State of the Public Service 2011: Professional Ethics, Efficiency, and Development Overview

1. PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION FACT SHEET ON THE STATE OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE 2011 23 November 2011

2. INTRODUCTION • Given the Portfolio Committee’s recommendations following the release of SOPS 2010, the PSC abandoned its theme approach for the SOPS 2011. Such a change delayed the finalisation of the SOPS 2011 • As a result of the change, a Fact Sheet on the State of the Public Service 2011 was produced • The Fact Sheet is strictly indicator-based and a total of 33 indicators are used. • The indicators are biased towards the work of the PSC, but sources other than the work of the PSC are also used. • The rest of the presentation is structured according to the principles governing public administration in section 195 of the Constitution. 2

3. A HIGH STANDARD OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS • Audit by the DPSA of Minimum Anti-Corruption Capacity: 84% of the departments had an anti-corruption policy in place but only 47% of the departments had compiled an implementation plan • Departments who scored higher than 80%: • South African Revenue Service • Department of Trade and Industry • Department of Correctional Services • Department of Cooperative Governance • National Prosecuting Authority • All the above departments have dedicated anti-corruption or integrity management units. 3

4. A HIGH STANDARD OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS (Cont.) • Cases received by the NACH since inception up to 31 August 2010 • The strategy to refer cases for investigation to departments is premised on the assumption that departments have the capacity to deal with cases. • Feedback rate suggests that departments do not have the capacity. • This raises doubts on whether the strategy of MACC is working or whether centralised capacity, for instance in Offices of the Premier, should rather be created. 4

5. A HIGH STANDARD OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS (Cont.) • Steady increase in the number of cases of financial misconduct over the last few years, from 434 in 2001/02 to 1135 in 2009/10 • Very little of the money involved in financial misconduct is recovered – only 12.8% in 2009/10 • The incidence of financial misconduct is increasing whilst the systems and procedures to deal with it are patchy. 5

6. ECONOMY, EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS • The expenditure performance of national and provincial departments are fairly under control, if one looks at total expenditure. • Fairly big variations on departmental level. • However, over-expenditure on current expenditure is often made up by under-expenditure on capital expenditure. • Under-expenditure on capital assets shows a lack of capacity to properly cost capital projects and plan and manage projects from concept to detailed planning to implementation, and to plan the cash flows of the project over this life cycle. 6

7. ECONOMY, EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS (Cont.) • Local Government: The norm applied by National Treasury in the case of capital expenditure is that the variance between expenditure and budget should not be more than 10%. In the 2009/10 financial year 51 municipalities out of 283 were outside this norm. • The expenditure performance of departments should be considered in relation to the production of outputs: 7

8. ECONOMY, EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS (Cont.) • The following observations can be made from the above: • The average performance over the two cycles was 59%. • Departments spend near to 100% of their budgets but achieve only 59% of their outputs, suggesting some inefficiency in expenditure. • Departments list hundreds of outputs in their Annual Performance Plans. • With so many outputs it is difficult to arrive at an overall judgement of performance. • Many of the outputs are not final outputs and not directly related to services or benefits to citizens (or the benefit is not clear). • A better judgement of performance would have been possible if departments reported only on a few key outputs or outcomes. 8

9. DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION • Development Indicators: Positives • Number of beneficiaries of social grants: 14 343 110 • Research suggests a bigger contribution towards development of the poor than simply the income enhancement effect of the grant. • The NPC Development Indicators Report shows that 93.8% of households have access to potable water and households with access to sanitation have increased to 79.9%. • Development Indicators: Negatives • The quarterly labour survey (QLS July 2011) shows that unemployment rate was 25,7%. 9

10. DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION (Cont.) • A key question is whether the developmental state, through the Public Service, has the capabilities to deliver on its promise. • PSC evaluates capabilities using its M&E system. The ten agriculture departments evaluated in 2010/11 achieved an average score of 93%. • In its evaluation of the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme the PSC found that the criterion for success was delivery of the main output of the programme, namely farm infrastructure, not the outcome of successful farming. • The capabilities that the state would need to achieve success at the outcome level is of a different order . 10

11. DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION (Cont.) • The capacity to evaluate, learn from evaluation findings and improve programmes is a key element of development orientation. • PSC’s series of meta-evaluations: Many good evaluations are available in the Public Service and the recommendations coming from such evaluations could contribute substantially to the improvement of the relevant programmes. 11

12. SERVICES MUST BE PROVIDED IMPARTIALLYITY, FAIRLY, EQUITABLY & WITHOUT BIAS FAIRNESS • Compliance with PAJA: PSC’s Seventh Consolidated M&E report: Of the 30 departments evaluated for the 2009/10 evaluation cycle, an average of 50% was scored against this principle. Half (15) of the departments were rated excellent and 3 departments scored poor against this principle. 12

