PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION

1
PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC
SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION

• AN AUDIT OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN THE PUBLIC
  SERVICE
• 16 AUGUST 2006

2
OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION

• Background
• Objectives of the Audit
• Methodology
• Limitations
• Analytical framework
• Key Findings
• Demographic reflections
• Recommendations
• Conclusion

3
BACKGROUND

• This project stems from the commitment and
  mandate of the PSC to evaluate critical
  transformational policies such as Affirmative
  Action (AA), as these support broader governance
  objectives.
• The periodic assessment of AA presents the
  Executive and Parliament with timely information
  to take corrective action and perform their
  oversight role.
• This report builds on the State of
  Representativeness in the Public Service (2000)
  and the Report on Disability Equity in the South
  African Public Service (2002) which provided a
  largely quantitative overview of progress in the
  first five years of democracy.
• The South African State, in addition to
  implementing various transformational policies,
  has also had to transform itself over the past 10
  years, so as to reflect current demographics and
  become more responsive to the needs of the
  majority.
• AA cannot be viewed simplistically as only
  changing race, gender and disability profiles. It
  is fundamentally about making these changes in
  order to deliver more effectively.

4
BACKGROUND (CONTINUE)

• There is a dynamic relationship between achieving
  AA on the one hand and transforming the state and
  society on the other. Transformational policies
  are difficult to implement when these deal with
  sensitive issues rooted in historic conditions
  that have caused race, gender and disability
  imbalance.
• At the heart of this transformational process is
  the recognition and willingness by
  decision-makers to move beyond their personal
  interests and views, and show commitment by
  taking transformational decisions. Furthermore,
  the commitment from civil servants, irrespective
  of race to gender, to implement government policy
  is critical.
• This audit shows that progress in achieving AA
  has been varied, both at national and provincial
  levels.

5
OBJECTIVES OF THE AUDIT

• Determine the extent to which government
  departments have complied with policy and
  legislative requirements and measures, taking
  into account national and provincial
  demographics. An assessment is made of
  constraints and/or barriers that are being
  experienced in meeting the regulatory
  requirements (compliance).
• Audit the effectiveness and efficiency (efficacy)
  of the systems, processes and procedures used to
  monitor and evaluate the implementation of AA in
  the entire human resource management chain
  (monitor and evaluate the implementation of AA).
• Audit the extent to which AA practices empower
  the designated groups to fulfill their employment
  obligations. This includes an assessment of human
  resource management practices starting from
  recruitment, selection, induction processes and
  retention programmes. The process of assessment
  should take into account the work already done by
  the PSC on recruitment and selection and other
  related reports (empowerment).
• Present a comprehensive analysis based on the
  above of the success and failures of AA and
  recommend requirements for further
  implementation.

6
METHODOLOGY

• The scope of work of the project focused on the
  following
• Review of human resource management practices,
  policies and procedures with a view to produce a
  conceptual framework document that defines the
  empowerment aspects of affirmative action.
• Gathering and collation of qualitative and
  quantitative data.
• Analytical review of the empowerment practices a
  means to achieving AA in the public service.
• Review human resource management processes with
  specific reference to job seekers from designated
  groups.
• A quantitative and qualitative analysis of AA to
  determine whether requirements as laid down in
  policy are implemented, monitored and evaluated.
• A trend analysis and comparison of the
  implementation of AA in Government to measure
  compliance, efficacy and empowerment across
  Government.
• A comprehensive account of the success and
  barriers of AA using empowerment, efficacy and
  compliance perspectives as units of analysis.
• Benchmarking of best and worst practices.

7
METHODOLOGY (contnd)

• The following data gathering methods were used
• Desktop Literature Review to determine elements
  of the human resource value chain that are
  relevant to AA policies and procedures.
• Personnel Data Review statistical data to
  determine compliance to numerical targets.
• National Affirmative Action Survey empirical
  data collected by means of questionnaire.
• Audit Sample whole of public service.
• Responsiveness of departments
• 15 National departments submitted late.
• 19 provincial departments did not submit at all
  biggest transgressor was Limpopo.

