ATC130521: Report on the Strategic Plan and Budget Vote Portfolio Committee on Public Service And Administration

Public Service and Administration

Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration

Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration

REPORT ON THE STRATEGIC PLAN AND BUDGET VOTE

 

 

1. Executive Summary

The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration held its strategic plan workshop in Gauteng Province on 15 -17 April 2013. The Portfolio Committee has invited the following department and entities: the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA), the Public Service Commission (PSC), Government Employee Medical Scheme (GEMS), Public Service Education and Training Authority (PSETA), State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI).

The committee considered the budget vote of the Department of Public Service and Administration during the strategic planning session.

The main aim of the strategic plan workshop was to:

· Evaluate progress for the Annual Performance Plans for 2012/13 financial year and

· Strategic plan to interrogate the Department and its Entities in line with programmes and its outcome

· Inform the Portfolio Committee on the Annual Performance Plan of the Department for Budget Vote 12 and its entities for 2013/14 financial year.

The theme for the Portfolio Committee for the 2013/14 financial year is “Overarching oversight of Public Service”.

 

 

2. Introduction

Section 195 of the Constitution indicates that the Public Administration must be governed by the democratic values and principles. The mandate of the Department of Public Service and Administration is derived from section 195 and also ensure the overseeing of the overall functioning of government, its state organs and public enterprises. In terms of Section 42 (3) of the Constitution “the National Assembly is elected to represent the people and to ensure government by the people under the Constitution. The National Assembly does this by choosing the President, by providing a national forum for public consideration of issues, by passing legislation and by scrutinising and overseeing executive action”.

The National Assembly appoints its members to a number of Portfolio Committees to oversee the work of the various national government departments. The role of the Portfolio Committee is to consider bills, deals with departmental budget votes and oversee the work of the department they are responsible for and enquire and make recommendations about any aspects of the department, including its structure, functioning and policy. The work of Committee is, amongst other is to oversee government and may investigate any matter on public interest that falls within their area of responsibility.

In terms of section 10 (1) (c) of the Money Bills Amendment Procedures and Related Matters Act, No 9 of 2009, the relevant members of Cabinet must table updated strategic plans for each department, public entity or institution, which must be referred to the relevant Committee for consideration and report.

In line with its constitutional responsibility of overseeing executive action, the Committee received briefings from the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), the Public Service Commission (PSC), State Information Technology Agency (SITA), Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA), Government Employee Medical Scheme (GEMS), Public Sector Educational Training Authority (PSETA), and the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI).

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Objective of the Workshop

 

The objective of strategic workshop was to encapsulate key issues from the Strategic Plans and the Annual Performance Plans for financial year 2013/14 made during the Budget Vote 12 for the Department of Public Service and Administration and entities’.

 

4. Achievements: Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration

The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on the Public Service and Administration presented the performance achievements over 2009-2013 periods. During the first year, the Portfolio Committee and DPSA did allow itself to understand the sector. The Committee interacted closely with all entities and enforced aligned of objectives. On the second year, the Committee studied the Public Service Commission (PSC) and Auditor General (AG) reports to assist itself with the oversight of the public service. There are a number of achievements the Committee has achieved such as insisting to the PSC to implement the constitutional mandate fully in order to cover local government in its analysis of the State of the Public Service Report. The Committee objectively interrogated their strategic plans and provide directions into their plans. These enabled the Committee to provide oversight over DPSA and its entities’ functions in order to fulfil the outcome 12 commitment. The Committee further provided the strategic direction to the State Information Technology Agency.

During the third year , the Committee was working towards ensuring that there is collaboration on government departments and institutions. The Committee encouraged alignment and interrelations between DPSA and its entities in terms of their strategic priorities. The Portfolio Committee will in their last term focus on an overarching oversight on Public Service to assist government in ensuring that five key priorities area’ and National Development Plan objectives are met.

