Towards seamless public service delivery Building a Single System of Public Administration

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Towards seamless public service delivery
Building a Single System of Public Administration
Management

• A Presentation to the Local Government Capacity
  Building Summer School 2005 Programme
• 11 October 2005
• Sandton

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Context developmental state

• RSA as developmental state characterised by the
  following
• People-centred state machinery
• Intervening in the economy to promote growth
• Promoting sustainable development-bridging the
  gap between 1st 2nd economy
• Co-operative governance popular participation

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Principles Seamless Public Service Delivery

• Chapter 3, RSA Constitution, 1996
• National, provincial and local spheres are
  distinctive, interdependent and interrelated
• Spheres of government must cooperate with one
  another to provide coherent government
• Chapter 10, RSA Constitution, 1996 basic values
  and principles governing public administration
• Efficient, economic and effective use of
  resources (service delivery improvement)
• Development orientation
• Responsiveness, accountability, fairness and
  transparency
• Good human resource management (utilisation of
  capacity)

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Service delivery challenges

• Apartheid inheritance
• Historical service delivery backlogs, esp. 2nd
  economy
• Community dissatisfaction due poor service
  delivery, e.g. recent protests in the Free State
• Lack of institutional capacity,especially at
  service delivery institutions and local
  government
• Corporate governance
• Public entities not aligned to government
  objectives
• Accountability needs to be strengthened

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Service delivery challenges

• Fragmentation of service delivery
• Lack of integration and poor coordination between
  departments and between spheres
• Inconvenience for citizens having to travel far
  and to many service delivery points
• Mobility of staff
• Difficult to move functions and staff to the
  appropriate levels
• Difficult to move skilled managers to where they
  are needed

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Goal of seamless public service

• Efficient, effective, responsive, representative,
  accountable and accessible institutions
• Improved coordination between spheres of
  government and public entities
• Improved service delivery through integration
• To provide service users with a single window for
  their service needs
• To locate the service delivery site close to the
  people where they live
• Special emphasis on poor urban and rural
  communities (formerly marginalised)

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Current initiatives Integrated service delivery

• Multi-Purpose Community Centres
• Provide a range of services from a single point
• Services from national, provincial and local
  government
• Located close to the people
• Batho Pele Gateway portal
• Information on government services online
• Made available at General Services Counters at
  MPCCs
• Also available at Post Office
• Community development workers
• Facilitating access to government services,
  benefits and economic opportunities

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Current initiatives Conditions of service

• Comparative study of conditions of service in
  local government and public service
• Many disparities between public service and local
  government, and within local government
• Rationalisation of conditions of service by local
  government
• Job evaluation, 10 pay scales, working towards
  single pension fund and medical aid scheme

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Current initiatives Intergovernmental relations

• Harmonisation of planning of the three spheres
• Intergovernmental Relations Framework Bill
• Formalises intergovernmental structures eg PCC,
  Minmecs
• Provides procedures for settling of disputes
• Assignment Framework
• Procedures for the assignment of powers and
  functions to local government
• Transfer framework
• Procedures to facilitate the transfer of
  personnel between spheres

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Current initiatives Public entities

• Review of public entities
• Coherent policy framework governing public
  entities
• Classification framework (corporate forms)
• Corporate governance (procurement procedures,
  human resource practices, financial management
  etc)
• Proposals to facilitate mobility between public
  entities and spheres of government

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Current initiatives Batho Pele and popular
participation

• Batho Pele
• Front-office improvements signage, nametags
• Extending office hours
• Unannounced visits
• Project Khaedu exposing SMS to coalface
• Participation
• Izimbizo national, provincial and local
• DPLG developed model for community participation
• Ward committees
• Preparation of IDPs

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Implementation proposals

• Develop overarching legislation
• Scope of Coverage-
• three spheres of Government
• public entities national, provincial and local
• Administrative support to Constitutional
  institutions
• Identified State owned Enterprises
• Location of the responsibility for public
  administration
• HR matters located in a single central department
• Enforcement authority
• Identify authority within government
• Define sanctions for non-compliance

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Implementation proposals

• Develop overarching legislation
• Setting norms and minimum standards
• Providing for sector differentiation
• Transfer of functions and staff addressed
• Delegation of responsibility and devolution of
  authority to appropriate levels
• Specific chapter for senior management

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Implementation proposals

• Human resource management
• Common HR systems
• Recruitment and selection procedures
• Human resource strategies
• Skills database
• Remuneration and conditions of service
• Apply principles of job evaluation
• Common remuneration principles in a wage policy
• Common set of conditions of service
• Mandatory pension and medical aid arrangement

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Implementation proposals

• Collective bargaining and labour relations
• National framework transversal and
  sector-specific issues
• Ethics
• Code of Conduct extended to all employees
• Funding arrangements
• Investigation into support for struggling
  municipalities

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CHALLENGE FOR HRD

• Alignment of HRD strategies
• - Provincial Growth and Dev Plans
• - Integrated Developmental Plans
• - National Skills Development Strategy
• - Education and Training across the Spheres
• scarce and critical skills, redeployment
• - Induction and orientation programmes
• - Working in cross cutting projects
• - Community inter-action

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