8
LIMITATIONS

• In terms of the quantitative analysis the study
  relied on the survey questionnaire and the data
  as on 30 April 2005 from VULINDLELA. One of the
  problems when dealing with the comparison of
  change over time was the manner in which the
  various levels are defined.
• The VULINDLELA system provided data according to
  salary levels, but departments responded by
  presenting data according to occupational
  categories as per their employment equity
  reporting requirements to the Department of
  Labour. This meant that the data between the two
  sources needed to be reconciled.
• A further problem related to the delays in
  returning information, and given that extensions
  were provided, the information from certain
  departments was not used, and in some cases
  information was of poor quality.
• For purposes of this presentation, therefore, and
  to give as up to date reflections on the
  demographics of the public service as possible,
  data that has been obtained from Vulindlela as at
  June 2006 will be used.

9
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

• AA is implemented through programmes designed in
  terms of the adopted policy framework, namely the
  White Paper on Affirmative Action (WPAA).
• The WPAA sets out mandatory requirements that
  departments should comply with to implement AA
  programmes.
• The WPAA sketches the accountability, monitoring,
  coordinating and reporting responsibilities of
  various role players within AA programmes.
  Compliance and efficacy aspects of this audit was
  predicated on these policy requirements.
• The compliance element of the audit focused on
  the extent to which government departments
  conforms to prescribed policy and regulatory
  requirements. The audit focused on compliance in
  terms of indicators derived from the WPAA.
• The assessment of the efficacy element of the
  audit focused on determining the effectiveness of
  the systems, processes and procedures used to
  monitor and evaluate the implementation of AA. A
  set of indicators was therefore developed to
  measure the quality of the AA implementation
  process.
• The focus on empowerment was an attempt to go
  beyond the compliance and effectiveness elements
  of the audit in order to understand the
  substantive issses that lie beneath the numbers.
  It attempted to measure the extent to which AA
  practices empower the designated groups to fulfil
  their employment obligations. Empowerment
  indicators were identified based on the
  provisions of the WPAA.

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KEY FINDINGS

• Compliance Aspect of Affirmative Action
• Whilst overall progress has been made with the
  setting of AA targets, there are significant
  challenges regarding compliance with the policy
  requirements on AA. National departments perform
  very well in terms of compliance with AA target
  requirements as compared to provincial
  departments.
• Improvement is still required in the areas of
  employee profiling, conducting AA surveys and
  allocation of responsibilities. Progress has
  been made in the initial administrative processes
  such as setting of targets and developing AA
  plans. The actual implementation processes
  critical for the attainment of targets and
  objectives in AA plans remain a serious
  challenge.
• Only 28 of national departments conduct AA
  surveys. AA surveys were only conducted in
  provinces such as the Free State, Eastern Cape,
  Western cape, North West and KwaZulu-Natal.
• The periodicity of conducting management reviews
  in national departments was uneven. Most
  departments in Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and the
  Free State do not perform management practice
  reviews at all.
• The integration of AA accountability into
  performance management systems was found to be
  uneven across national and provincial
  departments.

11
KEY FINDINGS (CONTINUE)

• Compliance Aspect of Affirmative Action (contnd)
• In many instances it was found that the process
  followed in national and provincial departments
  in developing and implementing the AA programmes
  is inconsistent and not necessarily aligned to
  the guidelines provided in the WPAA.
• At the time of the study there appeared to be no
  consensus by the various role players regarding
  the responsibility for the implementation of AA.
  This uncertainty about roles and responsibilities
  and the absence of formal lines of accountability
  for the implementation of Affirmative Action is
  one of the barriers for the successful
  implementation of Affirmative action. The absence
  of a mechanism to enforce compliance with AA
  policy and other human resource policies and
  regulations is a perennial challenge facing the
  Public Service.
• Most departments did not identify barriers to
  fulfill AA requirements. At the time of the
  study, more than 60 of departments did take
  action to overcome barriers by developing
  recruitment strategies and forging links with
  organizations for designated groups (people with
  disabilities).

