Report: The 2012/13 Strategic Plan & Budget Vote of the Department of Public Service & Administration (Dpsa) – dated 16 May 2012

REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS ON THE 2012/13 STRATEGIC PLAN AND BUDGET VOTE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION (DPSA) – DATED 16 MAY 2012

The Select Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, having considered Budget Vote 12 of the DPSA, reports as follows:

1. Introduction

1.1 According to section 92(2) of the Constitution, Members of the Cabinet are accountable collectively and individually to Parliament for the exercise of the powers and the performance of their functions. Furthermore Members of the Cabinet must provide Parliament with full and regular reports concerning matters under their control. [1]

1.2 Based on this provision, the DPSA presented their 2012/13 Strategic Plan and Budget Vote to the Committee on the 24 April 2012, as part of the Committee’s role in ensuring executive accountability, especially with regards to the budget plans and expenditure of the Department. Meaningful oversight requires that interaction between Parliament and the Executive is guided by the goal of ensuring effective governance to the citizens of South Africa .

2. Mandate of the Department

2.1 T he DBSA draws its mandate from section 195(1) of the Constitution, which sets out basic values and principles that the public service should adhere to, and from the Public Service Act (1994). In terms of the Act, the Minister for Public Service and Administration is responsible for: establishing norms and standards relating to the functions of the public service; organisational structures and establishments of departments, and other organisational and governance arrangements in the public service; labour relations within the public service; conditions of service and other employment practices for employees; the health and wellness of employees; information management including electronic government in the public service; integrity, ethics, conduct and anti-corruption; and transformation, reform, innovation and any other matters relating to the improvement of the effectiveness and efficiency of the public service and its service delivery to the public.

3. Government’s Outcomes-Based Performance Outlook

3.1 The Department’s performance outlook for the 2012 medium-term is informed by the outputs of the Delivery Agreement for Outcome 12, which represents its strategic objectives as well as government’s overall agenda for delivery. The Department’s priorities in relation to the transformation and modernisation of the public service includes: improving levels of compliance in departments; improving service delivery and ensuring more effective governance; fighting corruption in the public service; and contributing to the transformation of the public service internationally, especially in post-conflict countries, through lesson sharing and targeted interventions.

4. Presentation on the Strategic Plan and Budget Vote

4.1 The Department is structured into 6 programmes, and they are as follows:

Programme 1: Administration

4.2 This programme provide coordinated strategic and administration support services to enable the Ministry and the Department to deliver on the mandates. During the financial year, the programme will coordinate the implementation of the Delivery Agreement for of Outcome 12, and submit quarterly progress and medium-term review reports to the Governance and Administration Cluster and Cabinet. Expenditure is expected to increase to R205.6 million over the MTEF period at an average annual rate of 6.6%. The increase is due to additional funding that was appropriated in the previous MTEF cycle for capacity building, and additional funding provided for higher than anticipated general salary adjustments.

Programme 2: Human Resource Management and Development (HRMD)

4.3 The purpose of this programme is to develop, implement and monitor human resource management policies. Over the medium-term, the Department will implement a strategy to admit 50 000 youths and unemployed graduates into internship and learnership opportunities, which are aimed at providing work experience. Furthermore, it aims to reduce the vacancy rate from the estimated baseline of 19% to 10% and improve the recruitment process by conducting research, developing appropriate interventions, identifying categories where special recruitment measures must be introduced and by developing guidelines on improving the practice of career management. The spending focus over the medium term will be on supporting the human resource planning strategic framework for the public service, monitoring of the implementation of gender, disability and youth frameworks, developing the integrated management system and implementing interventions aimed at improving the recruitment in the public service.

Programme 3: Labour Relations and Remuneration Management

4.4 The overall aim of this programme is to develop, implement and maintain labour relations and compensation policies and ensure coordinated engagement with organized labour. It intends to improve the conditions of service for public service employees through the revision of existing policies such as the housing, pension and medical assistance policies by March 2015. The spending focus over the MTEF period will be to improve the personnel expenditure framework; to strengthen the remuneration policy framework and improve the conditions of services for public servants thought revision of existing policies.

Programme 4: Public Sector Information and Communication Technology

4.5 The programme promotes and manages the use of ICT’s in the design and delivery of citizen-centred services; and ensures that IT services support the continual improvement in the cost, quality, access, responsiveness and speed of service delivery to citizens, business and stakeholders. Over the medium-term, 10 new Thusong Service Centres per year will be established, at an estimated total cost of R19 million per year.

4.6 Over the medium term, R64 million is allocated to maintain existing centres. Spending in this programme constitutes mainly of payments towards the State Information Technology Agency for the connectivity for Thusong Service Centres, the Gateway call-center and transversal tenders. This programme makes use of consultants to provide technical expertise related to information and communication technology.