The Chairperson further highlighted the following real and tangible achievements of the Portfolio Committee over the past four years (2009-2012):

· Conducting oversight visits at Thusong Service Centres in Gauteng and the Northern Cape provinces .

· Recruiting and appointing the PSC Commissioners in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

· Annually approving Budget Votes for the sector.

· Annually designing the Strategic Plan for the Portfolio Committee.

· Annually conducting the Strategic Planning Workshops together with entities.

· Annually approving Strategic Plans and assessing progress on sector Annual Performance Plans.

· Undertaking study tours to Ghana and Indonesia (2010) and Cuba (2012).

· Annually compiling the BRRR Reports for the sector.

· Conducting oversight over sector entities, including visits to the PSETA, PSC, DPSA, PALAMA, PSCBC and the CPSI.

· Determining and assessing corruption trends in the public service.

· Interrogating the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 as the Governance Cluster.

· Conducting oversight visit on Section 100 intervention in the Limpopo Province .

· Conducting oversight visit to Bosele School for the Blind in the Limpopo Province .

· Determining and assessing progress regarding MDGs in the Governance Cluster as well as in the entire public service.

 

5. Summary of the Presentations of the Department and its entities’

5.1 Department of Public Service and Administration

The Department of Public Service and Administration has a mandate in the areas of transforming and modernising the Public Service; overseeing changes to the structure of the Public Service; and establishing norms and standards for human resource management and development, conditions of service, labour relations, information technology and service delivery. Over the past decade, this mandate has evolved from policy development to consolidation and implementation. Service delivery improvement and accountability remain central to the Department’s core business, with an emphasis on improving the quality of service delivery in rural, poor and marginalised communities and alleviating poverty in general.

In terms of the achievements of Annual Performance Plans for 2011/12, the Department has achieved the following:

· Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) – Department developed and completed the Human Resource Generic Template. The IFMS strategy had been developed in collaboration with SITA. The IFMS was not rolled out to the entire public service due to outstanding modules to be developed.

· Human Resource Development Strategic Framework (HRDSF) was implemented with success rate of 77%. The DPSA had provided technical support to various departments towards the implementation of the HRDSF.

· Facilitated participation of 20 397 internships and learnerships out of the targeted 25 000.

· Finalised a report on organisational skills requirements and Senior Management Service (SMS) skills gaps for 40 departments.

· Revised the Handbook on Reasonable Accommodation and Accessibility

· Conducted Labour Relations Training for all employees in the public service. A total of 213 officials have been trained.

· Developed a blueprint for a government-wide security policy.

· Developed and adopted IT Security Policy.

· Trained 295 officials on the mainstreaming and institutionalisation of Batho Pele and change management within the public service.

· Conducted Employee Satisfaction Surveys

· Developed and piloted an electronic financial disclosure system within the Department and the Office of the Public Service Commission before full implementation in the entire public service.

· Implemented support to improve the quality of PERSAL HR information in 8 provinces included departments under administration in Limpopo and Eastern Cape .

· Rolled out a training programme for anti-corruption practitioners to all national departments and training 229 practitioners.

The Department has presented problem statements which enforce it to review its strategy to professionalise the public service in order to realise the developmental state. On the foregoing, the following can be observed by the Portfolio Committee:

· The public service is not performing at optimal level. There is no value for money (PSC Report, 2011)

· There is shortage of skilled personnel and high turnover rate in the Public Service (ND, 2012)

· Weakening of the State and emergence of a tender state. The use of consultants in Public Service accounted for an amount of R24, 6 billion for the period 2008/09-2010/11 financial years (Source: AG report on use of consultants, January 2013)

· Corruption in all spheres of government has worsened (OECD economic survey, 2013 rates RSA to 40 percentages).

The Department is presently developing an Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) in order to phase out the PERSAL System. The system is aimed at consolidating and replacing the ageing financial and human resource infrastructure and systems. The IFMS will assist in enhancing the integrity and effectiveness of the Public Service, for example, improving the accuracy of statistics on the vacancy rate and the actual staff complement of the Public Service.

