[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

2 June 2008

Sms 36282 to contribute to victim relief
Sms billed at R5.00. All goes towards victim relief

* Recent events across our country have shaken us all and have brought to the fore the fault lines in our society, fault lines that have been obscured perhaps by the remarkable gains that government has made, gains that we must ensure that we do not lose as we face the challenge of rebuilding social and continental cohesion.

* These challenges bring into relief the developmental role that is required of our public service, a developmental role that is specified in the constitution. It also brings to the fore those public servants who will rise to the challenge of providing support to those in need, who put in extra hours and work unstintingly when the need arises. We must acknowledge these diligent public servants as we must also condemn those who take advantage of the weak and the vulnerable. We will not tolerate any public servant who acts in such a away and I would appreciate being sent any information in this regard. I will make sure it is dealt with.

* On what does this developmental role depend? Indeed the constitution gives us direction when it speaks of the efficient use of resources, of representivity, impartiality, of high ethical standards, of accountability and of a participatory nature.

* It depends on the ability of our public service to lead the implementation of the policies mandated to our elected representatives to fulfil the aspirations of our people within and beyond our borders.

* In my speech tomorrow I will look at our programmes, within the portfolio that deal with our state human resources. I will look at what we have implemented to strengthen this critical resource, what we are currently implementing and are putting in place to ensure that the Public Service can best fulfil this role. Let me highlight a few of these:

* It is significant that today we table The Public Administration Management Bill.

* Far from constituting an effort to centralise government control, this is part of the Single Public Service initiative, a strategic policy framework aimed at promoting accessibility and harmonising the standards of service of government and the conditions of service of public servants in all three spheres of government. In the main this initiative seeks to integrate government services, so that citizens are able to access services across government from a single location.

* A central component of the Single Public Service Concept is the implementation of an effective e-Government strategy. e-Government effectively means the innovative use of information and communication technology (ICT) by communities and private sector to access government services and for the state to deliver to all stakeholders improved services, reliable information and greater knowledge in order to facilitate access to the governing process thereby improving customer satisfaction, improving cost effectiveness, and efficiency and promoting economic development.

* The implementation of the Next Generation (NG) e-Government implementation is underway. NG e-Government programme will be implemented in phases, starting with the e-enablement of the six pro-poor services: (application for identity document [ID], child birth certificate, foster grants, pension, maintenance and notification of death) identified from the Justice and Social Clusters. The Programme Management Office (PMO) has been appointed to facilitate the e-enablement of six pro-poor services as identified and agreed upon by key stakeholders.

* Security of electronic systems: Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) is in the process of developing the terms of reference for the development of the government wide Information Security System Policy/ framework.

* A key tool for increasing access to services is increasing connectivity to the broader community through Thusong Service Centres (TSCs). In this regard 50 percent will be connected in September 2008 (42 TSCs and 15 community radio stations) and the project team is looking at the possibility of connecting all Thusong Centres by the end of financial year.

* The presidential launch of the 100th TSC, Inhlazuka will be held at Richmond, in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on 7 June 2008.

* The DPSA is leading the work on the Human Resource (HR) management domain of the IFMS – The Integrated Financial Management System which is a joint National Treasury, DPSA and State Information Technology Agency (SITA) initiative to consolidate and renew government's back office applications. The scope will cover financial management, HR management, supply chain management, asset management and business intelligence.

* On Wednesday Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), the government Employee Medical Scheme will be holding its first Health and Wellness Symposium. It will be attended by senior management across the public service, Health and Wellness Mangers as well as HR managers. This is the first of what will be an annual event and will cover health and wellness in general, Health and Wellness in Government as well as talk about GEMS and its development.

* GEMS was established to address the inequities and imbalances in the provision of medical assistance to employees by Government.

* The provision of the less visible social benefits to Public Servants must be seen as a critical component of employee attraction and retention, which is not to undervalue to importance to productivity of a healthy and well-rewarded workforce.

* GEMS has been a model example of a successful state institution. It is now the largest restricted membership scheme in our country and the second largest medical scheme overall. It covers 250 000 public service employees and 680 000 beneficiaries (including family members) - this is double the figure I quoted in my budget speech a year ago. More than one in five public service employees are GEMS members.

* With regard to equity and access over 53 percent of Gems members did not access the medical subsidy before – in other words were not covered _ and over 20 percent of those who were uncovered in 2006 when the scheme started are now covered on GEMS.

* What is extremely gratifying – and gives lie to the perception that the private sector is inevitably more efficient that n the public is its efficient use of member contributions. Where the industry typically allocates of 16 percent of contributions to non-healthcare services, GEMS non-healthcare spend is less than 7 percent of contributions – the means that over 93c of every rand GEMS collects goes to members' healthcare needs.

