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28 August 2007

Introduction

In my last briefing on the Programme of Action, I gave a broad overview of the work in the cluster as an introduction to the report.

Since then it is gratifying to be able to report that a number of projects are gathering momentum.

Perhaps the most far-reaching project that we are currently engaged in is the Single Public Service. This project is proceeding apace and I will come back to this at the end of my briefing.

Other projects that are notable for their progress are the implementation of Batho Pele within local government, the re-engineering of the South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI), initiatives in building capacity in local government, and the successful implementation of the Community Development Worker programme across the county, to mention just some.

There is a thread that runs through these projects – the thread is that we are building capacity - we are beginning to see our vision of a responsive, accessible and developmental public service become a reality.

The G&A Cluster strives to improve the quality of life of the people by improving governance, the capacity and organisation of the state and its underlying systems. The Cluster's priorities derive from Government's commitment to improve its service to the people as embodied in the 2004 electoral mandate.

Following the January 2007 Cabinet Lekgotla and the President's State of the Nation Address on 9 February 2007, the Cluster developed a Programme of Action (POA) for implementation of the mandate. The Cluster has four priorities:

* promoting good governance
* strengthening the capacity of the state
* achieving and maintaining the optimal organisation of the state
* developing and enhancing the state's transversal systems.

Government's POA for 2007 was approved by Cabinet on 5 March. The briefing on the first report of the Cluster took place on 10 May. The briefing on the second report took place on 3 July. This is the briefing on the third report for 2007, finalised by Cabinet on 22 August 2007.

Progress Report for July to August 2007

Good Governance

Anti-Corruption

A draft anti-corruption communication strategy has been developed to maximise communication campaigns of the implementation of the Local Government Anti-corruption strategy. An Ethics Manual is being developed and the training of municipal officials in the 27 districts will commence during the third quarter of 2007.

Gender and Disability

The Head of Department's Eight Principle Action Plan for Promoting Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality in the Public Service Workplace has been developed and was launched in August 2007. Indicators for a gender audit of departments have been developed and the audit will be conducted across all departments during October-November 2007. The indicators for the social audit and barriers analysis on the employment of disabled people in the public service have been developed.

Batho Pele

A target of 100 municipalities was set for training the trainers in the Batho Pele Change Management Engagement for the 2007/08 financial year. Already 182 municipalities have been reached and 15 high level management presentations have been made. A monitoring and evaluation system is being developed to ensure further rollout of the Batho Pele Change Management Programme within Municipalities.

The model and implementation plan has been developed for the massification of the induction of 100 000 new public servants. The core budget has been approved. The first draft of the manual for junior and middle managers' induction has been completed and is being circulated for comments. Training will begin with a pilot in two provinces (Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal) in November 2007 and will be rolled out to all national and provincial departments early in 2008. To date a total of 3 030 officials have been trained by the SAMDI and 32 956 by other service providers using the common Learning Framework.

Public participation

A Presidential Imbizo was held in the Western Cape province on 21 to 22 July 2007. Various forums focused on the development and reconstruction of the province and intergovernmental co-operation. An Imbizo Focus Week will be held from 22 to 27 October to heighten communication on the implementation of government programme of action.

Ninety-six percent of ward committees have been established countrywide except for Ekurhuleni and City of Cape Town municipalities. Five out of nine modules of the training material for ward committees have been finalised. The launch of the training programme for ward committees is envisaged for September 2007 and training will commence in October 2007.

The rollout of cellular phones for ward committees and Community Development Workers (CDWs) will be piloted with OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape as they complied with stipulations.

Capacity of the State

Local Government Strategic Agenda

The national and provincial Monitoring and Evaluating Forums have been established in all nine provinces. There are challenges (approval of new posts, financial constraints and staff turnover) in the filling of posts for Monitoring and Evaluation units in the Offices of the Premier and the provincial departments of local government.

The compilation of Skills Audit Toolkits for phase one of the skills audit has commenced. A discussion document towards a National Training and Development Strategy for Local Government has been compiled and is being consulted upon.