The Department will table the following Bills before the Parliament this financial year in June 2013: the Public Service Act Amendment Bill regarding Section 195 and Section 100 of the Constitution. The review of the Act and introduction of the amendment Bills will assist government in prohibiting the employees from doing business with the State, preventing candidature of employees in election while they are employees of the State and disallowing officials to conduct any remunerative work outside the Public Service. The DPSA will convene a meeting with NEDLAC on 17 April 2013 to discuss the content of the draft Public Administration Management Bill.

The Department elaborated that they are planning to establish an Office of Standards and Compliance in due course. The main aim of the Office of Standard and Compliance is to address areas of non-compliance with public service regulations and prescripts, and conducting a compliance audit to three level of government and monitoring of compliance and coordination of required interventions. The Department aims to achieve clean government by fighting corruption through the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Bureau so that all the related cases in all three spheres of government can be resolved in a coordinated manner. The Bureau will investigate high level corruption, fraud cases and manage disciplinary hearing of the departments. Among other things, the Bureau will establish a central database of cases and public servants who will be found guilty of corruption so that they could be blacklisted.

Professionalisation of public service is one of the main priorities that the department will achieve in number of years. The department has came up with a compulsory training programme which is being facilitate by PALAMA, the review and enhancement of appointment procedures of seniors managers. The professionalisation of the public service will assist the government to capacitate or equip the individual officials to develop better understanding of how government functions. During negotiations with the PSCBC, there were agreements which led to the PSCBC resolutions, the Minister agreed with Labour Unions to implement the two year induction for first entrants in the public service, the three year (2012-2015) deal on salary increment and review of remuneration for public servants. The Department is also championing the Presidential Commission on Remuneration Review for Public Service to investigate the remuneration and conditions of service and the teachers with a view to treating this as a matter of priority.

The budget vote of the Department of Public Service and Administration is divided into six funded programmes that seek to achieve its mandate. The six programmes and their purposes are discussed in detail below:

Programme 1: Administration – the objective of this programme is to provide policy, strategic leadership and overall management to the Department. The budget for Programme 1 increased from R181.1 million in 2012/13 to R187.2 million in 2013/14 financial year. The Programme 1 on Administration has spent R177.4 of the allocated budget of 2012/13 financial year.

Programme 2: Human Resource Management and Development (HRMD) - the objective of this programme is to develop, implement and monitor human resource management policies. The major spending focus over the medium term will be on projects related to the utilisation of the training budget in the public service and to measure the depth of skills levels in the public service. The main focus of the Department is on the improvement of recruitment and reducing the vacancy rate in the public service. Over the medium term, expenditure is expected to increase to R43.6 million, at an average annual rate of 4.1 percent, to provide for improved conditions of service. R600 000 is allocated for spending on consultants over the medium term to assist with the Senior Management Services competency assessments, implementation of IFMS HR solutions in departments, development of policy on sexual harassment in public service and HIV prevention programmes. The budget for Programme 2 increased from R37.2 million in 2012/13 to R38.7 million in 2013/14 financial year.

Programme 3: Labour Relations and Remuneration Management - the objective of this programme is to develop, implement and maintain labour relations and compensation policies, as well as, ensure a co-ordinated engagement with organised labour. Programme 3 accounts for a 3.1% share of the total budget vote in 2012/13. The budget allocated for this programme for the financial year 2013/14 is R29.6 m. Spending focus for 2013/14 and the medium term will be on management of discipline in the public service, revision and implementation of a new housing scheme as part of improvement of conditions of services. The decrease in expenditure was on the conditions of service subprogramme. The expenditure for the programme is projected to drop in the 2015/16 as the investigation on the re-arrangement of working time in the public service project will be concluded in 2014/15. A panel of experts will be appointed to deal with management of disciplinary cases in public service.

