DPSA, NSG, CPSI & PSC 2022/23 Annual Performance Plans; with Minister

NCOP Transport, Public Service and Administration, Public Works and Infrastructure

11 May 2022
Chairperson: Mr M Mmoiemang (ANC, Northern Cape)
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Meeting Summary

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Public Service and Admin                                                                                                 

Centre for public service innovation

National school of government

The Select Committee on Transport, Public Service & Administration, Public Works & Infrastructure convened a virtual meeting to receive briefings from the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), the National School of Government (NSG), and the Public Service Commission (PSC) on their 2022/23 Annual Performance Plans (APP) and 2020-2025 Strategic Plans.

The DPSA has 26 annual targets in its APP compared to 25 annual targets in the 2021/2022 financial year. In the 2022/23 financial year, the total budget allocation was R540 272 000. For the 2023/24 financial year, it will be R543 462 000, and for the 2024/25 financial year, it is projected to be R567 875 000. On the breakdown of the 2022/23 annual allocation per programme, administration will be allocated 45%, Government Service Access and Improvement 19%, Negotiations, Labour Relations and Remuneration Management 20%, Human Resources Management and Development 10%, and E-Government Services and Information Management 6%.

Members asked for an update on the number of lifestyle audits conducted, targeted lifestyle audits for the current financial year and the number of cases where the lifestyle of an official did not correlate with their salary in the lifestyle audits. Members wanted to know from either the Department or the PSC if they had taken note of the recommendations from the Zondo Commission report. Further questions probed how the APRM will work; whether the Department is only focused on compliance and not on efficacy and delivery and how State Security was looking at the ‘hackathons’ as that would be a dangerous thing to encourage.

The Acting Minister said that the different departments are trying to look at the recommendations of the Zondo Commission and the various possible actions to take, but that process is going to be interdepartmental and guided by the Executive. The APRM has a country leg and an Africa Leg, so the Department was responsible for certain deliverables related to the country leg.

Members heard that through its 2020-2025 Strategic Plan, CPSI aimed to improve the public service's effectiveness and efficiency and its service delivery to the public through innovation. The CPSI also aimed to entrench innovative culture and practice in the public sector. This outcome contributes directly to the achievement of the mandate of the CPSI and the implementation of the NDP. Members were pleased to hear that the CPS achieved the fifth annual clean audit.

The Committee was informed that the NSG five-year strategy’s vision was to build an ethical and capable public sector in service of the people. Its mission was to empower public servants to be responsive to citizen needs and government priorities through education, training and development interventions. The strategic outcomes included a functional integrated institution supporting the delivery of ETD interventions, competent public servants who are empowered to do their jobs, sustainable partnerships and collaboration to support ETD interventions, quality ETD practitioners, and responsive ETD interventions.

The Committee said under transfers and subsidies on CPSI, there was an amount of R1 000 and wanted to know what it was for. They asked how the innovation initiatives help to reduce the queues, if the Department or the PSC conducts surveys on the satisfaction of citizens on service delivery and if there was going to be involvement of unions for them to make consultations and inputs regarding the collective bargaining policy and whether the policy will be discussed at NEDLAC where other social partners were involved. Members questioned why the Review Generic Functional Structure was under Programme 3 when it was a function of Programme 1 and Members expressed concern about the application of Batho Pele principles.
Members were informed that on the concerns around the Batho Pele principles, the Department went back to Cabinet on the principles to move it towards being more than a campaign and have specific measurables or specific measurables target issues and standards that are issued to government departments. The reason for the focus on Priority 1 was that the MTSF programme was organised so that deliverables for DPSA and entities that work with the DPSA were all organised under Priority 1. On SARS and lifestyle audits, the Committee was informed that the Department benchmarked with SARS on the lifestyle audits and learned a lot from them, influencing their strategy. Many interventions were being established to build a capable, ethical, and developmental state so the Department was on course, but there was a lot of coordination and sharing of resources that still needed to take place. On their regulations, no one should be employed in the public service without at least a basic security screening confirming that their qualifications were valid, that they do not have a criminal record, and that they were not sitting on any boards that worked with government.

