Staffing Matters: Department progress report

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International Relations

29 August 2007
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Meeting report

FOREIGN AFFAIRS PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
29 August 2007
STAFFING MATTERS: DEPARTMENT PROGRESS REPORT

Chairperson:
Mr D Sithole (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Department of Foreign Affairs briefing on staff movement

Audio recording of meeting

SUMMARY
The Department of Foreign Affairs briefed the Committee on its staffing situation, tabling figures and showing movement of people between July 2006 and July 2007. They admitted that there was a problem with moving at the more senior management levels, but said that this was a problem endemic across all departments, who would poach from each other, and offer better incentives on promotion. By July 2007 there were 449 vacancies, but more staff had been appointed in August and were due to start on 3 September. 100 of the 112 vacancies in the missions would be recruited internally. The gender profile was improving and there were five female directors. The problem was that the pool of suitable candidates was small. Members queried the issue of differing salaries and job descriptions across different departments, the problems of old-order staff remaining in certain missions, resourcing of the gender desk, when the positions were likely to be filled, and whether the cause of the staff leaving had been established with exit interviews. They noted that job satisfaction was important. Members further asked if this profile included heads of missions, the cadet programme, the position of spouses and whether they could be recruited, the problems of expenses not being fully reimbursed for family education, and the procedures when a person was recalled and sent elsewhere, or disciplined. A number of other issues needed to be discussed with the Department during a follow up briefing.

MINUTES
Human Capital Development: Presentation by Department of Foreign Affairs
Ms Mathu Nompozolo, Acting Deputy Director General, Department of Foreign Affairs, tabled the figures for human capital in the Department between July 2006 and July 2007. She stated that there were 385 vacancies in head office and 303 in missions, but despite recruitment drives there were also terminations of service. The Department experienced a turn over rate of 8%. By July 2007 there were 449 vacancies. However, there were new staff who had started in August 2007, although these figures did not appear from the system, and new staff would start on 3 September. The Department planned further to fill 100 of the 112 vacancies in the missions, but would have to recruit internally, which would have a knock-on effect on the internal vacancies.

Ms Nompozolo then detailed the gender profile for the Department. They had lost two Deputy Directors-General, one male and one female, and were hoping to use this opportunity to have an impact on gender. They had increased the number of Chief Directors, to four, of whom two were female and two male. They were also able to hire five female directors. The area in which there had been a decline were those positions below Assistant Directors. There were now seven more female senior managers.

When the Department had advertised for the Deputy Director-General posts the pool of good female candidates was small. There was a possibility, however, that there would be more female candidates by the end of the year. Race and gender was the focus at both head offices and missions, as it should be representative of the population.

In respect of recruitment and terminations they had advertised 1 048 positions, lost 306, and filled 1080. The reason for hiring more people was that during the process there could resignations and the department would not have to go through the whole process of advertising again. The number of internal promotions, 396, had to be added to the number of vacancies since the Department was not really hiring new people. This was a challenge across the whole government service, as there was a tendency to move to other departments, to change salary levels. There had been specific departments that adjusted salary levels when advertising, and this had been a problem for DFA, which did not use the same process.

Discussion
The Chairperson addressed the issue of departments advertising for the same post at different salary levels. He commented that it was a critical issue. He asked if this meant that there was an inconsistency in government employment and expressed his surprise that the Auditor-General had not picked up on it.

Ms Nompozolo replied that these were not the same positions. When the Department of Foreign Affairs advertised a deputy director position it was usually further explained by saying that it was in a specific area in the Department. It was not the same position, because another department could offer a deputy directorship in a complete different area. This was one of the challenges currently being experienced. There was a problem of job-hopping all around government departments. The Public Service Commission would look at such matters, not the Auditor General.

Ms F Hajaing (ANC) referred to the transformation agenda. She was aware of a mission in Saudi Arabia where all staff were from the old order, and questioned why this had happened.

Mr Nompozolo replied that it was a challenge to adequately match the numbers that were in the Department to those of the country’s demographics. The only opportunity was through recruitment.

Ms K Magua (ANC) was interested in whether the gender desk within in the Department was adequately resourced.

Ms Nompozolo replied that the Director-general had elevated the status of the desk to Chief Directorship and appointed someone at the beginning of the year, who had already started a number of initiatives, with a focus on both internal and external matters. She suggested that perhaps the Committee should have a discussion with the person appointed.

Mr M Sibande (ANC) was a little concerned about processes. He mentioned the 112 positions and the fact that the Department wanted to fill at least 100 of those. He asked when would those positions be filled.

Ms Nompozolo responded that the Department had advertised last week. They immediately drew up a project plan to assist and indicate a timeline. By 5 October, the Department would announce how it would be filling those posts. However she could see a situation where it would not be able to fill all those posts and the Department was also seeing not enough people applying for the vacancies.