Programme 4: Public Sector Information and Communication Technology Management – this programme aims to develop, implement and monitor information communication technology (ICT) policies and norms and standards that enable citizen-centred services. The budget allocation of Programme 4 accounts for R39.4 million of the total budget vote in 2013/14 as results of connectivity of the Thusong Service Centres.

The imminent focus of the programme over the medium term is on implementation of various policies related information management and electronic government in the public service. High spending has been incurred for the payment of information communication technology connectivity at the Thusong Service Centres and the call centre. The coordination and management of the GITO Council and Portal is one of the cost drivers in this programme. The Department aims to connect 10 Thusong Service Centre with cost estimate of total amount of R13 million per year to sustain.

Programme 5: Service Delivery and Organisational Transformation – aims to enable the Department to promote a service-delivery and organisational transformation framework. Programme 5 also enables the Department to engage in interventions and partnerships to promote efficient and effective service delivery. The budget allocated for the programme 5 for the 2013/14 has increased to R236.0 million.

 

The increasing budget allocation of Programme 5 can be attributed to the need to improve conditions of service. The number of national and provincial departments that will be supported with the development of Service Delivery Improvement Plans (SDIPs) is expected to increase, hence a bigger allocation. The number of national and provincial departments in which Batho Pele training will be conducted has increased as well. More allocation will be transferred to PALAMA as part of the preparation of the School of Government .

Programme 6: Governance and International Relations - seeks to improve participatory governance, strengthen the fight against corruption and engage with international partners in the field of public administration. The budget allocation for Programme 6 increased from R232.4 million in 2012/13 to R272.3 million in 2013/14. Spending focus of the programme over the medium term is the implementation of an electronic disclosure system to prevent fraud and corruption, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery through survey which also includes an employee satisfactory survey. R11.9 million is projected over the medium term for the use of consultants to provide advisory services for citizen report and an electronic disclosure system.

 

 

 

Budget Allocation for the Department of Public Service and Administration is as follows:

Programme	Budget				Nominal Rand change	Real Rand change	Nominal % change	Real % change
R million	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2012/13-2013/14		2012/13-2013/14
Administration	187.2	198.5	206.2	224.9	11.3	0.8	6.04 per cent	0.41 per cent
Human Resource Management and Development	38.7	40.4	42.3	43.6	1.7	- 0.4	4.39 per cent	-1.14 per cent
Labour Relations and Remuneration Management	28.1	29.7	31.0	27.6	1.6	0.0	5.69 per cent	0.09 per cent
Public Sector Information and Communication Technology	29.4	39.4	43.9	43.5	10.0	7.9	34.01 per cent	26.91 per cent
Service Delivery and Organisational Transformation	216.8	236.1	247.7	256.1	19.3	6.8	8.90 per cent	3.13 per cent
Governance and International Relations	226.6	272.3	288.4	284.0	45.7	31.3	20.17 per cent	13.80 per cent
TOTAL	726.9	816.4	859.5	879.7	89.5	46.2	12.31 per cent	6.36 per cent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.2 Public Service Commission

The Public Service Commission (PSC) exist in terms of Section 196 of the Constitution which stipulate that the Commission is independent and must be impartial, and must exercise its powers and perform its functions without fear, favour or prejudice in the interest of the maintenance of effective and efficient public administration and high standard of professional ethics in the public service. The Constitution provides the PSC with powers and functions. The Commission is accountable to the National Assembly.

The PSC objectives are to promote and maintain an effective and efficient public administration with a high standard of professional ethics. The core business of the PSC is to investigate, monitor, evaluate and advise on strategic Public Service issues. The PSC is a knowledge-based institution, which produces and applies information to contribute to a participatory and developmental Public Service.

In terms of the achievements of Annual Performance Plans for 2011/12 issued August 2012, the Office of the Public Service Commission has achieved the following:

· Fact sheet on trends analysis on grievance resolution in the Public Service and the local government for the 2010/11 financial year was approved.

· Identified general area of concern in labour relations.