The Committee was informed that the PSC envisaged an impartial and innovative champion of public administration excellence in South Africa. Its revised mission was to actively promote the constitutional values and principles and service excellence in public administration practices, resulting in a capable, ethical, innovative, and developmental state. For 2022/23, 25 annual targets have been set as informed by both the mandate of the PSC and government's MTSF for 2019 -2024. The PSC will continue to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to implement various programmes to build an ethical and professional Public Service that serves with the highest degree of integrity and is capable of: (a) responding to the needs of the growing population and (b) adaptive to the rapidly changing environment.

The Minister partially allayed fears of future ‘hackathons’ by saying that ‘until government was able to digitise its services, it would not be able to improve service delivery, so the issue of ICT becomes central in improving service delivery in the country’.

Meeting report

Opening remarks by the Chairperson

The Chairperson welcomed the delegations from the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), the National School of Government (NSG), and the Public Service Commission (PSC) to the meeting. He acknowledged the presence of the Acting Minister of Public Service and Administration, Mr Thulas Nxesi. He said that the meeting was geared toward receiving presentations of the departments' Annual Performance Plans (APPs) and Strategic Plans.

Minister’s remarks

Minister Nxesi said that both the executive administration and the officials of the Department are committed to the principle of Parliamentary oversight. He said that the DPSA 2020-2025 Strategic Plan and the 2022/23 APP are informed and aligned to priority 1 of the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), building a capable, ethical, and developmental state. It is also focused on the departmental strategic priorities of the improved implementation of Batho Pele, a complete implementation of the Public Administration Management Act (PAMA), a stabilised pubic service intensifying the fight against corruption and improved implementation of administrative policies.

It is important to note that Programme 3: Negotiations, Labour Relations and Remuneration Management focuses on strengthening collective bargaining processes for the state in the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). The personnel expenditure reviewed the job evaluation system for the Public Servant Discipline Management Strategy. All justice, crime, prevention, and security strategy cluster departments supported the implementation of the lifestyle audits. In Programme 5: Government Services Access and Improvement, the Department is working hard to change the prevalent perception of the public service as lacking dedicated, ethical, and esteemed personnel that are professional enough to respond to the challenges of service delivery in the country.

Concerning the NSG, the priority is to build a capable, ethical and developmental state. The NSG must ensure that it provides training and development opportunities to public servants and elected public representatives to fulfil their responsibilities. The Minister said that he was encouraged that the elected representatives and appointed officials are going back to class despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included Members of the Executive in the three spheres of government, the state entity board members, public servants, and public sector leaders.

The Ministry of Public Service and Administration is now at an advanced stage of finalising the national framework to implement the professionalisation of the public sector. This year, the Ministry will be submitting the final framework for the approval of Cabinet with a clear implementation proposal. The NSG made significant strides in the previous financial year including the exponential growth in the e-learning environment in the past two years - exceeding their targets. The NSG hosted successful leadership development interventions such as the School of Economics, governance and the programme on executive oversight, and partnerships with ten national higher Education Institutions and international institutions. The NSG also spearheaded the roll-out of flexy programmes in effective governance, gender and transformation, leadership induction, and policy and regulation. 

On the CPSI 2020-25 Strategic Plan, he said that the CPSI remained a critical role player in the public service transformation and has to facilitate the development of an enabling environment that allows innovation to thrive and catalyses improved service delivery. Within the public sector innovation programme, there are three sub-programmes:

Research and development to inform the selection and development of the potential innovative models and solutions;
Institutional support and replication for mainstreaming of innovative solutions for the public sector to improve service delivery; and
an enabling environment and stakeholder management, which develops and maintains the partnerships and stakeholder relations to enhance that cooperation.

The targets and outcomes of this strategic plan align with these broad areas and objectives, and the CPS achieved the fifth annual clean audit leading by example. The programmes include the Annual Sector Innovation Conference and Webinars, the Annual Sector Innovation Awards, and the Publication of Ideas that Work with the South African Innovation Journal.

On the PSC APP and Strategic Plan, he said that the PSC is at the heart of Priority 1 of the MTSF: a capable, ethical, and developmental state. It has realigned its targets and strategic plan accordingly. The PSC is part of the programmes dedicated to the professionalisation of the public service, hence the 2021/24 strategic plan and outputs include:

An improved culture of service delivery;
Sound leadership practices in the public sector;
A well-coordinated monitoring and evaluation system; and
Tightening up on time taken to complete investigations

The PSC provincial offices respond to specific provincial issues across the country. For example, in the Eastern Cape, they responded to the inspection of the implementation of service delivery and delivery reports on the school children crossing dangerous rivers.

