Human Sciences Research Council findings on Health, Education, Agricultural Development & Land Research findings & Public Service Commission (PSC) Report on efficient use of resources

Meeting report

Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Briefings:
Department of Health Issues
The Human Science Research Council delegation together briefed the Committee on the various issues that concerned different departments in South Africa.

Dr Olive Shisana, President and CEO, Human Science Research Council, reported that the Department of Health (DoH) had recorded major successes over the past 14 years, with more then 1 300 new clinics and health centres being built, especially to assist the poor. There had been a remarkable rise in the amount of clinic visits, from 67 million in 1998 to 98 million in 2004. This was largely due to the rise and spread of HIV/AIDS. Further detailed information was contained in the attached documentation, but the presenters focused on some major issues.

Although the DoH had made giant strides to address the challenges of quality health care, much still had to be done, as 51, 9% of South Africans had indicated that they felt the health system could still improve. It was noted that many medical professionals treated patients with absolute disrespect and did not follow the Charter on Patient Rights.

The study also found that many nursing professionals left patients unattended, and displayed a negative attitude towards their work. This was largely due to the rise in patients per nurse, due to the prevalence and spread of HIV/AIDS, little or no benefits, and the harsh working conditions in which they were expected to function. These challenges led to many health professionals leaving for countries like the United Kingdom, where lucrative packages had been on offer.

The public health system in South Africa also faced human resource challenges such as a shortage of health workers, medical practitioners, nurses, and the rise and spread of HIV /AIDS amongst health workers themselves. At the moment 31 214 medical doctors had been registered with the Health Professions Council, with the Western Cape and Gauteng having the highest concentration of medical doctors per head of population.

Discussion
Mr G Schneemann (ANC) said that the crux of the presentation had focused on the quality of services provided by health professionals and their attitude towards their work and patients. He asked what the causes of these negative attitudes had been, and what the HSRC proposed must be done to address them.

Dr Shisana replied that the major factors that led to the negative attitudes displayed by nurses had been the 95% rise in patients to whom the nurses were expected to attend, largely due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the escalation of crime, and the extension of this into hospitals, where nurses were having to treat hardened criminals. This was further exacerbated by the lack of benefits and opportunities in South Africa.

Mr Schneemann noted that he had heard that South Africa’s HIV/AIDS programme had been considered as one of the best in the world, and yet the rise in infections was continuing unabated. He asked whether this programme was actually working in practice, and if not, what had to be done to turn things around.

Dr Shisana said that the National Aids Council had never submitted their budget nor did this Council have a Secretariat. She said that although government had pumped a lot of money into the Aids Council, the results had not been as expected, due to institutional problems

Ms R Mashigo (ANC) asked what the responses of the DoH and the public had been to the problems of nursing colleges.

Dr Shisana replied that government had supported nursing training colleges, as these would cut down on exorbitant costs charged by universities. It was felt that universities generally charged more than these nursing colleges for tuition.

Ms Mashigo asked whether the special allowances provided for to medical professionals to work in rural areas had any positive responses.

Dr Shisana replied that the HSRC was of the view that government should stop this practice of “dangling carrots” to health professionals to work in rural areas, since a study by the HSRC had concluded that this in fact led to bigger problems with such people being perceived by their communities as wealthy, and engaging in risky sexual behaviour with the local community, whose living conditions were generally poor.

Co Chairperson Mr M Sogoni (ANC) said that Dr Shisana’s presentation had been very helpful and would assist Parliament in its oversight capacity. He asked why South African medical professionals chose to work in European countries and not in other African countries, and whether other emerging economies such as Brazil and India faced the same problem with medical professionals leaving in droves.

Dr Shisana replied that the migration of professionals had been a worldwide phenomenon, as even countries like Canada and the United States lost professionals to the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. Each country had to implement its own policy directives to stem the tide of migration by professionals.

Mr Sogoni asked what the Charter on Patient Rights entailed and how far those rights stretched.

Dr Shisana replied that medical facilities did not emphasise the importance of the Charter on Patient Rights to both medical professionals and patients and that there had been little, if any, implementation of the provisions provided for in the Charter.

Mr T Ralane (ANC) said that he disagreed with the Auditor General's Annual Report that stated that the filling of vacancies created efficiencies. He asked whether the HSRC could conduct a study on whether having a lot of staff did equal having efficiencies.

