Question NW2324 to the Minister of Public Service and Administration

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08 December 2020 - NW2324

Profile picture: Clarke, Ms M

Clarke, Ms M to ask the Minister of Public Service and Administration

Whether government departments have adhered to the monitoring tool to obtain statistics in terms of discipline management, which his department put in place in January 2012 and November 2014; if not, (a) why not and (b) what steps were taken in order to ensure that departments comply with the monitoring tool; if so, what are the relevant details?

Reply:

Yes, Government departments have adhered to the monitoring tool to obtain statistics in terms of discipline management, which the DPSA put in place in January 2012 and November 2014.

a) n/a

b) The steps taken in order to ensure compliance are:-

  • The DPSA reported non-compliance of departments to the relevant Portfolio Committee.
  • The Director-General (DG) of the DPSA addressed non-compliance of departments in the Forum of South African Directors-General and provided the Minister for the Public Service and Administration with quarterly reports, indicating those departments that did not report.
  • The DG for the DPSA followed-up with the heads of departments who omitted to submit their statistics.
  • The DPSA issued non-compliance letters (in terms of Section 16 A (4) of the Public Service Act,1994) to those departments who did not submit their statistics.
  • The Minister for the Public Service and Administration (MPSA) hosted contact sessions with Executive Authorities of those departments identified to have suspensions older than one year, where they discussed the reasons for the delay in finalizing cases and support was offered by the DPSA to rectify the situation. MPSA met with the Premier of North West, the Premier of the Northern Cape, the Premier of Kwa-Zulu Natal, the Premier of the Free State, as well as the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology and the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services.
  • To support departments, the discussions between the political heads were followed by workshops conducted by the DPSA. These workshops took place in the North West Province, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mpumalanga, Free State, the Northern Cape and the Department of Correctional Services.
  • The DPSA developed a new reporting tool for precautionary suspensions, and since September, those departments with long overdue suspensions are using it to capture their information on a database that is used by the DPSA for monitoring purposes.The DPSA uses the information obtained during workshops to draft a strategy to address backlogs of disciplinary cases and to develop a Guide on Discipline Management.

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