Department of Correctional Services briefing

Meeting report

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
4 November 2005
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES BRIEFING

Acting Chairperson:

Process Overview: recruitment and the financed establishment of the DCS

SUMMARY
The Department briefed the Committee on its Recruitment Process and finance establishment. Although it had managed to fill quite a number of posts since April 2005, the Department was still challenged by the exodus of professional staff. Members raised concerns about the need to outsource the recruitment process. It was felt that the Department was perfectly able to recruit new members themselves. Members emphasised the need for the agencies commissioned with the recruitment to adhere to Black Economic Empowerment policies and ensure a gender balance in their selection process. Doubts were raised about whether the Department would be able to adequately assist and guide trainees who started at correctional facilities for the first time. Issues around staff retention, rural allowances and scarce skill also featured in the discussion.

MINUTES
Department of Correctional Services (DCS) Presentation
Ms G Mathibela, Human Resource Management: DCS, informed the Committee that the White Paper on Corrections formalised the new direction of the Department of Correctional Services. It would address issues around the revision of the Correctional Services Post Establishment Structure, phase out weekend overtime and phase in the 7 Day Establishment as well as implement a Recruitment Strategy that would ensure success. The 7 Day Establishment has been structured to create 8 311 posts over 3 years, from April 2005 to 2007. The Department consisted of a number of occupational classes ranging from custodian and support personnel to those in closed specialised occupational classes. The recruitment and selection process would be in line with the Constitution, the Labour Relations Act, the Employment Equity Act, the Public Service Act and Regulations as well as the Correctional Services Act. The presentation detailed the Department’s recruitment strategy, giving a detailed motivation for its outsourcing of the recruitment. Its achievements over the past year included the filling of 2014 posts within five months, as well as filling 378 specialised and promotional positions between April and October 2005. The retention of staff remained a challenge and the Department was still experiencing a personnel turnover rate of about 82 terminations every month which also impacted on the retention of skilled personnel.

Discussion
Mr Fihla commented that Correctional Services had for a long time been marginalised as far as budget allocation was concerned. The Committee had complained about the two private prisons that consumed most of the Department’s small budget. It considered these two prisons to be outsourced entities. He said that the Committee was weary of outsourcing, and believed that it added to costs. It was felt that the Department should have the capacity to handle the recruitment of new members, especially taking into consideration their small budget. There was a need for the Department to train and capacitate its own members.

Mr P Khoarai (ANC) asked how much was spent on the private recruitment agencies.

Mr Petersen, Chief Deputy Commissioner: Corporate Services, said that R265 million had been allocated to the 2006/07 phase of the 7 Day Establishment. In 2007/08 R120 million would go towards the implementation of the White Paper. At present the Department had too much money. It would be ‘foolhardy’ to request more money. More savings were predicted due to the fact that the DCS would no longer be subsidising the medical scheme as well as the fact that over time had been phased out.

Ms Mathibela said that the Department’s lack of capacity was not only related to training but also to human resources. This had resulted in the need to have people work over time. The overtime programme would now be replaced by the 7 Day Establishment. The Department needed the assistance of a recruitment agency to meet its capacity demands. Within 5 months 21 411 posts had been filled and R8 million had already been spent.

Mr Khoarai said that R8 million was a lot of money. He was convinced that the DCS could do better on its own. The Department could have succeeded on its own considering the number of appointments it had been able to make prior to making use of recruitment agencies. He believed that the DCS could fill many senior level vacancies from its own staff. Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) was a serious concern.

Mr Petersen responded that the Department had not been doing so well. It took the Department nearly a year to recruit about 1000 staff. This was unsatisfactory. The number of new recruits that had been needed was so large that the Department needed additional capacity as far as recruitment was concerned.

Ms S Chikunga (ANC) asked which recruitment agencies the Department used and if they took BEE policies into consideration. She asked how effective they were and, with regards to the outsourcing of recruitment, who would be held accountable. She pointed out that when the Committee had visited colleges it had found that some recruits were already working elsewhere. She questioned how this could happen when there were so many unemployed people in the country; and wondered where the level of accountability was. She advised the Department to make used of the Department of Education’s database to recruit teachers for correctional facilities. There were 11 000 unemployed teachers in South Africa; 1000 of them were math teachers. She questioned why these teachers could not fill the positions. She commented that the Department needed to have a retention strategy in place. She commended the Department’s efforts to have psychologists and some other professionals do community service.