Dr Shisana replied that the problem had been with the absorption of capacity within government and that constant under-spending by the Department of Health had undermined the capacity to deliver on their mandate in some regards.

She added that the filling of vacancies did not necessarily equal efficiency, as incompetence in those who were occupying posts could still hamper effective service delivery. She argued that in order for government to deliver on key mandates, competent officials had to be appointed who could drive key deliverable mandates

She noted that it was very difficult to attract medical professionals to the public sector, even with lucrative packages, as these professionals could be considered as having scarce skills and thus be difficult to attract. She said that government had to train more medical professionals to fill vacancies.

Ms J Fubbs (ANC) asked how applicable the study on knowledge versus practical experience in the dental industry was to the broader medical field.

She added that it did not cost any money to implement existing knowledge and asked whether the HSRC had come with any suggestions to that effect.

Dr Shisana replied that the results from the dental study was just part of a bigger study that had the same findings.

Ms D Robinson (DA) said that the problems and challenges highlighted by Dr Shisana had to do with competency issues at a management level and that many foreign nationals had indicated to her that they would be willing to come and work in South Africa, but that the bureaucratic bungles at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) had hampered these efforts.

Dr Shisana replied that the HSRC was busy assisting the DoH on the National Quality Improvement Plan (NQIP) that would see the implementation of a monitoring mechanism that would address the issue of knowledge implementation. She added that the improvement of skills was part and parcel of the NQIP and that the first port of visit would be to address the issue of management competencies. She noted that the policy directives that pertained to scarce skills still had to be sorted out, and that the inability thus far to deal with this thus the problems at Home Affairs. There had been instances where private organisations had been able to register foreign medical professionals for deployment to rural areas.

Department of Education issues
Dr Vijay Reddy, Executive Director, Education, Science and Skills Development Research, HSRC, briefed the Committee on the research that had been conducted on the South African Education system. It was noted that the challenges in education such as access, equity and quality education had seriously undermined the Department of Education (DoE) as the education system had been riddled by unequal educational outcomes that pertained to areas of language, science and mathematics. The research concentrated on key directives such as Languages and Literacy Education, Science, Maths and Technology Education and Higher Education, which had been highlighted in the DoE Strategic Plan. The context of the education research had been conducted by the recognition of the inter-relationship between education and development, thus the education and development trap.

The study identified three main areas for improvement: Early Years of Learning, Literacy Development and Teacher Education.

Early Years of Learning
South Africa’s educational performance was generally considered to be low and the failure of South African students to master mathematics and science and the high differentiation in the performance of students in private and public schools were of concern. The HSRC concluded that although the State had improved access in early years, there was concern with quality and that the cognitive performance at an early age could predict later performance. There was also a need to optimise conditions in schools to ensure a quality education, and that households had to be supported as many parents still had a low level of education.

Literacy Development
The HSRC had conducted an evaluation of literacy teaching at primary schools in Limpopo in order to provide inputs to the Provincial Government on its Provincial Literacy Strategy and had interrogated successful and unsuccessful literacy practices in schools. The study concluded that strong quality mother-tongue literacy was an essential component in literacy and academic language skills, that government had to address the issue of malnutrition, that learners were not learning to properly read or write, and that low parent literacy levels were not conducive to home support and development of a culture of learning. The HRSC recommended that the DoE should not compromise on teaching time and that learners had to be exposed to reading at regular intervals, that literacy instruction be enhanced through mother tongue and second language instruction, and that a strong reading culture and support at home must be fostered.

Teacher Education
It was concluded that teachers had demonstrated poor content and conceptual knowledge, limited English literacy and had experienced difficulties with critical reflection tasks. However, teachers did display “practical wisdom” that had been acquired with experience and a sense of duty to the community. The study had also concluded that there was a shortage of mathematics and science teachers and language teachers, especially in the rural areas. Although giant strides had been made since 1994, government still had a lot to address in issues of education in South Africa, especially in rural areas, and in African schools. Former Model C schools and Indian schools performed on par with international standards, whilst the African schools had fallen below.

Discussion
Ms Robinson noted that in her constituency key partnerships between non-governmental organisations (NGOs), churches and schools had been formed to address the issue of the lack of quality education. She emphasised the importance of teachers not having to be burdened by unnecessary administration.