Programme 5: Service Delivery and Organisational Transformation

4.7 The primary purpose of this programme is to p romote a service delivery and organizational transformation framework and engage in interventions and partnerships to promote efficient and effective service delivery. It will contribute to improving service delivery competency in the public service by providing training to public servants on Batho Pele principles on an ongoing basis. Furthermore, it aims to institutionalise quality service delivery to all departments by developing and implementing the national knowledge management framework and establishing service delivery forums across the public service by March 2013. The spending focus over the MTEF period will be for the implementation of service delivery improvement initiatives, the development of implementation of frameworks and methodologies and for assisting with implementation of frameworks and methodologies.

Programme 6: Governance and International Relations

4.8 This programme aim to i mprove governance and public administration for enhanced service delivery through integrated public service, fighting corruption, monitoring and evaluation as well as advancing the public service agenda at national, regional and international levels.

4.9 Its goal is to tackle corruption in the public service and monitor compliance with national and international anti-corruption instruments across the public service; and by developing and implementing the Public Sector Integrity Management Framework, rolling out training to public service officials and anti-corruption practitioners; and by investigating corruption related misconduct cases and ensure disciplinary processes are instituted. The spending focus over the medium term will be on tackling corruption effectively, monitoring of compliance, ensuring transparency and to submit the 3rd progress report on the implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism.

5. Budget and Expenditure Trends Analysis

5.1 Over the medium term, expenditure is expected to grow from R690.2 million in 2011/12 to R828 million in 2014/15, at an average annual rate of 6.3%. The vote receives additional allocations of R6.9 million in 2012/13, R7.6 million in 2013/14 and R8.4 million in 2014/15 in the 2012 Budget for improved conditions of service. A Cabinet approved baseline cut of R4.4 million was also made over the MTEF period (R1.6 million, R1.4 million and R1.4 million). The table below provide an MTEF budget expenditure:

Public Service and Administration
Programme	Audited outcome			Adjusted appropriation	Revised estimate	Medium-term expenditure estimate
R thousand	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12		2012/13	2013/14	2014/15
Administration	96,238	125,428	137,241	169,663	169,663	181,076	195,000	205,590
Human Resource Management and Development	29,445	36,833	39,490	36,252	36,252	37,165	40,253	42,500
Labour Relations and Remuneration Management	107,117	87,996	19,331	25,969	25,969	22,528	25,833	27,114
Public Sector Information and Communication Technology Management	32,270	34,839	32,403	39,157	39,157	43,916	46,482	50,451
Service Delivery and Organisational Transformation	189,410	204,602	207,972	203,230	203,230	214,367	227,690	241,892
Governance and International Relations	176,130	181,084	191,728	215,882	215,882	232,435	245,508	260,435
Total	630,610	670,782	628,165	690,153	690,153	731,487	780,766	827,982
Change to 2011 Budget estimate				84	84	5,260	6,224	6,966

(Source: National Treasury Estimates of National Expenditure 2012)

6. Committee Observations

6.1 The Committee has observed that the Ministry for Public Service and Administration has so far developed and is currently implementing the Delivery Agreement for Outcome 12 with partner departments to give effect to the Performance Agreement signed with the President. An analysis of the implementation of the Delivery Agreement to date points to the need to be more robust in focusing its work in seeking to achieve what the President expects from them.

6.2 There is a need for paying particular focus on the broad priority areas that will guide the Ministry’s execution of the various projects under the Delivery Agreement. Of greater significance is the alignment of the activities / projects it implements with the targets and outputs outlined in the Performance Agreement. These should help them see clearly how they will at the end of the four year period achieve an efficient, effective and development oriented public service, which they will be measured against.

6.3 The Ministry has identified Five Strategic Focus Areas which will form part of the overall work of the Public Service and Administration Portfolio. These will serve as the main strategic indicators that will answer the question of whether the public service is effective, efficient and development-oriented. These Five Strategic Focus Areas are:

· Strengthened back-office systems in order to improve service delivery to our people;

· Improved labour relations;

· Improved internal efficiency of the public service through the implementation of SITA Turn-around Strategy;

· Accelerated training and development of a new public service cadre through the repositioning of PALAMA into a school of governance; and

· Corruption tackled effectively.

7. Recommendations

7.1 Having considered and deliberated on the Department of Public Service and Administration 2012/13 Strategic Plan and Budget Vote, the Committee recommends as follows:

7.1.1 The Ministry to review the Department’s organizational establishment to ensure that the organization is correctly positioned to meet the growing demands to provide strategic leadership, advice and implementation support to government departments and provinces in the pursuit of a Public Service that is well capacitated to discharge the mammoth task of delivering public services in a timely, speedy and efficient way to the citizens of South Africa.

7.1.2 The Ministry to develop and implement a sustainable methodology to monitor compliance with the signing of performance agreements in the public service.

7.1.3 The Ministry should expedite the development and implementation of a Batho Pele enforcement mechanism in the public service.

7.1.4 The Ministry should provide the Committee with progress reports on the development of a Single Public Service Bill.

7.1.5 The Ministry should provide the Committee with progress reports on a quarterly basis on the implementation by the Department in respect to its 2012/13 medium-term priority projects per programme.

8.2 T he National Council of Provinces should approve the Budget Vote 12 of the Department of Public Service and Administration.

Report to be considered.