Department of Public Service and Administration 2022/23 Annual Performance Plan

Mr Siyabulela Tshefu, DPSA, said that the Department’s 2022/2023 APP was prepared in line with the 2020 – 2025 Strategic Plan of the Department and was further strengthened with the inputs from the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD). It reflects the performance targets which the Department will endeavour to achieve in the 2022/2023 financial year.

For the 2022/2023 financial year, the Department has 26 annual targets in the APP compared to 25 annual targets in the 2021/2022 financial year.

On Programme 1: Administration, the purpose is to provide strategic leadership, management, and support services to the Department by improving its sub-programmes including Financial Administration, Internal Audit, Departmental Management, and etcetera.

On Programme 2: Human Resources Management and Development, the purpose is to develop, implement, and monitor human resources management policies.

On Programme 3: Negotiations, Labour Relations and Remuneration Management, the purpose is to manage and oversee negotiations, labour relations, and remuneration management. On

Programme 4: Government Service and Information Management, aims to create an environment for the deployment of information technology as a strategic tool of public administration and to minimise and control information technology-related risks and costs in the public service.

Regarding the revised 2020-2025 Strategic Plan, in 2019, the Department undertook an organisational review process which sought to ensure the full alignment of the structure to the mandate of the Department in line with the Public Service Act (PSA) and the Public Administration Management Act (PAMA). The revised organisational structure, which the Minister approved in October 2020, introduced new functions and realigned functions to remove duplications and functional splits. As a result, the programmes/branches have been reduced from six to five.

Ms Desiree Wilson, standing in for the CFO, outlined the financial allocations for each of the programmes in the APP. In the 2022/23 financial year, the total budget allocation was R540 272 000. For the 2023/24 financial year, it will be R543 462 000, and in the 2024/25 financial year, it is projected to be R567 875 000. On the breakdown of the 2022/23 annual allocation per programme, administration will be allocated 45%, Government Service Access and Improvement 19%, Negotiations, Labour Relations and Remuneration Management 20%, Human Resources Management and Development 10%, and E-Government Services and Information Management 6%.

See presentation for further details.

Centre for Public Service Innovation 2020-2025 Strategic Plan and 2022/23 Annual Performance Plan

Ms Lydia Sebokedi, Chief Executive Officer, CPSI, said that in its 2020-2025 Strategic Plan, the CPSI aims to improve the public service's effectiveness and efficiency and its service delivery to the public through innovation. The expected outcomes include effective corporate governance. The achievement of this outcome will ensure, amongst others, accountability for the efficient, effective, and economic use of allocated resources towards fulfilling the mandate of the organisation. The CPSI also aims to entrench innovative culture and practice in the public sector. This outcome contributes directly to the achievement of the mandate of the CPSI and the implementation of the NDP. It is also a cross-cutting outcome that positively impacts the seven priorities of government as identified by the Sixth Administration.

The CPSI achieved its fifth Clean Audit Outcome for the 2020/2021 financial year from the Auditor-General for the fourth year.

See presentation for further details.

National School of Government Annual Performance Plan 2022/23

Mr Dino Poonsamy, Chief Director: Planning, NSG, said that the NSG five-year strategy’s vision is to build an ethical and capable public sector in service of the people, and its mission was to empower public servants to be responsive to citizen’s needs and government priorities through education, training and development interventions. The strategic outcomes include a functional integrated institution supporting the delivery of ETD interventions, competent public servants who are empowered to do their jobs, sustainable partnerships and collaboration to support ETD interventions, quality ETD practitioners, and responsive ETD interventions.

