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17 February 2009

North West Premier Edna Molewa has called on public servants in the province to enter for the 2009 annual Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) Awards.

The Premier was speaking through the MEC for Transport, Roads and Community Safety Phenye Vilakazi at the official launch of the CPSI awards held at Mmabatho Tusk on Tuesday.

Ms Molewa said that the CPSI awards are a critical instrument in that they promote the culture of innovation as a fundamental point of departure towards excellence.

She further challenged the people of the province to innovatively pursue greater objectives and higher goals.

“We do have to develop performance standards and accountability levels based not on us being a public sector. “If we do not strive for innovation, we shall never know what we are capable of, and so we shall have deprived the people we serve of excellence,” Ms Molewa said.

The CPSI is an initiative of the public service and administration department and was established in 2001.

Its mandate is to promote and support innovation by demonstrating practice, facilitating partnerships in service delivery, rewarding initiatives, and sharing knowledge.

The awards recognise projects and programmes that are directed at improving public service delivery, thus improving the standard of living for South Africans.

The Minister for Public Service and Public Administration, Richard Baloyi has also called on big and small innovators to enter for the
2009 annual Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) Awards.

Also speaking at the launch through MEC for Transport, Road and Community Safety, Phenye Vilakazi, the Minister encouraged innovators in the North West to enter the awards.

"Last year we received over 100 entries, up from 39 in 2007, I would like to challenge the North West as the province and other provinces to up the number of entries into this year's awards programmes, I look forward to many more projects entered in 2009," the Minister said.

These CPSI awards programme also seek to celebrate the successes of individuals, teams and entire institutions in the quest for a more effective, accountable government and improved service delivery.

This is done by promoting creativity, knowledge sharing and benchmarking in the public service. The Minister emphasised that they are not looking for innovative projects that means business as usual but really unique projects.

Public servants and institutions across all the spheres of government that have innovative projects are invited to put their entries under the following categories:

* innovative partnerships in service delivery
* innovative use of information communication technology for effective service delivery
* innovative service delivery institutions
* innovative enhancements on internal systems within government
* innovative service delivery projects involving the South African government in partnership with other African governments.

Nominations for the innovator of the year will be drawn from the above-mentioned categories by the adjudication panel.

Prizes will be conferred to winners at a prestigious gala dinner later this year on a date and venue to be confirmed by the CPSI.

Winners of the CPSI awards will be automatically entered for various international awards including the United Nations Public Service Awards, the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) Innovation Awards, and the All Africa Innovation Awards, to showcase South Africa's profile in these sought-after awards.

The closing date for this year's entries is 25 September 2009.

Innovators can also visit the CPSI website at http://www.cpsi.co.za for further details.

For more information contact:
Cornelius Tanana Monama
Tel: 018 387 3456\3753
Cell: 082 578 4063

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
17 February 2009