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REFLECTION ON THE WORK OF THE INTERIM MANAGEMENT TEAM IN THE EASTERN CAPE. 30 JANUARY 2004. Mandate of the IMT.
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REFLECTION ON THE WORK OF THE INTERIM MANAGEMENT TEAM IN THE EASTERN CAPE 30 JANUARY 2004
Mandate of the IMT • Overall goal of the IMT is to ensure that any service delivery backlogs are addressed and to establish sound management and leadership in the Education, Health, Roads and Public Works and Social Development departments • The IMT is specifically mandated to- • establish turn around plans for the four target departments, including the elimination of service delivery backlogs • address cross cutting issues such as disciplinary matters, procurement reform and human resource management • establish appropriate management structures and back office support • monitor the implementation of the turn around plans and other interventions as well as the use of conditional grants • On the basis of its presentations to the Provincial EXCO and Cabinet, the IMT received additional mandates related to specific challenges
Approach • Comprehensive, integrated • Addresses both actual delivery and the conditions that make delivery possible • Mixture of department specific and province wide • There are transversal challenges that have to be addressed to make departmental delivery successful, for example financial management arrangements in the Province • Mix of short and long term • Some solutions are immediately implementable, but will only realise benefits in coming financial years • Some solutions are immediately implementable and will realise immediate benefits
Strengthen leadership and management Strengthen Back Office Support Sustainability Departmental Turnaround Strategies Rapid and visible Service delivery Ethics and anti- Corruption Strategy Turnaround Strategy: transversal projects and departmental turnaround plans Improve Internal controls and accountability Improve HR Management
Rapid and visible service delivery • Objective is to pilot an innovative and fast track project implementation solution using Coega Development Corporation’s (CDC) fast track project management systems. • Due to delays, project will not deliver tangible results in current financial year and projects are now being assimilated into PGDP. • Main reason for delays is because broader legal agreement between Provincial Treasury and Coega has not been finalised. • Nonetheless, a number of departments are being assisted through interim arrangements. Two of these are IMT departments (Roads and Public Works for the Both Sigcau Building and Education for school sanitation).
Departmental progress • Health keeping to turn around plan and implementing it according to planned time frames • Education making progress with projects related to corporate support and management. • Social Development is focusing its turn around on back office support and internal controls as a result of budget constraints and is delaying the department-specific plans (service delivery projects) for 2004/05 financial year. Projects that are going ahead (in part) relate to mobile registration services as well as mobile welfare developmental services. • Roads and Public Works has scaled down its turn around plan because of budget constraints but is making slow progress on these scaled downed plans (as a result of budget)
Budget challenges • Implementation of plans and projects largely dependent on budget. Even if budget became available now, only part of plans and projects can be implemented in current financial year. • DPSA has carried cost of various projects on the agreement that the Province will refund. Refund has not taken place. In addition DPSA and OPSC carry costs for operations also on the basis of refundable expenses, but also this refund has not taken place. These national departments are experiencing serious cash flow problems and will be forced to scale down its own projects and consider reducing its support to the Eastern Cape. • To minimise impact of slow implementation and life span of IMT, the plans and projects are being integrated into strategic plans of departments for MTEF 2004-2006 as well as the PGDP.
Sustainability • Sustainability of the intervention remains a key challenge. Hence the following is being done: • Transversal projects are being integrated into projects of the PGDP and will be monitored in part in the Office of the Premier’s M&E unit, and in part by a national structure. Parts of the transversal projects are directly being integrated into departmental plans • Departmental turn around plans are being integrated into departmental strategic plans (current and next years) • Capacity is being created in departments to monitor implementation in each department • Project managers of the IMT are incrementally handing project management functions over to identified managers of the Eastern Cape
Category 1: Completed projects Category2: Medium term projects Category 3: Planned projects Projects that will be completed by end March 2004 and for which closure reports will be handed to EC Started projects that will run over a few years. These will be handed to EC and included in PGDP programmes* Identified but not commenced. Implementation planning in first quarter of 2004, for inclusion in PGDP programmes* * Need to assure that these projects are adequately funded Sustainability: Transversals
Emerging lessons/themes • Model of intervention • Model assumes cooperation, support, budget, preconditions that are not present in all respects • Management by committee does not work • Design of an intervention • Need to intervene and support need to be identified earlier, AG and OPSC reports good source of information • Turn around of this nature requires more planning and fixed arrangements on issues such as accountability, budget, skills requirements and partners before the intervention is launched • Quick fixes rarely work and only for certain type of challenges • Sustainability and local responsibility need to be better defined
Emerging lessons/themes • Budget • Current budgetary system does not allow for quick response to challenges • Can a receiving institution realistically be expected to reprioritise to the extent where complete turn around becomes possible • General skills requirements • Mismatch occurred in skills requirements and skills availability of deployees, and for receiving institutions • Need formal arrangement to deploy SMS cadres according to need • The role of managers, politicisation and unions • Managers lacking in numbers and skills • Appointment of senior managers a very political process • Unions that are used to playing key role in management decisions do not accept interventions
Emerging lessons/themes • Logistics • Basic logistical support can make or break, causing delays and demoralisation • The effect of deployment • Long-term assignments and deployment of great number of staff impacts negatively on releasing departments • Causes emotional and financial strain for deployees
Emerging lessons/themes • Role of central departments • Organisationally, programmatically and in terms of skills, central departments are not geared for scope of IMT-type intervention • Need to relook role of central departments like DPSA, SAMDI, DPLG and National Treasury can and should play • Oversight • Need to strengthen capacity of legislature to call departments to account • Addressing poor discipline, mismanagement and corruption is an integrated and comprehensive process • In general requires organisational improvements • Attention to senior and juniors required • Disciplinary regime needs further improvement and more support to managers without taking accountability away from managers