In the first year (2020/21) of implementing the strategy, the NSG achieved the following:
Clean Audit (Vote) and Unqualified Audit (Trade)
43 411 learners trained against an annual projected target of 26 040 (166% achievement)
Revenue generated to the amount of R27.8 million (37,07%)
Nyukela - total of 11 668 public servants enrolled and 6 893 completed
Ethics course - total enrolment of 15 834 and 15 473 completed (98% achievement)
Six master classes held including one held with members of the Executive
54 616 e-Learning enrolments
In the second year (2021/22) of implementing the strategy, the NSG achieved the following:
44 498 learners trained against an annual projected target of 38 270 (116% achievement)
 Nyukela - total enrolment of 9874 and completion by 6168 learners
 Ethics course - total enrolment of 40 691 and completion by 31 416 learners
 80 352 e-Learning enrolments and 54 022 learners completing their registered online courses
The Committee was taken through the year's performance priorities per programme and financial budget information.
See presentation for further details.


Public Service Commission Annual Performance Plan 2022/23
Prof Somadoda Fikeni, Chairperson, PSC, said that the PSC is a creature of Chapter 10 of the Constitution. The mandate of the PSC is to promote the constitutional values in the public service, ensuring its effectiveness. He said that it might help to reflect on the recent disasters, including COVID-19, the riots, the flooding in KZN, state capture, and some failures in municipalities and look at what those disasters have exposed in the work that they are doing. It also raises another question on how the Department, CPSI, NSG, and the PSC coordinate their efforts for greater impact and respect their complementary roles without competing.

He said that in the APP, they had identified the public service departments that may have a greater impact on impeding or enabling the performance of the public sector. For example, during COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, the issue of ICT infrastructure and support across the public sector has become the biggest risk. Therefore, they will monitor effectiveness and the work of the SITA responsible for ICT and have corresponded with them and their mother department.

Issues of health compliance have become a problem in the occupied buildings, and different departments of government have raised this. Recently, the PSC received calls from the people on the ground in KZN saying that they are getting monitoring fatigue because of documents being requested by the same government's different Departments multiple times, and at times they had to stop doing the work that is critical to the recovery from the floods. He said that the PSC is looking for a way to coordinate government departments’ activities so that this does not happen again.  
Adv Dinkie Dube, Director-General, PSC, said that to remain on track in contributing towards the achievement of priority 1 of the Medium Terms Strategic Framework (MTSF) of building “a capable, ethical and developmental state”, the PSC realigned some of its five-year strategic targets for the remainder of the current MTSF. The revised five-year targets were guided by the need to ensure alignment between the Strategic Plan, the APP, and available financial resources.

For 2022/23, 25 annual targets have been set as informed by both the mandate of the PSC and government's MTSF for 2019 -2024.
Province-specific projects
-Gauteng Province:
Strategic intervention in the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation

Monitoring the implementation of goals contained in the report produced by the Provincial Strategic Support Task Team in respect of the Department of Health 

Limpopo Province:
Public Administration must be development-oriented - focus on benefits linked to the mining beneficiation process which must be enjoyed by communities and assess the extent to which communities are included in the Special Economic Zone developments

Assessment of the working environment and conditions of service of Social workers in Limpopo’s five districts

Western Cape Province:
Assessment of the Foster Care placements and monitoring system(s) at the Department of Social

Development in the Western Cape

Northern Cape Province:
Dispute Prevention in all departments in the Northern Cape
Implementation of the Protected Disclosures Act in terms of whistleblowing by departments

Study on officials (levels 8 and 9) who are conducting business with the state in the Department of Economic Development and Tourism

Assessing the quality of services rendered in the Northern Cape’s Departments of Health and Social Development

Free State Province:
Investigation into the efficiency of the Mangaung health emergency services

Eastern Cape Province:
Inspections on the implementation of the service delivery report on school children crossing dangerous rivers

Inspection in the Department of Education, focusing on the supply and delivery of learner and teacher support materials (LTSM)

Assessment of the effective management of the Medico-Legal claims

Assessment of the effective utilisation of the approved organisational structure of the Department of Education

KwaZulu-Natal Province:
Inspections at various service centres of the Department of Social Development in KwaZulu-Natal

Inspections at the various licensing and testing centres of the Department of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal

North West Province:
Assess and report on the State of Fleet Management in the North West Province

Mpumalanga Province:
Research on the state of Health facilities in Mpumalanga (Phase 1)

Research into the Provincial Treasury’s system for tracking of invoices: effect of unpaid invoices on unemployment rate

Research: eradication of pit latrines in MP schools

Presentation on recruitment and selection irregularities produced

Budget
-The baseline allocation for the PSC for the 2022/23 financial year is R288.4 million.