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KEY FINDINGS (CONTINUE)

• Compliance Aspect of Affirmative Action (contnd)
• Technical requirements that facilitate the
  implementation of AA revealed discrepancies
  between the extent of administrative compliance
  and actual implementation. In some cases there is
  administrative compliance (Western Cape and Free
  State) yet progress is limited. In other
  provinces administrative compliance is lacking
  (Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape) yet performance in
  changing the demography is good.
• Provinces demonstrated high levels of
  administrative compliance, yet performed poorly
  at the level of implementation. The development
  of AA plans and setting of targets in isolation
  cannot be viewed as a singular indicator of
  progress with implementation of AA in the public
  service. Department specific and province
  specific incremental targets are critical if AA
  is to change the demographics of the public
  sector to be in line with the demographics of the
  country.

13
KEY FINDINGS (CONTINUE)

• Implementation of Affirmative Action (Efficacy
  Aspect)
• Most departments have specific criteria, such as
  giving preference to applicants for employment
  based on race, gender and disability, for
  recruiting and selecting people from designated
  groups. Departments, however, experience
  difficulty in managing data on AA appointments,
  recruitment and selection.
• Most departments do conduct reviews of the
  implementation of the AA policy. However,
  departments are still preoccupied with routine
  administration of personnel transactions and do
  not provide advice on key strategic areas such as
  human resource planning. HR components still do
  not link their daily work with the business
  strategies of the departments that they serve and
  as a result key transformation areas such as AA
  suffers.
• Most national, but less than half of provincial
  departments, have designed programmes aimed at
  training managers to implement AA.
• The policy requirements on the lines of
  accountability in departments (leadership for AA)
  as outlined in the WPAA appear not to be adhered
  to.

14
KEY FINDINGS (CONTINUE)

• Empowerment Aspect of Affirmative Action
• Although most national and provincial departments
  have conducted orientation and induction
  programmes for new recruits and designated groups
  based on specifically designed strategies, more
  than one third of the departments tend to adopt
  generic orientation programmes.
• Most national departments have personal
  development plans for their employees and
  implement these through their performance
  management systems. However, at provincial level
  only 49 of departments reported to have personal
  development plans. There is a high level of
  disparity across the provinces on the mechanisms
  and approach used to implement personal
  development plans.
• In general there is a challenge for departments
  on career guidance and counseling in that such
  programmes are not properly implemented or the
  benefits are not discernable.
• A total of 51 national and 44 provincial
  departments have mentoring and coaching
  interventions. Line managers are assigned the
  role of being mentors but in many instances such
  programmes are administered on an ad hoc basis.
• Most departments have recognition and reward
  mechanism in place to ensure that employees from
  designated groups are recognized and valued when
  they perform exceptionally well.

15
KEY FINDINGS (CONTINUE)

• Empowerment Aspect of Affirmative Action (contnd)
• No or inadequate records of promotion and
  succession are kept at both national and
  provincial departments.
• National departments either use personal
  development plans or departmental strategic
  objectives to identify training needs, whilst
  conducting skills audits is a mechanism mostly
  used at provincial departments to identify
  training needs of employees. Since the
  identification of training needs is generic, it
  was difficult to determine the success of such
  training in the absence of predetermine AA
  training objectives.
• Better career opportunities, better working
  environment and better pay/package are cited as
  reasons by employees from designated groups to
  transfer to another institution.
• Most departments reported that they have
  incorporated issues of reasonable accommodation
  such as access to work areas, modification of
  facilities and flexible working hours especially
  for people with disabilities.

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS PUBLIC SERVICE (JUNE
2006)

• Cabinet set a target of 30 representation of
  women in senior management positions, 75 black
  in senior management positions and 2 for people
  with disabilities in the Public Service by March
  2005.
• These targets have since been reviewed and
  Cabinet has approved that women must occupy 50
  of posts at senior management level. The target
  that 75 of senior managers must be black has
  been maintained. This must be achieved by 31
  March 2009. The 2 target for employment of
  people with disabilities remains unchanged and
  must be achieved by 31 March 2010.
• As indicated demographic statistics drawn from
  Vulindlela as at June 2006 is presented.