* The capacity of the Public Service to fulfil its role rests on having the necessary tools and critical of these tools is capacity – not just in terms of numbers and infrastructure, but also and centrally, the necessary skills and competencies of its members. The Human Resource Development Strategic Framework Vision 2015 is a "business unusual" shift from the traditional model of HRD with its narrow focus on training, to a far broader model that develops the capacity for public servants to undertaken their responsibilities with the appropriate levels of skill, knowledge experience and commitment. This framework was launched this past Friday and the first training session – an Action Learning Pilot will see 108 HRD officials receiving training on how to develop the departmental HRD Implementation Plan – is taking place this week. This training pilot will lead to the development by South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI) of a formal programme in the HR Curriculum Framework for Human Resource Development.

* One of the most exciting – and one of the largest initiatives that will take place in coming moths is the reconstituting of the South African Management Institute into the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy PALAMA which is not only an Acronym, but in Sesotho means "get aboard" or " ascend"

* We will be launching the Academy in its new premises in August.

* The Academy will be moving into its new premises later this month into a building which will be named after the late Professor ZK Matthews, in recognition of his pioneering educational achievements - in particular his years of teaching Public Administration and Law and at the University of Fort Hare and his distinguished career in the public service.

* A critical role of the Academy will be the roll-out of the Massified Induction Programme. The induction of the approximately 100 000 new employees who enter the Public Service each year has started. A directive issued by the MPSA making the Massified Induction Programme compulsory for all new public servants is effective from 1 April of this year.

* SAMDI has trained trainers in selected departments, especially those with larger numbers to ensure there is both sufficient capacity for the roll out of the programme and that this capacity is sustained by having pools of trainers in departments. This massification approach – in contrast to most development institutes elsewhere that concentrate on the tiny senior management level ( a mere ten thousand) with the hope that this will "trickle down" is a significant "business unusual" initiative.

* Critical to the improvement of service delivery is the knowledge on the part of the people of the services to which they are entitled. Not only do we need to ensure that services are easily accessible – a critical component of the Single Public Service initiative – people also need to know their rights in terms of services. When I launched the "Know your Service Rights" booklet – which is available outside in the lobby - I said

* "We cannot turn our eyes away from the many who are still struggling. There is still discrimination and people do not always get the service from government to which they are entitled. Information is difficult to access and many struggle to get documents and other services... we still see inefficiency in government offices. If the services of government are to reach all our people in the way that they should, we need to ensure that people know their rights – including socio economic rights, and know which laws protect these rights."

* The translation of the Know Your Service Rights Book in to all official languages will be completed next year and be distributed throughout the public service.

* Dialogue between government and labour is a fundamental element for the promotion of sound labour relations. We need to engage on a much broader range of issues than salaries and conditions of service. This became apparent during last year's wage negotiations and we will be engaging on a Public Sector Summit later this year to initiate dialogue on a range of areas relating to the political and fiscal imperatives we face. Reaching a common understanding on issues such as outsourcing, performance, inflation targeting, minimum wages and macro-economic policy issues and reaching a common understanding are best served outside of the negotiating process and last year's agreement provides that this should take place this year.

* The management of incapacity leave and retirement and the prevention of its abuse in an organisation as large as the Public Service through the introduction of the Policy on Incapacity Leave and Ill-health Retirement (known as PILIR) has been a major success. When this project was piloted in three sites it led to a reduction by an astounding 63 percent reduction in ill-health retirements with an over 40 percent reduction of the expected cost.

* During the 2007/08 financial year the Policy on Incapacity Leave and Ill-health Retirement (PILIR) processes were sustained and monitored through steering committees in 11 implementation areas, to support departments with the implementation in preparation for the decentralisation to departments in the next (2009/10) financial year.

* Through proper management in the past year of over 16 318 applications for short periods of incapacity leave, 5 317 were approved, while 11 0001 were declined. Of 3 910 applications for long incapacity leave 2 270 were recommended, representing a saving of R77,5 million.

* Our continental involvement is a role that we increasingly recognise as critical in addressing the challenges of underdevelopment and poverty that beset our continent. The accession to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in 2003 was an important milestone and we have recently tabled the Country Review Report in Parliament; we look forward to Parliament engaging with the report. The review was hailed as a success and we are due to submit a monitoring and evaluation report on the implementation of the APRM programme in July. We are currently developing a popular version of the report and we will be engaging in intensified stakeholder participation and mobilisation. Not only did the report identify 18 South African best practices, but we were also commended for a number of innovations in the implementation of the APRM in South Africa.

* The Pan African Conference for Ministers of Public/Civil Service is a bi-annual event which provides African ministers of public/civil service the opportunity to share experiences on issues of governance and public administration. At the fifth Pan African Minister's Conference a ministerial bureau was elected to support the chairperson and provide overall leadership and oversight of the ministers' programme and projects. The sixth conference will take place in Gauteng under the auspices of the African Union (AU) and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) with the theme Capacity Building for the future Capability of the African Public Service. The orientation of this conference reflects a major paradigm shift from experience and information sharing to programme implementation.

* Today we launch an initiative to raise funds for those displaced by the recent community unrest. We call on all public servants to sms the number 36282 which will be billed at R5 per sms with all of the funds raised going to victim relief. This will be effective from 3 June 2008.

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
2 June 2008