· Draft report on the assessment of the effect of turnover rates of HoDs on performance of departments was submitted to the PSC in January 2012. The purpose of the study was to establish whether there is correlation between the turnover rate at the upper most level of administrative leadership and organisational performance.

· The intervention of Portfolio Committee on the compliance rate of the filling of Performance Agreements of HODs assisted the PSC to increase the rate to 89% at national and 97% at provincial level.

· Fact sheet on the 2011 SOPS was approved by PSC in March 2012.

· All 13 reports on the evaluation findings of departments’ adherence to the Constitutional Principles of Public Administration were approved.

· Conducted service delivery inspections in the DoJCD focusing on the backlog of cases at the regional courts. Inspection includes adherence of service delivery of Batho Pele principles.

· Conducted a Citizen Satisfaction Survey based on the key drivers of citizen satisfaction which focused on the services rendered by municipalities.

The Strategic Plan which provides an overview of the work of the PSC has been presented at the time when the organisation is reviewing its business processes to facilitate speedier delivery. The Chairperson of the PSC reported to the Portfolio Committee that the Commission has received a clean audit from the Auditor General of South Africa . The PSC presented a situational analysis in its efforts to fight corruption in the Public Service to the Portfolio Committee as follows:

· Capacity constraints and lack of departmental investigative units dedicated to conduct investigations and complaints referred to the PSC which has negative effect on the finalisation of cases.

· Slow and poor feedback rate by departments affect speedy finalisation of the cases and closure thereof.

The PSC has reviewed its vision and mission after consideration of the comments and inputs made by the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration. The Commission plays a significant role in dispute resolution and promoting sound labour relations and labour peace in the Public Service. These include, amongst others, considering grievances lodged by employees and Heads of Department (HoDs). The PSC’s limited budget and HR impact negatively on its ability to discharge its oversight functions resulted into it not reaching targets as requested by various stakeholders.

The PSC has reflected on focus areas for the financial year 2013/14 such as Public Service Barometer Report and the State of the Public Service Report. Among other things, the PSC will conduct an evaluation on the capacity of the Public Service to operate collaboratively with the focus on the Development and Land Reform. The Committee welcomed the decision by the PSC to assess the availability of medicines and medical equipment in selected provinces and determining the role of district offices in ensuring that medicines and medical equipment is available.

The Committee noted that the institutional independence and budget allocation of the PSC remained un-corrected. The Portfolio Committee is concerned that there is no progress regarding the budget of the Commission being transformed from being a transfer from the Department of Public Service and Administration to a stand-alone budget vote. Although the Commission does not seek any approval to utilize its budget from the Department, the fact that this budget is an appendage of the Department does not sit well with the Portfolio Committee, which compromises the independence of the Commission. The PSC will receive a transfer from Budget Vote 12 of R201, 140 for 2013/14 financial year. The PSC reported that if the Portfolio Committee would broaden the scope of the Commission the budget allocation will need to be doubled.

5.3 Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy

The Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA) is the legislated training institution of government geared towards providing training and development to public servants. PALAMA facilitates the provision of training in the four streams, namely: leadership, management, administration; and induction.

In terms of the achievements of Annual Performance Plans for 2011/12 issued August 2012, the PALAMA has achieved the following:

· A concept document was developed towards revising PALAMA’s institutional funding and governance model. A process of further engagement was undertaken with the DPSA on the framework document.

· Project Khaedu materials were piloted and the approved materials were handed to the Training Delivery Branch for training roll-out.

· The Public Service Graduate Internship Development Programme was developed.

· Ten courses were enhanced through the development of complementary eLearning materials and online communities of practice.

· Anti-corruption course was accredited by PSETA, finalised and approved.

· All training programmes offered by PALAMA have been consistently monitored through 19 728 Reaction Evaluation Questionnaires (REQs) and Facilitator Feedback forms

· The draft Matrix has been finalised and presented to the organisation for further external consultations

· Access to online journals through SA e-Pubs was also finalised.