Out of 283 municipalities, 141 were identified for hands-on support for the implementation of the Performance Management System (PMS). A draft implementation Strategy for the PMS has been developed and visits are being undertaken to provinces to validate results of the PMS audit.

A review is currently being undertaken of the skills programmes in 14 districts. A draft Professionalisation Framework and Implementation Plan have been compiled and are being consulted on. A Deployment Management Framework has been finalised and distributed to all deploying stakeholders. Three hundred and six (306) individuals with various technical expertise have been deployed to over 90 municipalities since 2005.

Consultation on the National Programme of Support to Traditional Leaders has been finalised in all provinces. Provinces have also agreed to participate in the National Programme and they have been requested to submit their costed Provincial Programmes of Support to feed into the costing of the National Programme of Support before the programme is submitted to Cabinet for final approval.

The Local Government Laws Amendment Bill was approved by Cabinet on the 26th of June 2007, for introduction into Parliament. To date Rule 159 letters have been sent to Parliament; the Rule 241(1) (c) Notice was published; the Bill, the Afrikaans/Zulu versions and the Cabinet minutes approving the Bill were sent to the State Law Advisors prior to 13 July 2007. The Bill has been certified by the State Law Advisors and it has been successfully introduced to Parliament.

Skills Development

HR Connect is a project aimed at rolling out a skills database in the public service. Experience and qualifications of employees have been profiled. The system is now web-enabled. Further customisation is ongoing. The circular issued by the Department of Public Service and Administration (dpsa) has led departments to consult with the dpsa when conducting skills audits and developing human resource information systems.

The draft Leadership Development Strategic Framework (LDMS) contains the revised version of the Senior Management Service (SMS) Competency Framework, and will be launched for consultation during the SMS Conference in September. The framework will be finalised in February for implementation from April 2008. The Human Resource Development Strategy (HRD) for the Public Service has been approved in principle. A National Steering Committee to oversee implementation was launched in June. A pilot project in Gauteng province has been finalised.

Plans are progressing to establish a Government-SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority) Forum with SETAs operating in the government sector. The aim of the Forum is to enhance and co-ordinate the Annual Training Reports, the Workplace Skills Plans and Sector Skills Plans. A Graduate Development Programme has been initiated with the SAMDI to accelerate the implementation of the Internship and Learnership Programmes.

Capacity Building

The implementation of Cabinet's decision to establish a Public Service Academy is continuing and negotiations with unions have resumed following public service industrial action. An integrated curriculum development framework for the new Academy is being developed and is being supported by a national expert in curriculum development. The learning framework strategy will be discussed with stakeholders in the next workshop with provincial academies and other partners.

The Accelerated Development Programme (ADP) commenced on August 2006 and the first cohort completed the Advanced Phase in July. Seventy-seven (77) of the 110 participants have qualified to proceed to the Executive Phase (Executive Development Programme (EDP) .Initial training on the Web Course Tools has been conducted and an initial training session was held on 1 to 3 August. It is anticipated that the next cohort of the ADP will commence in April 2008.

A total number of 1 043 officials were trained in Supply Chain Management from national and provincial departments between January to July 2007. A total of 1 290 municipal officials were trained by July. There is a sustained demand for Supply Chain Management training from local government. The development of an e-Learning programme for Bid Committee members will be completed by August 2007 and rolled out by September 2007. A high-level introductory course on Supply Chain Management was presented to Members of Parliament in July.

The target for anti-corruption training of 10 sessions has been exceeded by five sessions. An accredited training manual for gender mainstreaming has been developed. Training on disability management in the workplace was delivered in 10 municipalities in the reporting period. A total of 18 municipalities have been trained and the target has been exceeded. Twenty officials from the South African Police Service (SAPS) Head Office were trained in disability management.

Macro Organisation of the State

Single Public Service

The July Cabinet Lekgotla approved that consultations on the Single Public Service Bill should commence. A communication strategy has been developed and is being implemented. Workshops were held in 14 departments and 16 municipalities and 8 other information sessions were held. Work on a cost/benefit analysis with costing scenarios for the Single Public Service is underway.