Dr Reddy replied that partnerships between civil society organisations and institutions were key in addressing issues that pertained to education and that great emphasis had to be placed on the involvement of parents as well. She said that there had been instances of civil society organisations working with communities to address issues such as illiteracy and related challenges

Mr M Swart (DA) asked whether the HSRC had conducted a study on the lack of discipline in schools.

Dr Reddy replied that a study had been done on the high incidences of school violence but no study had been conducted around discipline issues.

Mr Schneemann noted that government had equipped all newly built schools with libraries, but that the lack of other resources and the fact that children were not reading impacted severely on the literacy rate in South Africa. He asked whether the HSRC had conducted any studies on the relationship between illiteracy and the lack of adequate resources in schools.

Mr Schneemann asked whether it was also correct to say that newly built schools that had been equipped with excellent sporting facilities also produced excellent academic results.

Dr Reddy replied that she could not give an adequate response to that question, but experience dictated that schools with adequate and well-resourced sporting facilities had generally been located in affluent areas.

Mr Ralane noted that not a lot of emphasis had been placed by the HSRC on the importance of indigenous knowledge, especially in rural areas, where educated people had been viewed as “outsiders”.

Dr Reddy agreed that indigenous knowledge was critical; hence the establishment of Unit for Indigenous knowledge within the Department of Science and Technology. She thought that indigenous knowledge should be encompassed in practice as well as in policy guidelines.

Mr Ralane noted also that the presentation did not address the challenges to Early Childhood Development (ECD) in rural areas, where thousands of children died because of malnutrition. This had to date been dealt with in a purely ad hoc manner, and this must change. He stressed that the lack of integrated policy directives on Early Childhood development by the DoH, DoE and Department of Social Development could be blamed for the problems, and that there had been a need for these government departments to align their policy directives in an integrated manner to effectively address the issues.

Dr Reddy replied that the debate around ECD was very critical and that government had to review it. The current policy of “one size fits all” did not work as it pertained to social, cognitive and emotional development. Research and ad hoc studies that had been conducted by the HSRC had highlighted the issues of under development and stunted growth as a result of the inefficiencies with the ECD programme.

Ms R Mashigo (ANC) asked whether the current system of in-house training for teachers was sufficient in preparing them for the future.

Dr Reddy replied that the real problem started when nursing training colleges had been incorporated into existing universities, which led to a situation where many aspirant nurses had to stop their studies, as they could not afford the tuition fees charged by universities. Factors such as accommodation and transport had also not been thoroughly taken into account when government decided to incorporate these institutions.

Mr Sogoni asked how the HSRC was going to assist the DoE in the National Curriculum Statement.

Dr Reddy replied that government currently had several programmes in place and had spent a lot of money on teacher training, but that problems would persist if the DoE did not consider revising its policies. She noted that the matriculants that were due to write their maths and science exams might not be able to answer the question paper as necessary, due to the institutional problems that had been identified, such as inadequate resources and poorly trained teachers.

Ms Fubbs mentioned that the information provided by the HSRC was very helpful, but that any real solutions would only be able to found in the medium-to long term. She asked what could be done immediately to address the challenges and problems raised by the HSRC. She further asked whether the HSRC would be able to discern what problem could be if two schools that were situated in the same area produced different academic results.

Dr Reddy replied that one of the reasons could be that the School 1 might have a selection criterion in place that ensured that it only accepted academically strong pupils. The Dinaledi Schools Project had been implemented by the DoE to address the challenge of maths and science education in schools.

Ms Fubbs asked what the HSRC proposed should be done in terms of educators in the rural areas

Dr Reddy replied that the solutions would be to train more teachers from that area and that if teachers were “imported” from urban areas then they had to commute to those schools, instead of staying in those rural communities, because of the challenges similar to the health professionals that had already been highlighted by Dr Shisana. 

Department of Housing (DOH) issues
Ms Catherine Cross, Chief Research Specialist, Centre for Poverty, Employment and Economic Growth, HSRC, noted that Government provided poor families with free housing as a platform for self-invest and saving, with the rationale that this would equip such poor families to successfully move into the national economy as earners and participating citizens. Their ability to do so did depend on such families receiving adequate housing. If this was not achieved, then what would happen was that the houses would be sold on at very cheap prices.