PALAMA has tabled its Annual Performance Plan for 2013-2014 to the Portfolio Committee. The Committee scrutinised the plan which includes the development of new policies and others that need to be reviewed. PALAMA was also held accountable on the activities undertaken during the financial year 2012/13 and benchmarked with the current year.

The strategy for the current Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) has been influenced by the delivery agreements for outcome 12; specific to PALAMA which are:

· Improved service delivery quality and access

· Improved human resource management and development

· Enhanced business processes, decision rights and accountability

· Effective tackling of corruption in the Public Service

PALAMA has shared with the Portfolio Committee its eight strategic goals. The Director General mentioned that in future PALAMA will no longer be a national department but a School of Government which will function independently.

On Programme 1 (Administration) - operational activities funded under the vote account, the office of the Director General has the transitional management structure which work towards the establishment of the School of Government . The School of Government aims to provide new programmes and modules in various areas such as compulsory induction/programme, public representatives training and youth development in preparation for public service career choices, etc. PALAMA had outlined their training activities and delivery targets to the Portfolio Committee. PALAMA will revise strategic plan once the School of Government business case is approved by Cabinet.

The School will be independent and function like an accredited university that provides its own qualifications such as certificates, diplomas and degrees. PALAMA might take the form of a corporate university. The training and education will be provided under the auspices of independent faculties. PALAMA has illustrated the training target group for the School to the Portfolio Committee. The new curriculum approach is embodied by the mandatory induction programmes in government from post level 1-14 for officials and the Executive Induction from post levels 15-16.

PALAMA has commenced with the consultation with the Labour Unions and the officials within the Department. The Minister of the Public Service and Administration is engaging with Minister for Basic and Higher Education on the establishment of the School. The consultation with stakeholders will afford PALAMA with smooth transition from PALAMA to the National School of Government. The provision for transitional activities to the lunch of the School of Government will be determined with an option of using PALAMA cash reserves. The establishment of the School of Government needs to be preceded by the preparation of the business case and formalising the establishment of the School. The National School of Government will be fully functional in 2018.

 

 

 

 

Budget Allocation for PALAMA is as follows:

Trade Account	5 year Strategic Framework Financial Estimates
R thousand	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18
Revenue
Non-tax revenue	124,059	130,822	136,841	143,136	149,720
Course Fees	121,953	128,613	134,531	140,719	147,193
Interest	2,106	2,209	2,310	2,416	2,527
PALAMA (Transfer)	53,000	55,597	58,154	60,829	63,627
Total revenue	177,059	186,419	194,995	203,965	213,347
Expenses
Current payments:
Compensation of employees	68,490	72,531	75,867	79,357	83,007
Goods and services:	108,569	113,888	119,128	124,608	130,340
Training related costs	73,787	77,402	80,963	84,687	88,583
Other operational goods and services	34,782	36,486	38,165	39,921	41,757
Total expenses	177,059	186,419	194,995	203,965	213,347

 

5.4 State Information Technology Agency

The State Information Technology Agency (Pty) Ltd was established through SITA Act (Act 88 of 1998 as amended by Act 38 of 2002) and classified as schedule 3A Public Entity according to the Public Finance Management Act. The Government is a sole shareholder of SITA, and the Minister of the Public Service and Administration exercises the custodian rights attached to the share on behalf of the State.

SITA was established to consolidate and co-ordinate the state’s IT resources, save costs through economies of scale, increase delivery capabilities and improve interoperability. The agency is funded on a cost recovery basis through its provision of services such as infrastructure, hosting, data centres and procurement. The previous SITA Board Members are under the investigation by the Special Investigating Unit. SITA presented the turnaround strategy, budget and responded to comments raised by the Committee during the BRRR meeting. SITA had implemented its turnaround strategy in order to deal with issues of governance raised by the Portfolio Committee and the Auditor-General.