Integrated Service Delivery

Norms and standards for service delivery at Thusong Centres have been developed as part of the service level agreements with departmental and other service providers. These service providers will be trained in the Batho Pele principles. A basket of key services has been identified for Thusong Centres.

A national conference of Community Development Workers (CDWs) took place in June to share experience and analyse opportunities and challenges around the community development programme. In July 2007 a roundtable meeting was held to develop relationships and build partnerships for the purpose of creating integrated and co-ordinated improved service delivery approaches.

To date 3 011 CDWs are deployed in over 2 000 wards across the country. A further 645 learners will enter the learnership programme by the end of August 2007. Recently 100 CDWs in the Eastern Cape and 254 in Gauteng completed their learnership programme and have been absorbed into the CDW programme.

E-Government Projects

Terms of reference have been developed for the Citizen Relations Portal (CRP) project, which aims to establish a service that allows citizens to make enquiries about the progress of service delivery affecting them. It is planned initially to include the services of the Departments of Home Affairs and Social Development in the system.

An in-depth review of Department of Home Affairs' e-government systems is being conducted and will be completed in October 2007. Immediate steps that are being taken to strengthen information systems at Home Affairs are improving the stability and security of the network, speeding up capture of ID information onto HANIS (a major current bottleneck) and integration of systems related to asylum seekers and refugees.

The first phase of the Track and Trace system is being rolled out to 240 offices countrywide from this week. It is expected to show immediate improvements in the management of the system – and when it is fully operational by the end of the year it is expected to start impacting significantly on service delivery. The computerised production system for passports is undergoing a major upgrade that will be completed by March 2008.

Transversal Systems

Integrated Planning

The pilot project for the harmonisation of the National Spatial Development Perspective (NSDP), Provincial Growth and Development Strategies (PGDSs) and Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) has been concluded in all 13 districts. Reports on the outcomes from each district are being finalised.

Copies of the NSDP have also been distributed to all national and provincial departments and municipalities. The Integrated Development Plans were adopted by all municipalities as at the end of July 2007 which represents the first 100% adoption rate since the introduction of IDPs.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The Mid-Term Review was launched on 21 June. The publication was provided in advance to key opinion makers and policy analysts. The publication was distributed to all national departments, provincial Directors-General (DGs) and Premiers. The publication is currently being distributed to all libraries as well as provincial heads of department. Copies were also delivered to Parliament.

As part of the process of establishing the capacity requirements for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in government, two national and three provincial focus groups on M&E training needs analysis have taken place. Research on the provision of M&E programmes by higher education institutions and other providers has been undertaken. A reference group for curriculum development, implementation and review is being established. The SAMDI will host an M&E Learning Network Seminar in October 2007.

The National Statistical System has conducted audits of the statistical capacity of the Departments of Transport, Labour, Minerals and Energy and Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Registers of the Department of Education are being reviewed to ensure that quality data can be obtained. Work on definitions of the Compendium of Indicators has started. The South African Statistical Quality Assessment Framework (SASQAF), which sets statistical and methodological quality standards for surveys, has been developed.

Single Public Service

In the 2007 State of the Nation Address, President Mbeki announced that in this year government will be finalising the legislation for the single public service. In the July Cabinet Lekgotla instructed the Department of Public Service and Administration (dpsa) to consult with all stakeholders before the Bill will be presented to Parliament.

There has been a fair degree of speculation by various stakeholders on government's effort to have a single public service. Differing understanding of the concept of a single public service and its intentions exists in certain quarters, especially in the National Assembly debate on the Public Service Amendment Bill in June this year.

Thus it is of importance to reinforce central tenets of the single public service. Government remains committed to integrated development through integrated service delivery. The concepts of integrated development and service delivery may be found within the Constitutional framework of co-operative governance. Furthermore, all the initiatives and framework policies of government have centred on the fight against poverty and for sustainable economic growth to the benefit of all South Africans. The single public service is an initiative that is directly informed by the Reconstruction and Development Programme, our macro-economic framework and the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA). The single public service is directly focused on decentralising government services so that they can be easily and simply accessed by the citizenry.

Frequently Asked Questions will be distributed for the information of the media.

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
28 August 2007