Further and more detailed information about housing issues was set out in the attached documentation.

Discussion
Mr Ralane said that many municipalities made use of expensive consultants to conduct studies for them whereas they could easily have requested the same information from the HSRC. He said that it was important that the HSRC and government institutions work in a more integrated manner, as the HSRC had a much broader grasp of the challenging issues and the possible solutions to those problems.

Ms Cross replied that municipalities on the ground conducted actual service delivery. In most cases planners, who resided in urban areas, did not have a grasp of what was needed in rural areas. She agreed that there should be a process that effectively aligned the research conducted by government consultants and the HSRC.

Mr Ralane asked whether the new Housing Agency legislation would necessarily lead to effective housing delivery.

Ms Cross noted that the Peoples Housing Process (PHP) programme had been considered to be very bureaucratic, whereas informal housing processes had gone much quicker. So far the PHP process had produced houses of very good quality.

Mr Schneemann agreed that the PHP had proven to be an effective mechanism in dealing with housing delivery and asked the HSRC what information it had on the opposition to it by local government officials.

Ms Cross noted that the impact of the Housing Agency legislation still had to be researched, but that there was a need for the PHP process to be loosened up.

Mr Schneemann noted that planners had been very rigid in their approach to housing delivery, and noted that there was a need to train more planners who were more creative.

Ms Cross conceded that there was a need to revise the training methodology of planners to make them more sensitive to the diverse needs of South Africa.

Mr Sogoni questioned the issue of social grants being used by people to fund the erection of houses and dwellings. He said that both provincial and national government had tasked municipalities to play a key role in the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process, but due to a lack of support from these spheres of government municipalities had struggled to implement their IDP. He questioned why then the HSRC was proposing that municipalities should play a bigger role in housing delivery.

Ms Cross said that she did not specifically indicate that social grants had been used to fund informal housing projects, but that it appeared that grants might be used in this way, as this was the only source of income for many of these people that suddenly had acquired their own houses.

Ms Cross added that the HSRC acknowledged that municipalities had neither the capacity nor the infrastructure to deal with what was demanded of them, but that the onus was on national government to provide assistance.

Agricultural Development and Land Research issues
Dr Udesh Pillay, Executive Director, Centre for Service Delivery, HSRC, said that the study around agricultural development and land research issues had been designed from information that had been received on farm employment and livelihoods in the former homelands and large scale commercial farming in the rest of South Africa. The study had defined three collective scenarios; the continuation of current trends, large scale land reform and the return to peasant farming in former homelands, and the de-racialisation via land reform and commercial development in former homelands. The study kept track of overall impacts and extracted realistic employment scenarios.

The study found that 75 000 to 100 000 livelihoods had been created or boosted by land reform, but that 100 000 to 200 000 jobs had also been lost and 1 million additional food security plots had been created.

Large scale land reform had led to a significant change in the racial ownership of land, and that it had led to 170 000 to 300 000 fewer farm jobs.

Although there had been no change in farm employment opportunities, many farm workers had relocated to other areas, and there had been a significant change in the racial ownership pattern

The HSRC proposed that the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs (DoA) should maintain current policy directives, and that safeguards had to be put in place to deal with possible political opportunism. It was noted that government had to invest even more money in re-distributive land reform and that more money was needed to adequately assist black commercial farmers. Further information was contained in the attached documentation.

Discussion
Mr Ralane noted that the lack of an integrated policy to deal with poverty eradication had seriously undermined government’s ability to deal with this matter and that it was important for the National Department of Agriculture and the HSRC to engage on policy directives and to find a common poverty eradication policy. Currently different government departments all had their own poverty policy directives.

Dr Pillay replied that the HSRC had worked with the DoA to a certain extent in an effort to harmonise research.

Dr Pillay then noted that currently the National Treasury drove the issue of poverty eradication, with little alignment with other departments, and that the level of poverty in South Africa had been distorted and was perceived to be much higher then currently documented. He added that the methodology used to study poverty should also be reviewed, as the criterion of living on less then a $1 a day was considered to be out of date.

Mr Swart said that it was important that when rural communities produced their own food on food security plots, then they should sell whatever was surplus to their needs to the urban population, as otherwise the one would militate against the other.

