Office of Public Service Commission & SA Management Development Institute Strategic Plans and Budgets 2008/9

Meeting report

Office of the Public Service Commission (OPSC) presentation
Professor Stan Sangweni, Chairperson of the PSC, introduced the PSC delegation to the committee.

Ms Odette Ramsingh, Director General, Office of the Public Service Commission, said that the OPSC had continued its exemplary management of its financial resources. There had once again been an unqualified audit report, and it was anticipated that there would be only 0.03% under expenditure. The programmes were divided into administration, investigations and human resources, and monitoring. There had been successful implementation of the Human Resources Plan, the implementation of the Service Delivery Plan, recruitment of five disabled people and a drop in the vacancy rate in the OPSC. There were currently 247 posts, including commissioners, and the vacancy rate was at 10%.

A detailed review of the performance over the last year was given. It had received 587 grievances. A report on poor performance in the public service was issued, as well as a toolkit for management of poor performance, a report on grievance trends, a protocol for summoning of witnesses and report on proceedings at the Labour Relations Conference.
It had intensified investigations into public administration practices. Disclosure forms had been submitted, with 16% remaining outstanding. Draft rules to manage conflicts of interest had been prepared. IT continued to provide service to the National Anti-Corruption Forum and had a hotline.

A summary of the reports provided by the Commission was contained in the presentation (see attached document). The theme for the forthcoming reports was “The State of Readiness of the Public Service for 2010 and beyond” The OPSC was increasingly being seen as an authority on performance management. Inspection reports had been submitted to various departments and inspections would be commencing. The regional integration initiatives were described.

Despite the above achievements, the OPSC stated that it had limited resources and was unable to carry out some of the projects it wished to carry out. Even the corruption hotline that was started by the Commission was under a lot of strain.

The key priorities for the forthcoming year were then described. There would henceforth be four programmes, with the addition of leadership and management practices, and integrity and anti-corruption focuses. Detailed indicators were included in the presentation (see attached document).

The total budget was given as R111 million for 2008/9 and the spread over each of the programmes was tabled. This would rise to R132 million by 2010. Special funds had been earmarked for the upgrading of IT assets.

Challenges were listed as including the fact that OPSC had only received R666 000 for strengthening of oversight functions, and it was felt that this area needed more attention if the service levels were to be maintained. There had been calls from all sectors for an increase of the National Anti Corruption Programme (NACF) but this would not be possible without more funding. The change to the political environment in 2009 would impact upon the administrative environment. In this year the terms of office of several Commissioners would also come to an end, bringing challenges of ensuring smooth transition. There were greater demands being placed by parliamentary committees, and there might be a need for more technical support. There was still a problem in limited follow through of reports. The passing of the Single Public Service Bill would bring a new impact on resources. 
 
Discussion
The Chairperson said that it was a good presentation, for which he thanked the OPSC. 

Ms M Matsemela (ANC), noted that one of the achievements of the OPSC was the approval of the service delivery plans and she asked what the OPSC had done with departments that had not submitted their plans. She was worried that very few departments had complied, as they were not obliged to do so.

Dr Norman Maharaj, Public Service Commissioner, said that the public service delivery plan within OPSC was what was being referred to. He agreed that very few other departments had complied, but said that at the moment there was no mechanism to ensure their compliance.

Ms Matsemela then asked what role the PSC played in human resource management within departments, as there had been several issues around such management.

Dr Maharaj said that the Human Resources Management plan was the responsibility of every senior manager, and it was the responsibility of every individual to ensure the well being of everyone else in the department.

Mr B Mthembu (ANC) challenged this statement by saying that such a situation had the potential to create chaos, as the needed to be a single decision maker and not numerous decision makers. He gave the example of the situation in the Department of Education where there were problems around human resources.

Mr Mthembu further said that if human resource management was a strategic issue, then it should be an issue to be dealt with by an executive and not to be left to some junior official. 

A member of the OPSC delegation agreed with Mr Mthembu and said that if there was a financial officer there should also be a human resource officer as both were important.

The Chairperson responded to the matter that was raised about the survey that was conducted by OPSC on some of the government departments, such as Department of Home Affairs. He said that they needed to find the points that were missed when this survey was carried out. The citizen satisfaction levels in respect of the services being offered by this Department were very low. Mr Baloyi then asked if the methodology used to conduct the survey should not be reviewed.

The Chairperson added that he was  raising this issue because there were so many other ramifications to it. For instance, some of the recent xenophobia attacks were said to stem from complaints about service delivery.

The Chairperson asked what the state of readiness in the public service was, and if it could deal with surprises such as the public service strike that occurred last year.

Prof Sangweni said that the Chairperson’s remarks on the satisfaction survey were not far from the truth. It was indeed necessary to look at the issues around social formations of our societies. Prof Sangweni said OPSC needed to engage the universities to assist in the matter.  In regard to the xenophobia, he said that when he and Mr Baloyi had visited Alexandria, they had thought that some of the infrastructure for service delivery was quite good. That was the reason that he had been surprised by some of the allegations in regard to that particular area.

Dr Mark Orkin, Director General, S A Management Development Institute, reminded the Chairperson that he had for years acted as the national statistician, and he believed, from that experience, that the surveys were asking the right questions to the right people. However, it was the manner in which they were interpreted and used that required investigation. With regard to the Alexandria situation, Dr Orkin said that surveys had been carried out. It was how the information gathered had been dealt with that should be the issue.

Mr A Nyambi (ANC) said that the interpretation issue had to be dealt with at length, and even if a survey gave a 95% “satisfactory” response, a way must be found of dealing with the 5% that were not satisfied.