Mr Sibande was also concerned about the 306 members of staff who had left and asked if there was an exact cause. The first reason could be that people had found better jobs, and he was troubled by the fact that there was no policy that spoke to ensuring that employees remained at the department for a specific amount of time.

Ms Nompozolo replied that the Department did conduct exit interviews and had discovered that the second most common reason for the employees leaving was the utilisation of the staff. The Department was able to attract bright young people who wanted to be challenged and fully utilised. They had asked to include a plan to address this issue in the strategic plan of the Department. She added that they could not use this as a policy, as it would be regarded as unconstitutional.

Adv Z Madasa (ANC) reiterated that the issue of vacancies was still a concern. It seemed that at the slightest incentive people would move away from the Department, and it could not be that this was always a question of looking for greener pastures but also had to do with job satisfaction. The language used for terminations also seemed very harsh.

Ms Nompozolo replied that terminations would include transfers, resignations, retirements and so forth; however, the point was taken.

Mr Maluleka commented that there had been no movement across the Asians and Coloured sectors especially in the positions of Deputy director-generals, yet there was movement on the ranks of political office bearers amongst Asians.

Mr B Mnyandu (ANC) wanted to know how many of the vacancies were heads of missions, and how many missions did the Department have.

Ms Nompozolo said that this profile did not include heads of missions, as that was a different process altogether. There were 190 missions, and there were currently eight vacancies.

Mr S Ramgobin (ANC) recognised that there was some advance, but felt that there should be an evaluation, which recognised the need of people to move to better their own lives. He asked the Department to reflect on the capacity and skills of the people applying and the Department’s inability to accept those applicants.

Ms Nompozolo admitted that the Department was having difficulty in finding suitable skills in the applying candidates. Some of those that had applied for Assistant director positions were channelled to the Cadet programme. There were 42 Cadets that had started last year, and the DFA was likely to deploy 35 permanently within the Department. DFA had also appointed 48 new Cadets, and were hoping to retain a significant number of them. These Cadets would affect the number of vacancies.

The Chairperson mentioned the staff turnover, and noted that the Members needed to come back to the reason. He asked if the Department conducted exit interviews and, if so, what were the reasons given for the move. The fact that each department had its own recruitment drives could be a problem. He wanted to know if there had been any recruitment study where DFA compared itself to other departments.

The Chairperson mentioned that there were a number of spouses of diplomats who were qualified but unable to work. It seemed as if there were people of value that the Department did not want to use.

Ms Nompozolo replied that they did not have the capacity to do so. They did not have staffing programmes in the Department. DFA had made a recommendation that they create new initiatives to support the spouses and families abroad, and was currently awaiting approval. Spouses of heads of missions were not allowed to work in the mission.

The Chairperson wanted to know how did the Department look after their staff. As their diplomats were younger, their children were also younger, and the diplomats were forced to send their children to boarding school. The Department only paid for the education but not for the basic upkeep of the children whilst the parents were abroad, with that as an issue the smallest incentive could mean a vast difference to that diplomat.

Ms Nompozolo replied that in the current dispensation the Department could not assist in payment for pre-schoolers, as it was very expensive. The Department would be happy to present the Foreign Service dispensation. When the dispensation was revised, it was recommended that they adopt the United Nations’ ideas. This dispensation touched on all the allowances. They had made the recommendation that the diplomats should pay in fees what they would have paid at home, with the government paying the difference.

The Chairperson noted that the media had always been the source of their information when an official had been recalled for whatever reason. The Committee had not received any reports on any of these issues. He was aware that one official had been recalled from a mission and deployed somewhere else. He wanted to know how these issues were dealt with.

Ms Nompozolo replied that when that happened it was handled very carefully. There must be very good reasons to terminate someone’s position. Nobody has the power to recall other than the Director General. The majority of the problems leading to recalling of an official and that official being sent somewhere else concerned a breakdown of relationship between the Head of mission and his second in charge. Where there had been misconduct, investigations would ensue and the official would be dismissed if found guilty.

The Chairperson knew of a specific case and he thought that the Committee should come together to discuss the policy and how it was dealt with.

The Chairperson mentioned the 42 Cadets and noted that of these the Department might use only 30. He asked how would those not utilised be assisted.

Ms Nompozolo replied that they would ideally like to place as many cadets as they could. The Department would be giving all as much assistance as possible.

The Chairperson mentioned that when the Public Service and Administration Portfolio Committee approved the extension of a programme for five years, they had to appear before this Committee after six months to show what had been done. That programme had been given resources. The Committee asked what had been done here.

Ms Nompolozo replied that they had identified someone and placed him or her with the relevant office. They would approach the Director-General to come up with a plan and present it to the Committee.

The Chairperson said that there were a number of other issues that they had raised with the Department, such as the Africa Institute. He would like the Department to come back to the Committee and give a comprehensive briefing.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

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