Dr Peter Jacobs, Research Specialist, Centre for Poverty, Employment and Growth, HSRC,  replied that there had been rising incidences of urban food security plots and that the onus was on government to promote both urban and rural food security plots.

Mr Sogoni noted that the willing seller / willing buyer approach by government had not worked, and that no alternatives to this policy had been crafted, mostly due to the Constitutional provisions that protected land owners.

Dr Jacobs noted that there were two alternatives to the willing selling / willing buyer approach. These were local level area development strategies, where key role players identified key plots for development, or the State buying pieces of land which would be released to those that needed it. This latter option required more coordination and the key issue was for the State to hold on to the acquired land.

Ms Fubbs noted that one of the challenges that some provinces faced had been the lack of extension officers, whilst other provinces, such as the Western Cape, had many more extension officers and field workers to assist emerging and subsistence farmers.

Dr Jacobs noted that more investment in the training of extension officers and field workers was necessary and agreed that there was vastly unequal distribution of extension officers, with most indeed being located in Western Cape. These officers were also mostly associated with private associations and leading commodity producers. He added that further research was required on the issue of extension officers and that this would also play an important role in the transfer of indigenous knowledge.

Water and Sanitation issues
Dr David Hemson, Research Director, Centre for Service Delivery, HSRC, said that the rationale behind the study on water, sanitation and hygiene had been to help mitigate the service delivery problems in South Africa through the implementation of multi-layered, action research projects.

The study concluded that despite the general progress that government had made, it would not meet its intended targets for piped water access by 2008, and full sanitation by 2010. Challenges such as safe water and improved sanitation at schools had seriously impeded on government efforts to eradicate this scourge. Due to the high prevalence of HIV and Tuberculosis, the correlation between water, hygiene, and health improvement had become critical, as some pathogens identified as causing diarrhea cases among HIV positive individuals could also be found in water utilised for household consumption. The issue of sanitation had been closely linked to this, with 64% of households having access to improved sanitation. There was a definite need for parents and schools to highlight the importance of hygiene to schoolchildren.

The HSRC recommended that there had to be a review of planning and implementation practices to ascertain why targets were not being met, and to ensure that adequate resources flowed, leading to accelerated service delivery. There was also a need for an institutional redesign to ensure greater accountability within and between institutions and to the public. The Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) must encourage feedback on greater responsiveness in municipal service delivery.

Discussion
Mr Schneemann noted that Dr Hemson had indicated that government kept on having to shift the dates for its water and sanitation deadlines, and asked what the underlying problems had been.

Dr Hemson replied that there had not been clear guidelines on what the real objectives were. Rural areas suffered the brunt of having to cope with sanitation and hygiene problems. Many municipalities had to stop their own programs due to financial constraints. This led to many of the competent staff that worked on these programmes moving on to look for work in the private sector. He added that Government had to be honest and admit and assess why they could not reach their targets, instead of constantly shifting the goal posts. He added that money had not been the main obstacle, but capacity. He predicted that in 2014 Government would be moving the goal posts once again.

Mr Schneemann asked whether the HSRC had conducted research on alternative ways to wash hands, besides having to use water.

Dr Hemson said that the HSRC had taken note of alternative remedies such as hand sanitisers, but that the first priority of government was to ensure that all South Africans had access to water resources and adequate sanitation and hygiene. He added that schools and communities had to be educated on the importance of water usage and educated to wash their hands after they had used the toilet.

Ms Mashigo noted that during a recent visit to Mpumalanga she discovered that a clinic did not have any water services, despite the fact that there was a dam nearby. She asked what government could do to make this water accessible to villages.

This question went answered

Co-Chairperson Ms L Mabe (ANC) noted that the Department of Water and Forestry (DWAF) had informed her that the de-sanding of dams was a very expensive process, hence the reason for some strategic damns running dry. However, she was not convinced by this argument, as many animals drank from these dams and did not die. She asked whether the view expressed by the DWAF was accurate and whether the HSRC had conducted studies on this.

Dr Hemson replied that more research was needed on the de-sanding of dams. Many of the dams had been built during the apartheid years, with the emphasis on supplying white farmers with water, and not on the wider community as a collective.