Mr Petersen said that all vacant posts had been advertised. If problems arose, the DCS would contact the Department of Education. He said that not all vacancies needed to be filled via internal promotions.

Ms M Makgate (ANC) asked what the duration of the agencies’ contracts were and why only those three agencies had been used.

Ms Mathibela said that there were three agencies on the Department’s database that were responsible for recruitments. They had been appointed via the normal procurement procedure. A number of agencies had applied and due process had been followed. Agencies had been rated according to their BEE policies as well as their weighting. The Department had needed five agencies, but only three had met their requirements. The contracts were for a duration of three years. All three had to tender all the time to ensure that the Department got the best deal. They were rated so that the R8 million was spread almost equally. The Department was accountable for appointments made. The agencies were involved in the short listing stage but the DCS made the final selection.

The Chairperson said that the Committee took relief from the fact that contracts for the recruitment agencies only stretched to three years.

Mr Petersen responded that the DCS was involved in one of its biggest recruitment drives ever. The exodus of so many of its members needed to be addressed. The interim promotion arrangement was aimed at arresting the outflow of staff at the lower levels. The retention of professionals however remained the DCS’s biggest challenge. This was due to, amongst others, the limitations of supervision as well as the conditions under which these professionals had to work. Despite being able to declare some skills as scarce and being able to offer some staff a rural allowance, some provinces were still unable to keep up. He informed the Committee that for a long time the Department had struggled with the Department of Local Government as well as the Department of Health on the possibility of giving those nurses who worked in rural areas rural allowances.

The Department would never be able to compete with other Departments for professionals. It had started to train nurses in such a way that they would qualify for accreditation from the Department from Health. Alternative ways of sourcing skills as well as public partnerships were being explored to alleviate the problem.

Mr L Tolo (ANC) raised concerns regarding affirmative action and gender equality. He pointed out that at a prison in the Free State there had been only one white recruit. At Zonderwater there were two white men and three white women. He questioned what the problem was. He requested a gender and racial breakdown of the recruits in the nine provinces.

Mr Petersen said that there was a positive and a negative aspect to this situation. From an equity perspective this was negative since there were no white people. It was not good enough to say that they were not particularly interested in the Correctional Services. The Department had to find out why not and also had to find a way of attracting them to DCS.

Ms Chikunga said that she had no problem with the Department’s plans to have trainees start out in the facilities. She was concerned however about the mechanism that would be in place to accommodate these new recruits. There would have to be some kind of mentor programme. She was particularly concerned about new recruits perhaps not being accepted at the sites they would be placed at.

Mr Petersen responded that the constitution prohibited restricted advertising. During the recruitment phase it would be difficult to assign someone to a place of his or her choice. Only once that person has been employed could he or she apply for a transfer. He said that the Constitution placed limits on the DCS.

Ms Chikunga said that she especially would not support the idea of a person only being able to apply if he or she came from certain locations. That would mean that no one from her community would be able to apply. She said what she would like to see a mechanism put in place that would assist in the transition from home to facility and to training. She pointed out that at some of the prisons visited there had been no student accompaniment; there was no one who would take responsibility for the new recruits.

Ms Mathibela assured her that the DCS was working hard to achieve this. Mentorship would be an ideal situation. The Human Resource Department would work hard to make the trainees time at the correctional facilities as beneficial as possible.

Ms Makgate pleaded with the Department to take great care that the new recruits were not subjected to abuse from members who had been there longer. She said that she knew of a case in Klerksdorp where new recruits were forced to take on the overtime duties of older members.

Ms Chikunga requested clarity on what was meant by the term ‘medically fit’, and asked how the Department made sure that no labour laws were contravened in their selection process.

Mr H Van Achthenbergh, Deputy Director: HR Utilisation, said that the DCS had a minimum requirements policy with regard to whether an applicant was medically fit. The duties members needed to perform required them to have a certain level of medical fitness. The Correctional Services environment was one with many health and physical risks - for this reason it was necessary to maintain certain medical requirements.

The Chairperson commented on the tension between those whom the Department referred to as ‘professionals’ and other staff. He asked if the professionals were recruited separately and if they received separate training to prepare them for the new environment.

Mr Petersen responded that he was confident that only professionals were employed within the Department. The Department expected the highest level of professionalism. He agreed that on many levels the current culture within DCS was still elitist. Very often there were people at entry level who had other qualifications but who could not get jobs elsewhere.

The meeting was adjourned