-Out of this budget, R216.7 million (75%) is allocated to Compensation of Employees (CoE). 

-Since the PSC is primarily a knowledge-based institution and does not outsource its functions, the relatively high percentage of the budget applied to compensation of employees is justifiable.

-The goods & services budget is R70.3 million (24% of overall budget).

-Out of this budget for goods and services, 83% (R58.7 million) is for mandatory costs (e.g. rental and associated rates, SITA services, Auditing and etc) whilst 17% (R11.6 mil) is for the implementation of the mandate of the PSC over the MTEF period (i.e. projects and other operational costs).

-The budget for operational costs provides for national, parliamentary and nine provincial offices, i.e. 11 offices.

-The PSC has centralised its support functions and as a result, the budget for administration (i.e. Programme 1) is high as it includes centralised support services such as accommodation costs, SITA services, training, internal audit, operation lease payments, Auditor-General’s fees, etc

See presentation for further details.
Discussion
Mr T Brauteseth (DA, KZN) said that the Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit had had very little success in prosecutions because it referred every case to the SIU and the HAWKS. He asked to be provided with an idea of the unit's successes now that it is up and running in cases it has dealt with, prosecutions made, and the money recovered by the unit. On the lifestyle audits, he asked for an update on the number of lifestyle audits that have been conducted and targeted lifestyle audits for the current financial year. He also wanted to know the number of cases where the lifestyle of an official did not correlate with their salary in the lifestyle audits.

Doing business with the state has declined and he asked for an update on that and the amount of money that has been recovered. He was concerned that the PSC is targeting that 65% of their recommendations will be adopted and wanted to know why the target is low. He wanted to know what percentage of their recommendations were accepted and implemented in the past three financial years - that will show whether or not the Department is listening to the PSC and taking them seriously.

In his report, Mr Brauteseth said that Chief Justice Zondo spoke very strongly of favouring a professional degree for working in the public service and a peer review system where public servants can be reviewed by their peers. He wanted to know from either the Department or the PSC if they had taken note of the recommendations from the Zondo Commission report in that regard and what they are doing to work towards a professional degree in public service and the peer review system.

Mr M Dangor (ANC, Gauteng) said that the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) would have challenges because it will measure persons who may not necessarily be South African. He wanted to know how the APRM would work. On the audits, he wanted to know whether the Department is only focused on compliance and not on efficacy and delivery. He also asked when government would create one public service department. He wanted to know if whistle-blowers motivated by race or any other kind of hatred are taken into context. He also asked how State Security is looking at the hackathons as that would be a dangerous thing to encourage. He wanted to know what the European Union wanted in return regarding the SA/EU Trade Agreements.  

Mr M Rayi (ANC, Eastern Cape) wanted to know why the Department is only focusing on Priority 1 because the other priorities are also relevant to the Department. He also wanted to know why the Department has an acting position on the Deputy-Director for Negotiations role because it is a critical programme and asked how long it has been vacant. He also asked for clarity on the HRMD as there are names of Ms Clark and the Acting DDG Marcel Wilson. On the 2020-25 MTSF targets, he said that the Department mentioned the regulations for PAMA 2014, which are still to be submitted to the relevant stakeholders for their concurrence by 2024, but simultaneously, the Department is also in the process of tabling amendments to the same PAMA which will also need to have some regulations. He asked for clarity and why the Department does not wait for amendments to PAMA to be passed and then deal with the regulations. He also wanted to know why it took so long for them to submit PAMA regulations to the relevant stakeholders, as this is a matter from 2014.

On Programme 1, he said that the President had said that 40% of procurement should go to women, but the Department did not mention that in their presentation and there is also nothing regarding youth and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). He said that the Department came up with the law that PWDs should occupy 3% of government departments, but it is lagging behind other government departments. He said that the Department also did not speak of the payment period of 30 days target. This is where corruption is mostly involved, as many small businesses collapse because the departments do not pay on time. In certain situations, businesses have had to bribe those working in supply chain to be paid. If the Department wants to strengthen its fight against corruption, this is one area to focus on and report on in the APP.