He added that South Africa had been at the forefront of technological advances where water service delivery had been concerned and that the harvesting of rainwater should be promoted by the government

Women and Gender Audit for the National Department of Transport (DoT)
It was reported that the aim of the Women and Gender Audit had been to be provide a comprehensive audit of women’s involvement and participation in the transport sector in South Africa. The South African Network for Women in Transport (SAWIT) had highlighted numerous structural and systematic barriers that confronted women as employees and entrepreneurs within the National Department of Transport areas and the transport sector as a whole.

The audit noted that women played four roles within the transport sector. They were users, consultants, service providers and employees. The audit also commented on the access, availability, affordability and appropriateness of transport modes that could either erode or worsen the disadvantages linked to women’s roles within society.

It was stated that women with disabilities faced economic, emotional and physical challenges and there was a need for the DoT to distinguish between the public and work domain as many women felt that they had to sacrifice valuable “family” time to work. The preliminary findings also pointed towards women dominating travel via non-motorised methods, with 50 % of DoT female respondents traveling for the purpose of conducting their monthly shopping.

The HSRC recommended that there was a need for the DoT to attract more disabled female candidates through consultation with organisations that worked with disabled people. There was also a need for government to increase the construction of roads in rural areas, as many inhabitants of these areas did not currently have adequate access to public transport facilities.

Discussion
Mr Schneemann said that women within the DoT seemed to be motivated and asked whether the outcomes of the audit could be applied to the transport industry in general.

Dr S Malik, Gender and Development Unit, HSRC, replied that the audit had been conducted at the Head Office of the DoT in Pretoria, and that some African women had felt demotivated due to being undermined and devalued by other African women in more senior positions. These women had indicated that they had been token appointments as nobody could give them an adequate answer as to what their job descriptions were.

Mr Schneemann noted that as part of the 2010 preparations the DoT had spent millions on establishing an affordable integrated public transport system. He asked whether this would address the challenges faced by women, and what would be done to address the issue of public transport in the rural areas.

Dr Malik replied that government had tried to address the issue of rural transport by issuing women with bicycles, but that this proved to be problematic as women complained that the bicycles were too small for them and did not take other factors, such as the need to carry their children with them, into consideration. She added that government had to address the issue of rural transport from a cultural perspective.

Dr Pillay added that the biggest material legacy of the 2010 would not be job creation, but an integrated public transport system.

Ms Robinson noted that the old railway buses used to be very effective and that the Dial-A-Ride programme implemented by the City of Cape Town to assist disabled people had also been very helpful. She added that the rise in the numbers of Toll Roads in South African had been ill conceived as it mostly affected the poor and marginalised.

Dr Malik noted that she could not comment on the railway buses as they had been used before her time. She thought that there was a need to redesign buses to accommodate the disabled.  She noted that the audit did not investigate the effect that toll roads had on the poor and marginalised.

Mr Sogoni asked whether the audit had extended to trains, as he received several complaints about trains being late, overcrowded and in poor conditions, even without windows.

Dr Malik replied that safety on trains would remain a burning issue, and that the DoT had to ensure that all modes of public transport were safe, instead of just focusing on the 2010 legacy.

Mr Sogoni asked for more information on the issue of “elitism” within the DoT.

Dr Malik replied that the responses received pointed to a scenario where only a selected group of people had been designated to represent the DoT, and that the remainder of the DoT staff felt that this selected group had been constantly favoured.

Mr Sogoni asked whether the audit had focused on the tendering process and the possible benefits that some companies or individuals generated from this.

Dr Malik replied that the audit was not yet done but that it would focus on the same tendering process, and whether the same companies had benefited from it and the reasons.

Ms Fubbs asked what “non-motorized transport” meant.

Dr Malik replied that “non-motorized transport” meant all modes of transport that did not include cars, buses, taxis and motorbikes. She added that in some communities wheelbarrows had been used to fetch shopping and to “transport” the sick and elderly to clinics. The HSRC had proposed the “yellow flag system” that entailed the sticking of a yellow flag into the ground to alert truckers or passing cars that somebody was critically ill and in need of transport, but the fear and danger of hijackings might stifle this proposal.

Ms Fubbs asked for an explanation why African women in the upper echelon positions would consider resigning if an opportunity were to present itself to them outside of the DoT.

Dr Malik replied that African women in the DoT felt devalued and undermined by their counterparts in positions senior to them. It had been indicated that they had been token appointments as they did not have a specific line function. They were therefore demoralised.