13. EQUITY • Equity in district-level per capita Primary Health Care Expenditure: 2001-2009: real 2009/10 prices • Equity in municipal per capita spending by province: 2009/10 • 400 (7%) high schools out of 6000 are responsible for half of the mathematics passes at the 50% level 13

14. EQUITY (Cont.) • To achieve equity will require changes at the societal level and the economic structure of the country. • The way the Public Service is arranged can make a huge contribution to this objective. • However, even applying the same norms and standards across the Public Service will require innovative approaches and deep-going changes in the culture and capabilities of the Public Service across the system. 14

15. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION • PSC’s M&E System Scores • Majority of departments indicated that they used some system of public participation • Two major weaknesses: • lack of feedback to citizens • lack of records from departments to show that they have considered inputs from the public 15

16. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (Cont.) • Ward Committees: European Union Study: Ward committees are up and running, but not making an impact on municipal decision-making and are not effective channels for engaging with the public. • Public participation in South Africa is still too much of a public relations exercise – inputs are solicited from the public but there is little evidence of how this influenced public policy or service delivery design. • The public participation model in South Africa is still emergent and alternative approaches need to be tested in practice. 16

17. ACCOUNTABILITY • In the 2009/10 financial year at national level, there were 16 HoDs who qualified to be evaluated. As at end October 2011, only two were evaluated. This is the worst non-compliance rate the PSC has ever reported since the inception of the HoD evaluation framework during the 2001/02 financial year. • At provincial level 72 HoDs qualified to be evaluated for the 2008/09 financial year of which only twenty nine (40%) were evaluated. • The compliance with submission of PAs over the last three financial years was 78%. • Only 66% of national departments obtained unqualified audit opinions in 2009/10 • Only 72% of provincial departments obtained unqualified audit opinions • Only 54% of municipalities obtained unqualified audit opinions 17

18. TRANSPARENCY Annual Reports PAIA 18

19. TRANSPARENCY (Cont.) • The Open Budget Index (OBI 2010) notes that South Africa scored the highest score (92) of the ninety four countries that were surveyed. • The PSC has reservations about whether annual reports enable the reader to arrive at a summary judgement of performance – the reader can easily get lost in the detail. • A wealth of information is available in South Africa, but it is probably not as user-friendly as it can be, both from the perspective of gaining access to information and interpreting the information. 19

20. GOOD HR PRACTICES 20

21. GOOD HR PRACTICES (Cont.) • Quality of compliance: • Recruitment policy in place (high compliance) but poor recruitment times (poor quality of compliance). • It took 51 departments an average of 163 calendar days to fill a post, from the date the post was advertised to the date the candidate assumed duty (sample of 807 posts). Standard: 90 calendar days. It took departments 189 days just to advertise the post. • High compliance with management reporting on recruitment, but management take no action on those reports. • Departments have Workplace Skills Plans, but poor implementation of those plans and very few departments assessed the impact of that training (and it should not be assumed that training necessarily led to better performance). 21

22. GOOD HR PRACTICES (Cont.) • The overall picture is one where compliance levels are increasing but the quality of compliance is still poor. • The development of HR policy, and reporting on its compliance, appears to have not generated the outcomes expected: that of a properly recruited and managed, and well-motivated Public Service. • The traditional reliance on HR policy or standard management practices has neither maximized human potential nor generated creative work places. 22

23. REPRESENTIVITY Employees at SMS level by Race in the Public Service as at 21 September 2011 Employees at SMS level by gender in the Public Service as at 21 September 2011 23

24. REPRESENTIVITY (Cont.) • Number of staff in the Public Service with disabilities as at 21 September 2011 • It seems that the Job Access Strategic Framework on the Recruitment, Employment and Retention of Persons with Disabilities in the Public Service, the official Public Service policy in this regard, has not yet rendered results. 24

25. CONCLUSION • The strategy to refer NACH cases for investigation to departments is premised on the assumption that departments have the capacity to deal with cases. • Feedback rate and audit by the DPSA of MACC suggest that departments do not have the capacity. • This raises doubts on whether the strategy of MACC is working or whether centralised capacity, for instance in Offices of the Premier, should rather be created. • Good progress has been made with performance reporting. AG audits of performance against pre-set objectives make a huge contribution to this. However, departments’ reporting has not yet adjusted to the outcomes approach. • Good progress has been made to improve the capabilities of the Public Service with regard to development orientation. However, the achievement of outcomes require capabilities of a different order. 25

26. CONCLUSION (Cont.) • To apply the same norms and standards across the Public Service to achieve greater levels of equity will require innovative approaches and deep-going changes in the culture and capabilities of the Public Service across the system. • The public participation model in South Africa is still emergent and alternative approaches need to be tested in practice. • A major focus will have to be placed on increasing the compliance levels with regard to the evaluation of HoDs. • The development of HR policy, and reporting on its compliance, appears to have not generated the outcomes expected: that of a properly recruited and managed, and well-motivated Public Service. 26

27. THANK YOU! 27 National Anti-Corruption Hotline for the Public Service: 0800 701 701