SITA is working with government departments to reduce the Information Technology cost to save money in order to ensure a competitive pricing and financial sustainability. SITA is working with the Department of Public Service and Administration to establish Integrated Financial Management Model (IFMS) for the government. The IFMS will in due course replace Persal system. The IFMS has 9 modules. Out of those, SITA has developed 8 modules. The outstanding module is payroll. It was reported that 20 IFMS rollout has been completed. A customer satisfaction index will be implemented to determine supplier satisfaction.

SITA is in the process of streamlining hand over processes between customer management, supply chain management, projects and finance environments to enable quicker turnaround times with regards to invoicing. SITA has developed a strategy for local government with the much emphasis on taking advantage of mobile government solutions and smart city solutions. SITA is in the process of implementing government cloud solution in order to augment its current broadband capability and to endeavour speeding up the modernisation of the public service. SITA indicated that they did not increase prices they charge to government departments for the past four years. SITA conducted a benchmarking of prices with private sector and it was found that they are reasonable. The Portfolio Committee requested SITA management to report progress regularly and in writing regarding the finalisation of the IFMS project. The Committee will monitor closely the efforts aimed at finalising the project.

5.5 Centre for Public Service Innovation

The Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) is the entity of the Minister for the Public Service and Administration established to entrench and drive service delivery innovation across all sectors. The CPSI is bridging the gap between the world of research and development driven by the National System of innovation of the Science and Technology Sector, and the context of service delivery at the coalface. The National System of Innovation includes entities such as National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), the Innovation Hub and the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA).

The CPSI’s strategic plan is aligned to the government priority outcomes. In this regard the focus will remain on the testing and piloting of new innovations, the replication of local and international innovative practices (with a specific focus on the replication of previous CPSI Awards finalist and winning projects) and the strengthening of an enabling environment for innovation within and throughout the public sector. The CPSI has assisted the Honey Dew policing nerve centre and has introduced the hospital pharmacy back office optimization project and replicated and consolidated it at Helen Joseph, Job Semankhanne and Mahatma Gandhi hospitals. The CPSI indicated to the Committee that hospitals raised severe challenge related to duplication in the dispensing of chronic medication.

The CPSI has made a request to the Director General of the DPSA and to the National Treasury to finalise the matter regarding the budget structure of the CPSI and the respective roles and responsibilities of the accounting officers. Additional funding was provided for in the MTEF onwards for CPSI operational costs. An outstanding matter of a special fund for piloting and replication was being discussed with National Treasury (with Innovation Hub and Tshwane Metro).

5.6 Government Employee Medical Scheme

The Government Employee Medical Scheme reflected that the scheme has performed well and reached 95% of its service provision for the financial year 2012/13. The Scheme reported in March 2013 a deficit of R40. 2 million. The 2013 strategic plan is informed by the success and challenges in 2012 as well as by the environment in which GEMS operates. Transfer of the pre-92 Medihelp pensioner who contribute on the lower income band due to their status as pensioner, has an adverse clinical risk profile and hence increased claiming patterns and are therefore having a negative impact on GEMS’ reserves. The GEMS is utilising consultants/service providers for the fast tracking of payments for the scheme members.

 

5.7 Public Service Education and Training Authority

The Public Service Education and Training Authority (PSETA) is an entity established and funded by the Department of Public Service and Administration. However PSETA reports to the Department of Higher Education. The budget allocation for the PSETA is R23.3 million this 2013/14 financial year. The funds are highly regulated through grants regulations. The PSETA clarified its roles which do not clash with PALAMA’s. The PSETA’s role is to ensure quality assurance whereas the PALAMA or School of Government will provide training and development in the public service. PSETA is now a funded institution.

 

6. Findings and Recommendations

6.1 The Portfolio Committee noted the information given by the Auditor-General that unless skills levels improve in the public service, state entities and departments will not realise a full understanding of what is required of them concerning performance management, accounting (reporting) and financial management. The Portfolio Committee recommends that people with proper skills are placed in positions where performance management, accounting and financial management are properly executed and monitored.