Public Service Commission (PSC): Monitoring and Evaluation undertaken to assess adherence to the Constitutional values and principle of efficient, economic and effective use of resources
Mr Ebrahim Naidoo, Deputy Director–General: Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Service Commission, noted that the presentation would report on the evaluation that the PSC had recently undertaken to assess adherence to the Constitutional values and principles of efficient, economic and effective use of resources. The presentation highlighted ten different areas of value for money, planned expenditure versus actual expenditure, alignment of performance information, qualified audit opinions, fraud plans, building integrity in the public service, financial misconduct, the evaluation of Heads of Department, vacancies in the public service and recruitment and selection. These were the key indicators that had to be addressed if government wished to adhere to the Constitutional values and principles of efficient, economic and effective use of resources. He summarised each of those studies.

Value for Money
In terms of value for money, he noted that government would never have enough adequate resources to address all the immediate needs of its people, thus it was important that all resources had to be administered through proper planning. There was a need for government departments to provide services, and to monitor how they allocated and used resources to prevent wasteful expenditure. Careful planning before implementation, the strengthening of project management, the reduction of complexities within the bureaucracy, tackling of fraud and improved public service productivity had been highlighted as key aspects for departments to set as targets, so that they could gain value for money.

Planned Expenditure versus Actual Expenditure
Mr Naidoo noted that the Transversal Public Service Monitoring and Evaluation System (PSM&ES) of the PSC had focused on the assessment of the extent to which departments complied with the nine values and principles of public administration as contained in Section 195 of the Constitution. The PSM &ES had found that during the 2007/2008 financial year fourteen of the twenty sampled government departments had spent their budget as it had been planned and budgeted for in their strategic plans. The PSC expressed concern that over 36 % of departments did not comply with this standard.

Alignment of Performance Information
A 2004/05 study by the PSC had found that across the 61% of the departments that had been reviewed by the Auditor-General (AG), performance information contained in annual reports had not been aligned to the information contained in the Strategic Plans and the Estimated National Expenditure (ENE). In 2005/06 there had been an improvement, with only 29% departments lacking such alignment of reports and plans.

Qualified Audit Opinions
Mr Naidoo noted that the AG had reported an increase in qualified audit opinions for national departments, from seven departments in 2004/05 to twelve in 2006/07. The Departments of Health, Correctional Services, Home Affairs, Defence, Labour and Water Affairs and Forestry had received the greatest numbers of audit qualifications, some for four years in a row.

Fraud Plans
All government departments had been directed by the National Treasury to develop and implement Fraud Prevention Plans (FPPs) to address the scourge of fraud and corruption within government. These plans were considered key instruments in transparent and accountable public administration. This prompted the PSC to conduct a study of 15 national departments and 54 provincial departments, but it was found that only 87% had FPPs in place.

Building Integrity in the Public Service
Mr Naidoo noted that although Government had set up the National Anti-Corruption Hotline to fight corruption, the overall feedback from departments on cases of alleged corruption remained a huge concern, as corruption had a negative effect on the provision of services, particularly to the poor. This situation had been exacerbated by the lack of adequate investigating capacity within departments, and had led to the perception that the public service was inherently corrupt.

Financial Misconduct
Mr Naidoo noted that the PSC had particular concerns with the practice of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, which had led to a significant increase in the number of cases of financial misconduct that had been reported by departments. There had been a huge increase of 186% in the financial misconduct from 2005/06 (when it totaled R46,5 million) to 2006/07 (totaling R130,6 million). At National level, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development had reported the highest number of financial misconduct cases, and at provincial level, the Western Cape reported the highest number of cases.

Evaluation of Heads of Department
Mr Naidoo noted that since 2001/02 there had been a steady decline in the evaluation rate of Heads of Department.

Vacancies in the Public Service
Mr Naidoo said that the vacancy rate in the Public Service had been one of the biggest challenges, and it was central to the problem of service delivery. An audit conducted by the PSC into vacancies in the Public Service in 2007 had found that there had been a total of 88 232 funded vacancies. However, this figure was questioned as PERSAL information had indicated that there were 330 987 vacancies, representing a vacancy rate of 23,1%.