Mr Nyambi then asked the OPSC how it dealt with the issue of the unfilled 21 vacancies and what challenges did this matter bring.

Ms Ramsingh agreed that they should have a review and discussion around the issue of the survey. In response to Mr Nyambi’s question on the posts, she said that there was usually a 3-month turnover rate, and this had been met. At this stage OPSC was not uncomfortable about the matter.

Mr Nyambi asked if the OPSC had the report that dealt with the HOD’s payment for performance, and said that he thought that they should have it made available.

Ms Ramsingh replied said that these reports were available, but an appropriate day needed to be found so to table the reports.

In relation to performance agreements, Mr Mthembu asked if OPSC was linked to the strategic goals of the department and, if they were linked, how come Heads of Departments would receive performance bonuses although the goals of their departments were not met.

Mr Admill Simpson, Deputy Director General, OPSC, admitted that the performance agreements were linked to the strategic plan of the departments, but that the performance of the HOD and the performance of the department were not fully linked.  There might be a department that had been struggling for years, and the appointment of a new HOD could make some improvements to the performance of that department. The department would still not be meeting its goals, but because of the improvements that the HOD had made, he/she could receive a performance bonus.

Mr Mthembu said that the executive had numerous goals and not one, so they should not be compensated because of achievements based on one key performance area only. He asked what was the point of even having a performance agreement was, if the heads were going to be given bonuses because of achievement in one key performance area.

Mr Simpson replied that a performance agreement  had legal status. If an HOD was appointed to a troubled department, then there would need to be relevant performance indicators.

Dr Maharaj said that Mr Mthembu had made some valid points. However, OPSC was dealing with a young system. In time it would like to reach the stage that Mr Mthembu was envisioning.

South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI)
Dr Mark Orkin, Director General, SAMDI, said that SAMDI was a national training facilitator. SAMDI contributed to the cluster priorities, by training in good governance, anti-corruption, gender and disability, the Mass Induction Programme for the public service, and the Accelerated Development Programme. It contributed to the capacity of the State by its work towards the single public service, integrated service delivery and e-government projects. On the transversal side, a government-wide monitoring and evaluation system training programme had been launched in April 2008.

SAMDI’s other projects, emanating from instructions of the January Lekgotla, included design and delivery of an integrated curriculum for executive development and junior managers, a strategy for massified training, and support to other countries and regional programmes.

SAMDI aimed to align to a number of other policies, including those of the Department of Public Service and Administration, the State of the Nation priorities, the ANC National Executive priorities, and a deliberate focus on matters of skills development.
 
Dr Orkin tabled the portfolio of training programmes and a detailed statistical breakdown of training. There had been an increase of 6% on the previous year. There had been some changes to the projected numbers because of the decision to redesign and develop the massified training programme.

Dr Orkin stated that there had been some reconstitution of the Academy and there was a need for a paradigm shift in thinking. R1 billion had been spent each year in departments, yet 43% of staff in provincial departments reported no training in 2006. International benchmarks suggested at least 5 days training per annum. The total demand-drive requirement would come to nearly ten times SAMDI’s present output

The first main stream of activity concerned the executive development programmes for senior managers. and the second involved massified management training for junior and middle managers. There was an induction programme for all entrants at all levels of the public service.

SAMDI had managed to make good progress in its own development. There had been engagement with partners and stakeholders. Research on programmes offered by higher education institutions had been conducted, and sectoral colleges of the various departments like Correctional Services, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, had assisted. SAMDI was discussing a DPSA and SAMDI Integrated Learning Framework with the provinces for use at human resource management level across the provinces. There had been three inter-provincial workshops and an inter-provincial curriculum committee had been established.

SAMDI was involved in a transformation and the objectives of the old SAMDI were compared to those of the new Academy. Examples were given of the programmes, the new organogram and the new branch. During the transition process SAMDI would ensure that services continued in a seamless way. 98 projects would be transferred to the Academy in a planned way. A full list of the objectives, delivery of outputs, and activities of the new Academy was tabled (see attached presentation).

Dr Orkin then tabled the unaudited results of SAMDI as at 31 March. The budget for 2008/09 was R105 million. The 2007/8 financial management plan had been successfully implemented and there had been an unqualified audit report for 2006/7. Upgrading of the computerised course management systems and debtor controls continued. He outlined the governance aspects, including the internal audit, which was outsourced, the meetings of the audit and risk management committees, the reviews and updates of the risk register, and other internal matters.

The new financial model would aim to increase the person training days (PTDs), recover direct costs from end users, introduce new tariff pricing structures, have an improved electronic booking system, and have e-learning. This would require more collaboration amongst partners and an integrated quality system, with the curricula being aligned, accreditation being ensured and monitoring and evaluation

Discussion
Ms Matsemela said that the Committee was pleased with the good presentation. She enquired whose responsibility was it at the end of the day to come up with the course content and the curriculum, as she was not certain about the operations of the provincial curriculum committee.

Mr D Mashego, Public Service Commissioner, said that SAMDI was the convener of the inter-provincial curriculum, but they also wanted to bring in local government Sector Education and Training Authorities. However, they were still holding meetings to address the matters.

Ms Matsemela asked what the major objective of SAMDI’s international relations project was. 

Dr Orkin responded that the short-term objective of the training programmes in the DRC was to train civil servants, and the longer-term objective was to help the DRC to rebuild its civil service. That was the approach that they were also adopting in Burundi, and the model aimed towards institution building.

The meeting was adjourned.