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Members of the press, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. At the beginning of this year when I addressed members of the press on a similar occasion, I indicated that during this year the issue of the management of the human resources in the Public Service would occupy centre stage. My presentation today will focus on the major initiative my Ministry is undertaking to radically alter how human resources are managed throughout the Public Service. This initiative will not only make possible but also ensure improvements in accountability, performance and productivity. The initiative will achieve fruition when the new public management and administrative framework comes into effect later this year. The foundation of this framework is the new Public Service regulations.

Before I address this issue, a few words about what has transpired in the past few months since we last met in this forum. The report of the Presidential Review Commission has been tabled in parliament and made available for public debate and discussion. In keeping with its mandate to review the structures, systems and procedures in the Public Service; the Presidential Review Commission has made wide ranging recommendations about entrenching the transformation of the Public Service.

An important part of the process of consolidating democracy is ensuring informed public discussion and participation. The public release of the report shows government's commitment to transparency. This commitment is also evidenced in the Open Democracy Bill. A significant portion of the Bill is devoted to increasing the access of the public to the records of government bodies. Another section of the Bill specifically protects whistle-blowers from reprisal for disclosing corruption and mal-administration in the Public Service.

Another important part of the process of consolidating democracy is ensuring a better life for all. For my Ministry this means creating the conditions and opportunities for improvements in the delivery of services by all components of the Public Service. This is being done through the Batho Pele or "People First" programme. Batho Pele gives consumers of public services the means to hold managers accountable for the quality of the services that they deliver.

Although one would not know it by viewing or reading the national media, there is a groundswell of support for the Batho Pele programme. I can understand why the national media took notice when the Department of Home Affairs launched its service standards. Every resident of this country, at one or other point in their lives comes face to face with a bureaucrat on the other side of the counter in a Home Affairs office. The Ministry of Home Affairs therefore needs to be congratulated for the service delivery improvement programme that they are implementing.

The people of Bakubung village in the North West Province and the staff of the local health clinic, however, also need to be congratulated for jointly developing and implementing their service delivery improvement programme. This is just one example of a community that has heeded our clarion call for community action to ensure improvement in the delivery of public services. Just last week Friday I was again in the Northwest province in Mogwase district launching the service standards of George Stegmann Community Hospital. The people who patronise the hospital have set up a Batho Pele committee to ensure improvements in the delivery of public services.

Their definition of collective responsibility extends to the monitoring of the services delivered by the hospital to ensure that declared service standards are attained. Such efforts by rural people need our support and I am calling upon all public sector trade unions to become more involved in supporting the Batho Pele programme.

In a nut shell Batho Pele is an implementation strategy for ensuring that government departments specify measurable outcomes; set performance standards; establish public reporting systems; and institute effective complaints and grievance procedures.

The Batho Pele programme deserves special attention when driven from below through collective community action. There are few things more heartening and invigorating when witnessing a community working together to improve the delivery of public services. When one is talking about a rural heath clinic it is the women of that community who are taking the lead and making things happen. We all need to pay closer attention to the opportunities our people are seizing to improve the quality of their lives.

From the perspective of the Ministry for Public Service and Administration and from the perspective of the consumers of public services, the Batho Pele programme is essentially about creating the conditions and opportunities for accountability. The new Public Service Regulations are essentially about entrenching accountability. They contain the mandatory practices, procedures and policy norms to which all executing authorities, managers and employees must adhere.

Given our apartheid inheritance, the focus of my Ministry's activities over the past three years has been on the creation of an appropriate policy environment to enable the Public Service to accomplish the agenda of the new government. The new regulations mark the end of this phase of Public Service transformation. As a result of the Public Service Laws Amendment Act of 1997 and the Public Service Laws Amendment Bill of 1998, the focus is now on empowering line managers. The new Public Service Regulations, which stem from the Bill, herald a new focus is now on ensuing the implementation of policy. The practices, procedures and policy norms proposed in various White Papers will, as a result of the new Public Service Regulations, be enforced.