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS PUBLIC SERVICE (JUNE
2006)

• PUBLIC SERVICE (OVERALL)
• Africans 843 259 74
• Asians 41 004 4
• Coloured 100 514 10
• Whites 140 973 12
• GENDER
• Female 607 262 53.9
• Male 518 488 46

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• PUBLIC SERVICE (SMS)
• Africans 3 923 55
• Asians 554 8
• Coloured 549 8
• Whites 2 063 29
• GENDER
• Female 2 084 29
• Male 5 005 71

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• NATIONAL DEPARTMENTS - SMS OVERALL
• Africans 2086 54 189 257 68
• Asian 292 7 7 929 3
• Coloured 293 7.6 29 644 11
• White 1190 31 50 403 18
• GENDER
• Female 1 182 31 96 292 35
• Male 2 679 69 180 941 65
• All persons with disabilities 0,2

20
DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• EASTERN CAPE
• SMS OVERALL
• African - 228 68 104 167 87
• Indian - 27 6 637 0.5
• Coloured - 34 8
  8 355 6.9
• White - 90 20 6
  315 5.2
• Gender
• Female - 121 27 79 123 66
• Male - 318 63
  40 351 33.8
• All persons with disabilities - 0,07

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• FREE STATE
• SMS OVERALL
• African - 153 52 44370 80
• Asian - 5 2 70 0.1
• Coloured - 16 5 1868 3
• White - 120 41 8860 16
• Gender
• Female - 83 28 33754 61
• Male - 211 72 21 414 39
• All persons with disabilities 0,06

22
DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• GAUTENG
• SMS OVERALL
• African - 343 50 87 019 74
• Asian - 62 9 3 122 2.6
• Coloured - 41 6 4 151 4
• White - 242 35 22 247 19
• Gender
• Female - 214 31 79 488 68
• Male - 474 69 37 051
  32
• All persons with disabilities 0,10

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• KWAZULU-NATAL
• SMS OVERALL
• African 327 55 130 823 82
• Asian 118 20 180 014 11
• Coloured 10 2 2 869 2
• White 138 23 8 167 5
• Gender
• Female 181 31 105 317 66
• Male 412 69 54 556
  34
• All persons with disabilities 0,12

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• LIMPOPO
• SMS OVERALL
• African 324 88 112 427 97
• Asian 11 3 188 0.1
• Coloured 2 0.5 143
  0.1
• White 31 8 2 694 2
• Gender
• Female 119 32 64 912 56
• Male 249 68 80 540 44
• All persons with disabilities 0,22

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• MPUMALANGA
• SMS OVERALL
• African 196 84 51 485 90
• Asian 6 3 267 0.4
• Coloured 1 0.4 361 0.6
• White 29 12 4 781 8
• Gender
• Female 68 29 39 972 63
• Male 164 71 23 029 37
• All persons with disabilities 0,07

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• WESTERN CAPE
• SMS OVERALL
• African 53 15 12 670 18
• Asian 18 5 589 0.8
• Coloured 106 31 43 109 61
• White 170 49 13 966 20
• Gender
• Female 77 22 44 933 64
• Male 270 78 25 401 36
• All persons with disabilities 0,26

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• NORTH WEST
• SMS OVERALL
• African 200 75 57 074 90
• Asian 13 5 303 0.4
• Coloured 10 4 868 1.3
• White 44 16 4 756 8
• Gender
• Female 87 33 39 972 63
• Male 180 67 23 029 37
• All persons with disabilities 0, 11

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DEMOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS (CONTND)

• NORTHERN CAPE
• SMS OVERALL
• African 64 47 6 040 35
• Asian 11 8 75 0.4
• Coloured 41 30 8 360 50
• White 21 15 2 619 15.3
• Gender
• Female 35 26 10 640 62
• Male 102 74 6 454 38
  
