracing of beneficiaries of unclaimed benefits. 6000 cases have been handed over to tracing companies during December 2016. To date, 300 confirmed traces have been received. There are targeted engagements with employer departments to assist in the tracing efforts. The GPAA is also making use of CLOs to support employer departments.

DPSA Presentation
Mr Kenny Govender, Deputy Director-General, DPSA, informed the Committee that the Public Service Women Management Week was launched at the first Public Service Gender Indaba in 2008 by the Minister for Public Service and Administration. Each year, every Department has to arrange a meeting for women senior managers during the last week of August to discuss the Heads of Departments (HODs) 8-Principle Plan of Action for Promoting Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality within the Public Service Workplace. The purpose of the programme is to bring together women managers to discuss pertinent issues such as barriers to advancement, advances made by women and challenges that hinder them. The programme is working towards providing growth and development on issues that affect women in the world of work today; strengthening the management/leadership capacity of women and promotes economic development; and building strategic alliances, coalitions and affiliations that are empowering.

The HODs 8-Principle Plan of Action for Promoting Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality within the Public Service Workplace is aimed at placing the responsibility of implementing the gender programme in the office of the DG/HOD as provided for in South Africa’s National Policy Framework for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality of 2000. The principles impress on the DG/HOD to establish policy mechanisms, provide adequate resources, implement capacity development, mainstream gender, ensure the achievement of equity targets and monitor gender programmes in the Department.

Monitoring of the provision of Reasonable Accommodation and Assistive Devices (RAAD) is institutionalised in the Policy on the Provision of Reasonable Accommodation and Assistive Devices for Employees with Disabilities in the Public Service which was accompanied by a directive in 2015. Departments submit information on this through the JA monitoring template under Strategic Objective 2 that deals with the adoption of a wide set of options for organisational support in order to promote the empowerment of persons with disabilities, focusing specifically on Sub-Objective 4 which makes provision for reasonable accommodation and assistive devices. In the past two years, the information provided in the reports was not adequate and departments were requested to submit additional information relating to RAAD.  During the 2016/2017 financial year, the DPSA spent R19 666 236.31 on the provisions of reasonable accommodation and assistive devices.

As at 31 December 2016 there were 1 442 007 posts in the Public Service of which 10 452 (0.72%) were filled with employees with disabilities:

5 172 (49.4%) of this number were female and 5 280 (50.6%) were males
There were 1 373 (13.14%) persons with disabilities below the age of 34
There were 1 157 between the ages of 35-39
There were 1 752 between the ages of 40-44
2 165 between the ages of 45-49
2 009 between the ages of 50-54
1 446 between the ages of 55-59
531 between the ages 60-64
17 between the ages of 65-69
1 between 70-74
144 persons with disabilities at Senior Management Services (SMS) level
255 persons with disabilities at Middle Management Services (MMS) level
 9 772 persons with disabilities at levels 1-10
44 273 officials using GEMS were on chronic medication from mental health issues and this translates to 3.07%


As at 31 December 2016 there were 10 209 SMS positions filled in the Public Service:

There were 4 215 women (41.2%) and 5 994 men (59.8%)
Africans were 7 374 (72.23%) women 3 053 (41.4%) and men 4 321 (58.6%)
Asian were 663 (6.49%), women 280 (42.2%) and men 383 (57.8%)
Coloured were 841 (8.23%), women 336 (39.9%) and men 505 (60.1%)
White were 1 331 (13.03%), women 546 (41%) and men 785 (59%)
Young people at SMS levels were 370 (3.62%), young women were 195 (52.7%) and young men 175 (47.3%)
At level 13 of SMS there were 7 059 employees, 2 969 (42.1%) women and 4 090 (57.9%) men
At level 14 of SMS there were 2 365 employees, 966 (43.4%) women and 1 399 (56.6%) men
At level 15 there were 619 employees, 235 (38%) women and 384 (62%) men
At level 16 there were 45 (27.3%) women and 120 (72.7%) men
At level 17 there was 1 man

The Gender Equality Strategic Framework became operational in April 2009 and during that year sensitisation workshops on the framework were held for provincial and national departments. The Gender Equality Strategic Framework in the Public Service has as one of its points of focus increased women’s access to management and leadership. The DPSA in the 2012-2013 financial years produced a Gender Mainstreaming Report which helped to gain insight into the extent to which the Public Service has gone to mainstream gender. The Gender Equality Framework has institutionalised the Heads of Departments 8-Principle Action Plan for Promoting Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality within the Public Service Workplace which were launched in 2007.  To track the implementation of the Principles, the Public Service Women Management Week offers departments an opportunity to monitor themselves by observing the Public Service Women Management Week at the end of August each year. Departments were expected to start observing the Women Management Week in August 2008 and report upon progress to the DPSA.

The policy on Reasonable Accommodation and Assistive Devices set to create uniformity in approach has been approved. It is now accompanied by a Directive which gives it more authority. The DPSA is still giving support to departments with regard to compliance to legislation promoting mainstreaming of disability and gender. The strengthening of the implementation of the two frameworks, namely the Gender Equality Strategic Framework (GESF) and the Job Access Strategic Framework for the Recruitment, Appointment and Retention of People with Disabilities has resulted in improvements by departments. Departments submit plans and reports annually on 28 February.