The new regulations cover the following areas of human resource management in the Public Service. Firstly, the establishment of performance management systems that are linked to rewards and training. Secondly, the requirement that the delegations and authorisations given to managers should be specified in their employment contracts and performance agreements in particular. Thirdly, the establishment of problem solving procedures to handle labour relations issues and speedily resolve cases of misconduct and inefficiency. Fourthly, the conducting of annual reviews of planning processes. These reviews will cover the setting of objectives in accordance with service delivery dictates, the organisation of work processes, human resource planning, and the meeting of the organisation's information needs. And lastly, the requirement that departments publish information that makes possible the assessment of their effectiveness and efficiency by the general public. This information encompasses the functions and structure of the organisation, its staffing levels and data on the degree of representativeness. It includes information on performance management arrangements, service delivery standards, skills development programmes, and the subject matter of collective agreements. They will enhance the ability of citizens to monitor government delivery.

In sum, the new regulations are designed to improve the performance and productivity of public service employees and provide scope for departments and provinces to apply management practices that are suited to their circumstances.

They will also help prevent and resolve some of the past difficulties between heads of department and elected officials. The sometimes blurred dividing lines between managerial responsibility and political accountability will be clarified by specifying roles, obligations and expectations. Our model of administration and the social need for improved service delivery requires that elected officials have the space and capacity to drive policy. This responsibility resides with elected officials not Public Service bureaucrats. To this end the new regulations provide for the appointment of persons into Ministries to strengthen the capacity of political heads to develop policy.

With specific regard to the provinces, the new public management and administrative framework improves accountability by putting in place a single direct line of accountability between provincial heads of department and individual MEC's.

The regulations, which are the foundation of the new public management and administrative framework, are still subject to further consultation with Cabinet and certification by the State Law Adviser. As soon as the new Public Service Commission is appointed and the Public Service Laws Amendment Act of 1997 is put into operation, the regulations will be officially published and be effective from that date. I expect that this will take place later this year.

A Good Management Guide, which contains advice on how to give effect to the new Public Service Regulations is being prepared. The guide is currently being used as resource material for the training programme on the new Public Service Regulations being conducted by the Department. After the training programme it will be issued as a formal document containing good management guidelines on all human resource practices.

Most of the groundwork for the implementation of the new regulations has been done. Workshops have been held with most political heads and heads of department to ensure that they understand their new roles and powers, the proposed transitional arrangements, and the management plans required. The training programme for support and line staff in all provincial administrations and national departments began in May this year.

To date the training has been provided to more than half of all the national departments and the provincial administrations in the Eastern Cape, Northern Province, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

This training on the new regulations supplements other on-going training programmes intended to enhance the managerial and administrative capacity of the Public Service, especially in the provinces. The South African Management Development Institute, with the assistance of the European Union, is playing a larger role in the co-ordination and provision of this training.

In line with its constitutional mandate, the Public Service Commission will be monitoring compliance in all major areas of the new Public Service Regulations. In order to assist with the implementation of the new regulations, the Department of Public Service and Administration is being used as a pilot department. Whatever internal mechanisms and programmes that are developed by the department will be made available to other departments for consideration and possible utilisation.

A copy of the Department of Public Service and Administration's action plan to implement the new regulations has been made available to the media to give an indication of the tasks and activities that will be necessary.

My Ministry is confident that the new public management and administrative framework which comes into effect later this year will not only make possible but also ensure improvements in accountability, performance and productivity. The new Public Service regulations, the good management guide, and the envisaged collective agreements will create a sound basis for managing the human resources of the Public Service.

I thank you.

Contact:
Mboneni Mulaudzi
Department of Public Service and Administration
Electronic Media Liaison Officer
E-mail: mboneni@psc.pwv.gov.za
Tel: 012-3147105
Fax: 012-314-7382

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