• All persons with disabilities
  0,13

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• Compliance
• All departments should engage in a concerted
  effort to employ people with disabilities. This
  will require collaboration with organizations for
  people with disabilities.
• The monitoring of targets should be conducted as
  often as possible especially with regard to
  senior and middle management and people with
  disabilities.
• The responsibility for implementing AA needs to
  be allocated across all levels of management, so
  that responsibility is shared.
• Regular updates on progress with regard to AA be
  provided to the Portfolio Committee of Public
  Service and Administration.
• Employee profiling is critical, and PERSAL should
  develop a function to produce these profiles at
  all levels.
• Departments should set and monitor AA targets.
• AA plans should include conducting of AA surveys
  for the review of management practices.

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RECOMMENDATIONS (CONTINUE)

• Compliance (contnd)
• AA targets must be incorporated into performance
  management systems and an appropriate proportion
  of the overall score for performing on these
  levels be agreed upon.
• A protocol should be developed whereby
  Departments can approach either DPSA, DoL or
  SAMDI for support in implementing AA. The
  Portfolio Committee on Public Service and
  Administration should play a greater role in
  holding executing authorities accountable for
  compliance with the AA policy.
• Implementation
• Given that departments experience difficulties in
  managing data on AA appointments, the area of ME
  of AA should receive management attention.
• There needs to be broad support for ME and this
  requires on-going consultation with stakeholders.
• Training on the implementation of AA should be
  regarded as mandatory across all levels.
• Departments should develop capabilities to
  monitor and evaluate their performance on all HR
  policies, programmes and projects.
• PSC should build a partnership with the DoL to
  establish an index of AA which will form the
  basis for forward ME of AA.

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RECOMMENDATIONS (CONTINUE)

• Empowerment
• It must be mandatory that AA criteria are applied
  to all adverts for new employees so as to attract
  and ensure mainstreaming of persons historically
  disadvantaged.
• Departments need to ensure that the work
  environment is made disability friendly, so as to
  attract persons with disabilities.
• The induction period for new employees needs to
  be treated with the requisite seriousness from
  the part of employees. Each individual case there
  must be personal development and support plans
  agreed to.
• Departments need to also offer services such as
  career advice and counseling as it can be assumed
  that matters of career pathing, linked to
  training will emerge as affirmed employees seek
  new opportunities.
• Induction programmes should be strengthened to
  ensure that they are not just a once-off generic
  set of activities.
• Performance discussions need to be held more
  frequently, and the measurement of work done
  incrementally. This will allow for better
  management of designated staff.
• Affirmed employees, like all others need to be
  recognized and rewarded.

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RECOMMENDATIONS (CONTINUE)

• General Recommendations on Affirmative Action
  and Human Resources
• Departments should address during their HR
  Planning processes and methods how they will meet
  affirmative action targets.
• Departments should build clear knowledge base and
  intelligence on key issues such as skill demand
  and supply factors in the labour market.
• Departments should focus more on the advancement
  of women in senior management and people with
  disabilities across the board.
• Each department should define roles and
  responsibilities and assign these to a designated
  official with delegations and performance targets
  and measures.
• The affirmative action roles, responsibilities,
  powers and functions of central HR units and
  their head and line managers respectively should
  be clearly defined and communicated effectively.
• The HR function in departments should be
  repositioned in a way that creates a balance
  between their strategic and administrative
  outlook. This requires that strategic HR
  competencies such as HR Planning, organisational
  development, change management, business process
  improvement, strategic information management and
  ME be sourced, harnessed and retained.

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CONCLUSION

• The audit has highlighted challenges in the
  implementation of affirmative action from three
  key dimensions namely compliance, implementation
  and empowerment.
• Areas of success and challenges in the
  implementation of affirmative action have been
  made and recommendations presented.
• It is hoped that national and provincial
  departments, particularly those with poor
  performance in this area will make a concerted
  effort to implement the recommendations contained
  in the report.