Public Management Watch; OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions

PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
9 June 2006
PUBLIC MANAGEMENT WATCH; OECD CONVENTION ON COMBATING BRIBERY OF FOREIGN PUBLIC OFFICIALS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS; SITA BUDGET: BRIEFING

Chairperson: Mr P Gomomo (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Public Management Watch PowerPoint presentation
Public Management Watch: Summary and Discussion
OECD Convention on combating bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
Briefing on OECD by Department of Foreign Affairs
Narrative on OECD Convention
Current Engagements of SA government departments with OECD
State Information Technology Agency (SITA) budget presentation

SUMMARY
Members were briefed by the Department on the Public Management Watch. This was a system comprising of five steps to pre-empt failure in the management of national and provincial departments. The system identified the departments or areas that would require intervention to avoid public management failure. The system was divided into five steps for alleviating management problems.

Members were then briefed by the Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs on South Africa’s Accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The OECD was the premier discussion forum of the world’s most developed countries. OECD conducted research on behalf of its members, and also had an outreach programme for non-members. During the past few years there was growing South African interest in tapping into the OECD’s wide range of expertise and information.

Members were briefed by State Information Technology Agency on its budget. Members were told that SITA was a self-sustaining agency that used its own profits for growth. A youth internship programme, focusing on the Information and Computer Technology sector had been implemented. One of the problems with this programme was that SITA could not always find suitable placements for the interns once they had completed the programme.

MINUTES

Public Management Watch (PMW) presentation
Mr H Sefontein, Director: Planning and Monitoring in Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), gave Members a summary of the five steps of Public Management Watch.

PMW was a system comprising of five steps to pre-empt failure in the management of national and provincial departments. The system identified departments or areas that would require intervention to avoid public management failure. The system was divided into five steps for alleviating management problems. Once a department had been identified, a workgroup would assess the department. The assessment was then handed back to the relevant department. The workgroup would then decide if an oversight visit was required to assess the management of the department. Once the oversight visit had been completed, the workgroup would decide whether or not it should intervene in the management system in the selected department.

PMW would use the already existing Human Resource and Financial Management indicators as proxies for service delivery. In the absence of reliable information, service delivery was not considered, and therefore other areas were considered where information was more readily available.

Members were told that the quality and depth of human resource and financial information was such that the information gathered could not be used for accurate assessments. The work group was made up of representatives from the Presidency, National Treasury, DPSA, and Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG), with the relevant national departments. The in-depth analysis would use a broader spectrum of information to crosscheck the validity of the results in the first step.

It was anticipated that the system would get better over time if managers took the results they are provided with seriously. No other obvious alternatives to the proposed system had become apparent. A decentralised department service delivery watch system would be better, but experience had shown that departments were struggling to set up internal systems.

Discussion

Mr Sikakane (ANC) wanted to know why the number of public servants had decreased.

Mr H Serfontein replied that the number of public servants had decreased because the profile of public servants had changed over time. Most of the public servants were lost in the lower skilled areas.

Mr P Mathembu asked if the PMW system had already been implemented. He wanted to know if those that were employed had the skills to do the job. He also wanted to know if PMW only concentrated on Human Resources.

Mr H Serfontein replied that PMW was currently busy with a skills audit to assess their capacity. Earlier in the year it was gazzetted that each department would have to would submit an organisation structure list to the Department for comment.

Mr I Julies (DA) said that he did not understand why there was 30% vacancy rate if the budget had been fully spent.

Ms H Mgabedeli (ANC) commented that the PMW document was very challenging. She wanted to know why the departments were deteriorating. She felt that there was some information missing.

Mr H Serfontein replied that PMW had developed this system to assess how the different departments were performing. The department wanted to use information that was reliable and readily available. Over time they hoped that the system would improve.

Mr M Baloyi (ANC) commented that PMW was a good intervention system. He enquired whether intervention systems were put in place before 1994. He also asked why these systems had previously failed. He wanted to know how frequently the Department would be submitting a report, and who made up the work group.

Mr H Serfontein replied that the assessment was done every three months. The work group was made up of representatives from the Presidency, National Treasury, DPSA, and Department of Provincial and Local Government. The first assessment was completed during March 2006 and the second assessment was completed last week. In some areas the Departments of Health and Education also assisted through their own assessments.

The Chairperson asked why the National Department did not allow every department to do their own assessments.