Recruitment and Selection
Dr Norman Maharaj, Public Service Commissioner, Western Cape, noted that government recruitment advertisements had been poorly compiled and lacked the necessary depth of personal and post specifications. Job descriptions were poorly compiled and this resulted in poor and inadequate selection criteria. He noted that government had to be more creative and market itself as a vibrant employer of choice, similar to what the private sector was doing.

Discussion
Mr Schneemann said that one of the underlying factors why there had been poor planning was the lack of integrated policy directives and planning by departments that had to work together in addressing pertinent issues. He asked whether the PSC had conducted a study on intergovernmental planning.

Dr Maharaj said that many government departments did their thinking and planning in isolation and without making this known, and that one of the reasons why departments did not do intergovernmental planning was that the Public Management Finance Act (PMFA) held individual departments responsible for their own budgets. A mechanism needed to be found, outside of the PMFA, that allowed for intergovernmental planning.

He added that it was, for example, unacceptable that babies were still dying in State hospitals, which could be directly attributed to poor intergovernmental planning. The mortality rate of babies in Sri Lanka was the same as that of the fully developed world, and this was largely because Sri Lanka had a very high literacy rate of 90 %. It was important for all departments within the Social Cluster to work together and address pertinent issues for the greater good.

Mr Schneemann asked who was responsible for performance appraisals of Director-Generals, given the constant qualified opinions of some departments by the AG.

Dr Maharaj noted that the onus was on the Executive to engage with their Directors-General on their performance.

Mr Schneemann said he was alarmed by the discrepancies between the information provided by Government systems and the PSC on the number of vacancies in the Public Service. He asked whether this impacted on service delivery.

Dr Maharaj noted that he could not give an adequate response, as it was possible that a smaller staff could also be competent and efficient, but that it had to be stressed that a lack of capacity had greatly influenced service delivery targets.

He added that in some hospitals, nurses had to attend to increasingly larger groups of patients as well as continuing to do their other work. He said that maybe government could bring in family members of the patients to come and assist on an ad hoc basis, as well as using lower level staff to perform some functions.

Mr M Swart (DA) noted that the Committee had indicated in one of its recent report that government departments had to have better planning mechanisms in place. In light of this he asked whether a business plan was a prerequisite for obtaining funding.

Dr Maharaj replied that a business plan was a prerequisite, but that the National Treasury had not enforced these regulations efficiently, still allocating money to departments that did not have the capacity to spend it.

Ms Fubbs commented on the misalignment between the Public Finance Management Act and the Public Service Act. She noted that in some government departments, officials had been suspended for years with pay. She asked what the PSC proposed should happen.

Dr Maharaj replied that the there was a stipulation that officials could only be suspended for a certain amount of time, and that in cases where people had been suspended for a long time, the State incurred huge financial losses as well as the blocking of the filling of these posts.

Ms Fubbs asked who decided whether vacancies would be funded.

Dr Maharaj replied that it was a difficult question to answer, as it depended on the service that had to be provided and the intended plans. If money had not been set aside for certain vacancies then it would be difficult to fill those vacancies.

Ms Mashigo said that when officials under performed or faced disciplinary action, they would often be transferred to other departments instead of being formally charged or being fired. She asked what role the PSC played in the transfer of public officials.

This question went unanswered.

Ms Mashigo asked for the ratios of learnerships to vacancies

Dr Maharaj replied that 1% of the national budget had been put aside for learnerships and skills development, and that indicators such as gender, racial inequalities and disabilities served as guidelines for these learnerships.

Mr M Sogoni (ANC) asked how the PSC made their measurements in terms of value for money where housing and health were concerned.

Dr Maharaj noted that value for money was not about quantity, but quality. There had been a need for Parliament to interrogate departments much more rigorously on their Annual Reports, as they tended to omit certain information that might reflect badly on them. He added that it was a pity that the Public Service Commission did not have enforcing power, as this would have allowed it to adequately address the issues within the public service.

Mr Ralane asked whether the filling of vacancies necessarily resulted in efficiency. He noted that departments spent a major portion of their budgets on salaries.

Dr Maharaj noted that efficiency could be obtained through optimal usage of staff. In the case of nursing professionals; the Department of Health should look at nursing hours instead of shifts, and should institute effective management directives.

Ms L Mabe (ANC) asked how much money had been recovered from corrupt officials as well as from fraudsters.

Dr Maharaj noted that he would forward all the relevant documents to the Committee.

The meeting was adjourned.