On Programme 2, he said that the Department spoke of the legislative framework regarding the mandatory in-service training for Public Works, but he thought the legislative framework referred to a Bill or an Act that would govern this area and asked for clarity.
On Programme 3 regarding the Collective Bargaining Policy, he wanted to know if there is going to be involvement of Unions for them to make consultations and inputs regarding the policy and whether the policy will be discussed at NEDLAC where other social partners are involved. He wanted to know why the Review Generic Functional Structure is under Programme 3 when it is a function of Programme 1. He wanted to understand its relationship with Programme 3. He also wanted to know what exactly the Personal Expenditure Review is supposed to review. He asked if the Department is working with SARS in doing the lifestyle audits.

On E-Government Services, he said that towards the end of last year, the Department of Justice was hacked and asked the extent to which the E-Government Services will be able to prevent this from happening again in other departments in the future. On Programme 5, he wanted to know whether the Department or the PSC conducts surveys on citizens' satisfaction with the service delivery. He said that having complaints and compliment boxes on the Department offices for members of the public to write their level of satisfaction with the services would keep them in touch with the public.
He also wanted to know the vacancy rate under administration and whether their employment targets will be met, especially with Women, Youth and PWDs, as well as the internship positions. He also wanted to know when the positions that have already been advertised will be filled and how far the recruitment process is. On innovation initiatives, he said that the Department mentioned the Department of Home Affairs' real-time service delivery monitoring and wanted to know how much this monitoring assists because every Department of Home Affairs has long queues. He wanted to know how the innovation initiatives help to reduce the queues.

On the MTEF budget, Mr Rayi said that under transfers and subsidies on the Centre for Public Service Innovation, there is an amount of R1 000 and wanted to know what it is for.

In terms of the Constitution, the PSC is accountable to the National Assembly - he asked that the Committee get a legal opinion from the Parliamentary Legal and Procedural Unit on whether the PSC can table its APP to the NCOP because of its accountability to the National Assembly. This will help clear confusion from the Committee on whether or not to invite the PSC to its meetings.
The Chairperson asked the Department to indicate whether it is on course with building a capable, ethical and developmental state. He said that the National Development Plan (NDP) says that government departments need to ensure zero tolerance for corruption and asked if the Department has ensured that the employees or senior managers of all government departments have gone through the vetting process. This is important because the MTSF and the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) categorically stated that the fight against corruption must be intensified.
He wanted to know the lessons that were learnt in the business case that was in Phase 1 of implementing the Public Service Management Act. He also wanted to know the support provided by the Department to provinces regarding compliance with the Public Administration Legislative Prescript. He also asked about the attributes of what the Department is currently developing in the form of a service delivery model in line with the District Development Model (DDM).

On CPSI, he wanted to know how they plan to ensure that the lessons learnt from the E-Learning Solutions programme are used in other provinces that might be new to the programme. On the NSG, he said that they planned to reach 20 000 of their targets and they reached 43 411, which they highlighted as 136% of their achievements and asked why the targets were set low in the first place. He asked whether Project Management, Financial Management, Change Management, and Senior Management level courses would be a priority to mitigate some of the challenges that were pointed out by the Zondo Commission report. He also wanted to know the measures that the NSG has in place to mitigate the cybersecurity attacks that could derail digital learning and the digitisation of learning materials and avoid the interruption of learning. He wanted to know what the NSG was doing to improve its debt collection strategy to avoid the impact of the pandemic on its revenue crisis management.

On PSC, he wanted to know what informed the five targets under the Northern Cape, including the dispute prevention in all departments in the Northern Cape, the implementation of the Protected Disclosure Act on whistleblowing by departments, etcetera. He wanted to know why the other provinces had one or two targets.

Response by Minister

Minister Nxesi said that the different departments are trying to look at the recommendations of the Zondo Commission and the various possible actions to take, but that process is going to be interdepartmental and guided by the Executive.

Response by DPSA

Ms Makhasi requested that the Committee set aside time with the Department to receive a detailed briefing on the work of the Technical Advisory Unit and some of the successes, challenges, and the impact of the work they have done. She said that the APRM has a country leg and an Africa Leg, so the Department is responsible for certain deliverables related to the country leg. In the previous financial year, the Department completed a second generation review process of the APRM instrument as a country and the President launched the report in February. The process is currently at the stage of developing an action plan for the recommendations that came out of the report.