6.2 The Portfolio Committee recommends that contracts for the use of consultants should be tied with a requirement to train, share and impart skills to the officials in whose divisions, branches and sections the consultants were employed. This is in order to minimise the expenditure on consultants which cost the state R102 billion over the past three years (2010/11-2012/13).

6.3 The Portfolio Committee recommends that there must be a correlative opinion on whether the actual service did take place regarding each audit outcome (opinion) concerning financial performance. This serves to ensure that value is added to the entity and to the recipients of service.

6.4 The Portfolio Committee recommends that the Department supplies Parliament in writing with the percentage of work done regarding the IFMS and the PERSAL clean-up process.

6.5 The Portfolio Committee notes and complements SITA on progress they have made regarding the IFMS project, wherein 8 modules have been completed. However, the Committee is concerned that the crucial module on Payroll Management is still outstanding. The Committee recommends that this module be finalised at the earliest convenience.

6.6 The Portfolio Committee recommends that the customer satisfaction status of 35% at SITA be improved to 100% in order to render the information technology service to the state effectively.

6.7 The Portfolio Committee recommends that SITA ensures due migration of personnel into the new organogram that came into effect after the Turnaround Strategy was introduced and implemented in order to boost the low morale reported regarding personnel.

6.8 The Portfolio Committee recommends that SITA reports within six months on progress made regarding the strategy to minimise conflict between itself and state departments concerning the supply chain management and procurement.

6.9 The Portfolio Committee urges the Department to introduce legislative amendments, if necessary, to align the Public Service Amendment Act 30 of 2007 with the Public Finance Management Act 29 of 1999, regarding financial management and accountability by the Executive Director of the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) versus the authority of the Director-General with regards to the budget of the CPSI. Since the CPSI is a fully-fledged government component, it is logical for it to have its head with full accounting powers regarding financial management and administrative performance of the component.

6.10 The Portfolio Committee urges PALAMA to introduce legislative amendments, if necessary, to enable the process of its transformation from an academy into a School of Government, especially if the gradual transformation towards 2018 begins by October 2013.

6.11 The Portfolio Committee recommends that before it meets with entities and the Department for the annual Strategic Planning Workshop, it should have already met with the Office of the Auditor-General in order to understand financial management challenges the Auditor-General identified from the audit outcomes.

6.12 The Portfolio Committee needs three days in which to conduct the workshop in order to thoroughly deal with the sector issues.

6.13 The Portfolio Committee resolved to find out how it can devise a plan, in collaboration with the Parliamentary Budget Office, to ratify or prevent performance bonuses for officials at entities that did not meet service delivery and financial management requirements.

6.14 The Portfolio Committee recommends that the Secretariat, in conjunction with the Office of the PSC and the A-G’s Office, thoroughly assess whether entities used their budget to fully realise their pre-set objectives. For each pre-set objective, the entities should report on what percentage was achieved.

6.15 The Portfolio Committee recommends that PALAMA comes up with a Business Model that would allow a smooth transition into a School of Government from being an academy.

6.16 The Portfolio Committee recommends that PALAMA supply the Committee with clear details why they need an increase in budget allocation.

6.17 The Portfolio Committee recommends that SITA’s pricing model and customer satisfaction be reviewed and viewed in the light of relationship SITA wants to build with the state departments regarding procurement.

6.18 The Committee accepts the content of the report and the Department’s budget. However, the DA expressed reservations with the Department’s budget because the budget will be debated in the House on the 22 nd May 2013. Cope noted that the strategic planning and budget processes should be separated in future.

 

7. Conclusion

In conclusion the Portfolio Committee requested the Department and its entities’ to incorporate comments and inputs to their Annual Performance Plans. The Committee will consider the Strategic Plan of the Department of Public Service and Administration for the 2013–2015 periods. The Portfolio Committee considered the Strategic Plan and Buget Vote Report.

 

Report to be considered.