Departments that have not yet met the 2% and the 50% targets are required to develop remedial plans to show how they would address the gaps. Departments that have met both targets are required to develop retention and maintenance plans to guard against losing the targets. The Public Service Women Management Week programme holds meetings once a year, chaired by the HOD to monitor the implementation of the HODs 8-Principle Plan of Action for Promoting Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality within the Public Service Workplace, 2007 and come up with ways that departments could strengthen gender mainstreaming and equality. PERSAL clean up-DPSA has worked with National Treasury to amend the health profile on the PERSAL system relating to disability disclosure. Accredited training courses are based on the GESF and the JA developed with the National School of Government in 2008 and 2011 respectively.

(Graphs and tables were shown to illustrate submission of the Public Service Women Management Week reports, provincial support given to women, national and provincial status, and compliance with meeting the 2% equity target per province)

Discussion

PSC Presentation
The Commissioner of the Public Service Commission (PSC) responded to some questions raised in the previous engagement with Committee Members.

On the question around the methodology of the study carried out regarding timeframes for pension pay-outs:
Commissioner Mthembu appreciated the constructive criticism from Members. They accept the methodological factors that should have been considered. The whole study came as a result of the overwhelming complaints. More issues needed to be looked at so that in future, when a similar study is undertaken, the issues that Members raised could be taken into consideration.

Regarding a question on capacity: Commissioner Mthembu said he could see the underlying value of the word ‘capacity’. He explained that the whole thing was not a question of capacity. For example, he said if an experienced HR person takes 31 days to fill in a form, then that is not a matter of capacity. There is more to it.

On why the Mpumalanga Province did not participate in the study: Commissioner Mthembu elaborated this was not a provincial challenge. It’s a question of capacity. In each province there is one researcher. If the province is not capacitated, a researcher is dispatched to do the work. Unfortunately, finances did not allow PSC to send a researcher.

Pertaining to the adequacy of the sample: the Commissioner indicated it was a highly representative sample. It represented 80% of the departments. It exceeded the required percentage of 20%.

The Chairperson asked how many people were interviewed.

Commissioner Mthembu explained that when the Commission went to the departments, they interviewed officials within the HR departments. Those officials are counted as one because they spoke on behalf of the department.

The Chairperson remarked there is inconsistency between what is presented and answers provided. If the Commissioner says things that are questionable, that has lots of implications, and it must be remembered they are dealing with the money of the workers.

GPAA Presentation
Ms M Lesoma (ANC) wanted to know if the entity provides advice to members when they retire or resign, and asked if interest is paid or not.

Mr Morar explained the GPAA had leaflets that talk about retiring comfortably so that members could be aware of the retiring process. Interest, he is paid to members because if the investment is accumulating interest, that money gets given to the members.

Mr M Ntombela (ANC) asked if the entity’s system is linked to the Department of Home Affairs.

Mr Morar agreed that it is and they are going to introduce the biometrics system.

Ms D van der Walt (DA) commented that the entity has a sophisticated tracing idea. She suggested it must try to find some easy ways like Facebook when looking for someone because that is what is happening in the times we are living in.

Mr Morar said Facebook would be part of the modernisation process.

Ms Lesoma commented that more time is needed to interact with GEPF. The GPAA has to give more information on things the GEPF highlighted in its presentation. More information is needed on mobile offices, frequency of visits to rural areas, training of personnel, etc.

Ms Z Jongbloed (DA) enquired about the average waiting period for pension pay-outs, and asked what the percentage of interest is used when a pensioner has not been paid out in time.

Mr Morar, regarding the waiting period or turnaround time, said it is 59 days, and said the interest rate is 3%.

The Chairperson agreed with Ms Lesoma’s idea that the Committee needs more information on what the GEPF spoke about. She asked the GPAA to provide a written response on the status of unclaimed benefits, specifics on the 6000 cases referred to tracing companies, rand value of the unclaimed benefits, demographic profile of unclaimed benefits, and tools that are used to communicate with members, and if they had no emails, what alternatives are used. She asked what language is being used to communicate with the members of the unclaimed benefits.

Mr Morar indicated there is no language policy that exists at the moment Letters are written in English and Afrikaans. He said they are considering using the 11 languages that GEMS uses for its members. Some information is posted on their website.

DPSA Presentation
Ms Lesoma asked the Department to provide specifications of offices for civil servants with physical disabilities. She said the budget, most of the time, does not cater for assisting devices for the physically disabled and that is why less of them are being recruited. She further remarked that most women in senior positions are in acting capacities and wanted to find out what discourages them from applying for top posts because most of these posts are being occupied by men.

Mr Govender, on office space for the physically disabled, explained that it is the role of the Public Works Department in meeting those needs. The problem lies in the number of backlogs the Department has in terms of improving the buildings and the departments always talk of expensive costs. The Department is working with the Department of Public Works in terms of trying to get more information on this matter. Regarding challenges for women in senior positions, the Department is trying to engage with the HODs and the DPSA has a report from various departments on challenges that make women not go for these senior posts.

Ms W Newhoudt-Druchen (ANC) asked what the Department is doing to make it a priority to employ the disabled, and if the disabled are coming together on what they need.

Mr Govender said consultations are being done with associations that deal with people who have a disability.

The Chairperson remarked that the physical structures of the buildings are not made to be disabled-friendly and that discourages them from applying because they feel they are going to be a burden as there is no one who is going to take care of them. She also asked the Department to comment on the 5200 people who are unknown but are on the PERSAL payroll but their disabilities are not known.

Mr Govender, concerning the unknown 5200 people, said there are people who are in the employ of government but have not disclosed their condition. It may happen that some of them could be among the 5200.

Ms van der Walt remarked she studies many disciplinary cases and outcomes of them. Some results are unknown. She asked the Department to provide a written response on that.

Due to time constraints, the Chairperson asked the DPSA to respond to unanswered questions raised by Members in writing.

The meeting was adjourned.


 

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