On the concerns around the Batho Pele principles, she said that the Department went back to Cabinet on Batho Pele principles to move it towards being more than a campaign and for it to have specific measurables or target issues and standards that are issued to government departments. One of the standards they are currently working on relates to a basic issue like queue management.

On the reason for the focus on Priority 1, she said that the MTSF programme is organised so that deliverables for DPSA and entities that work with the DPSA are all organised under Priority 1. She said that the DDG for Negotiations position has been vacant since December 2020. The Department advertised twice for the position but has not found a suitable candidate. They had to go back and review the specifications of the position and it is going to be processed with the Minister soon and the position will be advertised again. On the HRMD, Ms Clark is the DDG appointed for this role but she is currently on suspension and DDG Wilson was acting in that position at the time of the report. The DDG Wilson is no longer acting in the position and another person is acting in the position.

On the regulations for PAMA, she said that the regulations were started in the 2019/20 financial year, but the cumbersome process of getting stakeholders to agree on the regulations has taken a very long time, and all the three concurrences were only received in the last quarter of the 2020/21 financial year. The Department hopes that the regulations will be passed and implemented in the current financial year. The issues addressed in the regulations are not the same issues addressed in the Amendment Bill. The Amendment Bill is a different process and it is still with the Bargaining Council processes for consultation and it will go to Parliament in the current term. The Department had planned to take the Amendment Bill to Parliament at the end of the last financial year, but the Minister took back the documents for further review and further inputs by the Bargaining Council and those documents have not come out of the Bargaining Council. 

The Collective Bargaining Policy is an internal policy that guides the Department on how it deals with the bargaining processes. It has also been influenced by decisions that have come out of courts regarding how the Department handled the 2018 issues of negotiations and agreements, so it does not need to go to NEDLAC because it is an internal management tool.

The Generic Functional Structures Review is on Programme 3 because the DPSA is arranged so that Programme 1 focuses on internal departmental issues, and Programmes 2, 3, 4 and 5 focus on supporting government directly. The review of programme one is to cut across all departments and review all the programme ones of all departments. This is triggered by the Department's constant complaints that programme one takes up all resources in departments and is overloaded. The review is aimed at looking at the management of the growth of programme one. The review of regulations is also linked to this to reduce red tape in public services.

She said that the Department has benchmarked with the SARS on the lifestyle audits and learnt a lot from them and it has influenced their strategy. She said that many interventions are established to build a capable, ethical, and developmental state, so the Department was on course, but there is a lot of coordination and sharing of resources that still needs to take place. On the regulations, no one should be employed in the public service without at least a basic security screening confirming that their qualifications are valid, that they do not have a criminal record and that they are not sitting in any boards that work with government, etcetera.

She said they used the previous financial year for OSC to find itself and develop a programme. One of the things that the Department picked up in the benchmarking that they did with standard and audit bodies is that the OSC should focus more on assessing capacity, compliance, and capabilities instead of audits because the AG already does the audits. The Department works very closely with the provinces and engages with them quarterly. She said that as the Director-General, she does a lot of work with provinces by directly going to them and engaging them on compliance matters. She received high levels of cooperation, as many provinces are improving in their compliance levels.

The R1 000 per month agreement was reached after the negotiations for 2021. The key agreement was for a R1 000 once off payment as a salary increase for colleagues and a 1.5% towards the baseline for improving pensions. There is an agreement signed between the DPSA and the Department of Labour regarding the R1 000.  

The Chairperson said that there was little time left in the meeting for the other delegations to respond to questions and added that the responses should be provided to the Committee in writing within the next seven days. When a report is tabled to the House, it will include their responses.

Minister’s concluding remarks

Minister Nxesi said that they have listened and noted the concerns from the Committee and will always take them as constructive criticism for them to be able to improve. He said that the issue of professionalising public service is central in the talk about new values and the new culture of work and ethics. Until government can digitise its services, it will not be able to improve service delivery, so the issue of ICT becomes central to improving service delivery in the country.

The Chairperson thanked the Minister, the DPSA, the CPSI, the NSG, and the PSC for presenting their 2022/23 APPs and 2020-2025 Strategic Plans.

The meeting was adjourned.  
 

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