Ms H Mgabadeli (ANC) commented that it was worrying that there were no standards set. She enquired how people were assessed once they were appointed into a certain position. She also wanted to know how people were trained if there were no set standards.

Mr M Baloyi commented that the system was attempting  to address Human Resources and Finance.

Ms L Maloney urged that under-spending should be addressed.

Mr H Serfontein replied that service delivery was taking place. However there were no standards for how a vacancy would be filled. In future PMW would release information that they have gathered to the different departments. This would only happen once they were happy with the quality of the data they had collected.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
Members were briefed by the Department of Public Service and Administration and the Department of Foreign Affairs on South Africa's accession to this convention.

Ms Ishara Bodasing, Director of DPSA's Anti-Corruption Unit, told Members that the OECD was the premier think-tank and discussion forum of the world’s most developed countries. OECD conducted research on behalf of its members, and also had an outreach programme for non-members. During the past few years there has been growing South African interest in tapping into the OECD’s wide range of expertise and information. This had resulted in an increase in the level of interaction between government departments in South Africa and the OECD.

The OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials focused on the use of domestic law to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials. This applied to both active and passive bribery but did not apply to forms of corruption other than bribery that was purely domestic or bribery in which the direct or indirect recipient of the benefit was not a public official. The Convention did not include cases where the bribe was paid for purposes unrelated to the conduct of international business and the gaining or retaining of some undue advantage in such business.

Ms N Dikwenii, Department of Foreign Affairs, told the Committee that the OECD offered a knowledge base for the countries that were signatories of the Convention. The fundamental mission of the OECD was to enable members to consult and co-operate with each other, to achieve the highest possible sustainable economic growth.

Discussion
Ms H Mgabadeli (ANC) wanted to know why South Africa wanted to be part of the OECD. She commented that South Africa was not part of the developing world.

Ms L Maloney asked which other underdeveloped countries were part of the Convention.

Ms N Dikwenii replied that there were 29 countries that were part of the convention, including Argentina and Brazil. The OECD realised that it could not remain an exclusive club for the North because it was a think-tank.

The Chairperson commented that USA would not allow officials to be punished if they were found to be bribing people in a developing country.

Ms L Maloney wanted to know if the Convention made provision for Ubuntu.

Ms I Bodasing replied that the Convention was not just about morals and ethics. There was no pressure on America to be prosecuted should they be found bribing someone in a third-world country. The Convention was trying to address this issue. The OECD was not a world forum as countries needed to wait for to be approached by the OECD. The Convention did define a bribe. South Africa’s law also made provision for bribes, and paying someone in kind had been allowed for.

Ms Dikwenii commented that being part of the Convention was part of South African diplomacy.

The Convention was unanimously adopted by the Committee

State Information Technology Agency (SITA) Budget Presentation
Mr S Ngubane (SITA Chief Executive) gave the Committee a brief summary of SITA’s budget. SITA’s annual results were currently being audited, and the revenue target of R2.9 billion had been achieved. Late payments by departments for services rendered affected SITA’s operations. This meant that SITA was currently R40 million in the red. SITA’s Business Plan had been approved by its Board. Members were told that SITA was a self-sustaining project and used its own profits for growth. A women’s executive development programme was currently in progress. A youth internship programme, focusing on the ICT sector, had been implemented. One of the problems with this programme was that SITA could not always find suitable placements for the interns once they had completed the programme. [PMG note: The documents were not made available to the public]

Discussion

The Chairperson wanted to know how SITA had managed to get private sector workers to move into the public sector. SITA should supply the Committee with a list of departments that had not yet paid them, so that the Committee could take action.

Mr S Ngubane replied that giving the Committee a list of defaulters was a good idea.

Mr Sikakane wanted to know how SITA handled its goods. He wanted to know if they sent invoices without taking any money.

Mr S Ngubane replied that it would not make sense for them to handle procurement. He said that they were always negotiating with departments.

Ms H Mgabedeli (ANC) asked how SITA recruited the women that they train. She wanted to know how far they were in promoting their Northern points.

Mr Ngubane replied that the women development programme used SITA employees. The programme was a senior-level management programme. He said that he could suggest that they open the programme to the public. A state-of-the-art walk-in centre has been put together in some areas. He said that there were Northern Points in some areas.

Mr T Kinana, SITA, told Members that there were still some areas that needed to be improved. One of these would be the placements for the interns. The long-term objective of the walk-in centres was for members of the public to utilize them after hours.

The meeting was adjourned.