Building the Public Service Commissions Public Service Monitoring and Evaluation System SMS CONFEREN

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Building the Public Service CommissionsPublic
Service Monitoring and Evaluation SystemSMS
CONFERENCE

• 21 September 2004

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Structure of the Presentation

• M E of SAs restructured public service
• Introduction and Background to the system
• Purpose of the PSCs Public Service M E System
• Unpacking the nine principles
• Challenges Lessons learnt
• What about your Department?
• Conclusion

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M E of SAs restructured public service

• Apartheid era system mainly concerned with
  control
• Standardized work processes, rules same across
  the board in all situations and in all contexts
• Bureaucratic approach gave rise to a rule-based
  public service culture that discouraged
  flexibility and made obeying orders more
  important than meeting citizens needs (red tape
  syndrome)
• Since 1994 shift to a more modern approach to
  public administration while still maintaining a
  solid administrative base

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M E of SAs Restructured Public Service

• SA Public Service
• Network of separate organisations, incl national
  provincial depts
• Each responsible for their own planning,
  budgeting, system controls based on a
  sophisticated, shared policy and legal framework
  that requires each dept to have certain policies
  and functions in place
• Eg PFMA -Appointing chief financial officers
  accountable for resource use
• Eg Requiring depts to adopt their own versions
  of major public service policies such as HRD

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M E of SAs Restructured Public Service

• Upside to this approach
• Instead of relentlessly applying centrally
  determined rules, Depts can be more flexible,
  dynamic and citizen oriented
• Depts can adjust and adapt according to the needs
  of the people they service and the nature of the
  service they provide.

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M E of SAs Restructured Public Service

• Down side
• Since the public service management framework is
  now much less prescriptive and many support
  services are no longer provided centrally, the
  demands on individual depts are much greater,
  especially for managers who must now also take
  responsibility for issues such as discipline,
  HRD, procurement
• Greater possibility that weak or struggling depts
  neglect to implement key elements of the public
  service policy framework

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M E of SAs Restructured Public Service

• Managing the risk
• Central co-ordinating depts (Treasury, DPSA)
• Oversight bodies (AG, PSC)
• Consistently assess whether depts properly apply
  important policies and frameworks.
• Do it regularly and rigorously
• Early warning

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Designing the PSCs PS M E System

• In 2000, senior PSC staff realised that while all
  the PSCs work is M E oriented Projects are
  mostly discrete, separate initiatives to
  investigate or research specific issues in
  certain public service organisations
• Projects are valuable but do not provide broad,
  strategic information on the performance of
  public service organisations
• Do not involve repeat studies, so they are of
  limited use in assessing whether the situation in
  Department is improving, deteriorating or staying
  the same

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Designing the PSCs PS M E System

• PSC Staff agreed to investigate the need for a
  monitoring system
• The system should look at the same issues in all
  departments, so that
• comparisons can be drawn,
• areas of good practice can be identified and
  promoted, and
• areas in which many depts are struggling can be
  identified and additional support provided
• Hence, the uniqueness of the system was its
  transversal nature

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What does the system aim to achieve?

• Gather info that can be used to identify areas
  needing attention, ultimately contributing to
  improved public service performance
• System is useful to PSC itself others
• Annual State of the Public Service Report
• Agreement with the Dept of Justice and
  Constitutional Development (AJA)
• HSRC

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PSCs Public Service M E System
Good Practice by Others is Identified And
promoted
Priority Areas In Public Administration
are Communicated
Depts Reflect On Their Own Performance
REPORTING
Problem Areas are Identified
FOLLOW UP
Problems Are addressed
Learning From good Practice Examples Takes
place
Departments Focus on Priority Areas
Achieve- ments Are Affirmed And Promoted
Overall result Better governance and service
delivery in South Africa
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What does the system look at?

• SA Constitution lists 9 basic values and
  principles that should govern the public service
• PS M E System looks at the extent to which
  public service departments comply with these
  principles
• Defines a performance indicator for each
  principle and assesses performance in terms of
  that indicator
• Performance standards
• Recommendations

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What does the system look at?
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What does the system look at?
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What does the system look at?
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How was the system developed?

• Phase 1
• assessment project to consider need for such a
  system and to scope what it should look at and
  how it could be structured
• Result
• system would be useful to PSC and stakeholders
• Recommended a tentative incremental approach that
  would involve building the system up over time
• Manual processes before tech solutions
• Use 9 Constitutional values and principles

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How was the system developed?

• Phase 2 Putting together the assessment
  framework for the system
• Identifying a no of performance indicators for
  each principle
• Questionnaire design
• Test in the Northern Cape
• Delivered useful info to the Premier
• Lesson framework too complex and the
  questionnaire and reports were too long

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How was the system developed?

• Phase 3 Refining and implementing the system
• Streamlining and simplifying the framework
• choosing a single performance indicator
• designing a comprehensive set of reports
• scoring system
• Specially appointed task team, dedicated system
  manager and a full time technical advisor
• Consultative workshops held to solicit input and
  comments

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How was the system developed?

• Phase 3 Implementation Cont.
• Once the assessment framework and reporting
  formats were approved they were applied in 7
  national and 7 provincial depts from 3 different
  provinces
• PSC staff undertook the research
• Full set of reports prepared for each dept
• Consolidated report summarizing the findings was
  then prepared
• Cabinet Memorandum
• Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Public
  Service and Administration

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How was the system developed?

• Phase 4 Implementation R D
• Another round of research is currently in
  progress
• 7 national depts and 10 provincial depts from 5
  provinces
• Design of a Knowledge Management System
• an integrated system that assists with project
  management, information storage and retrieval and
  financial management.
• PSCs Public Service M E component of the KMS
  is the most developed at this stage but
  additional elements meeting the need of other
  major programmes in the Commission will be added

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Research findings

• Need for a government-wide M E framework
• Public service is a network of institutions with
  a range of pressures and daunting challenges
  found at all levels
• Strong in one area but weak in another
• National depts generally better performing than
  prov depts, closer compliance to prescribed
  standards and procedures

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Research findings

• Provincial depts are behind national depts in
  meeting the standards set in the Constititon
• Particular context within which they operate
  provincial depts tend to be large, have awkwardly
  constituted structures and are often in need of
  support and development both in their management
  and in their delivery of core services
• Programmatic efforts to support provincial
  government depts must be sustained and increased
  where possible

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Challenges identified and, what happens next?

• Research process has taken far too long in every
  instance
• Access to depts still problematic
• The next phase needs to include ways of
  shortening the overall process so that reports
  can be delivered more quickly and thus be of more
  use
• Another nb step is returning to depts already
  researched to assess what impact the system and
  its reports has had

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Challenges identified and, what happens next?

• Need to conduct another round of research with
  same depts so that patterns can be identified and
  analyzed
• Building researchers capacity to own and use the
  system
• Increasing the number of departments included in
  the research especially at the provincial level
• Developing closer links with other research units
  within and outside of government

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Lessons

• Valid, accurate and reliable research findings
  are of no value without a constructive
  relationship
• Researchers need to be dedicated to this research
• Rigorous, conscientious project management for
  implementation is crucial
• Be careful when choosing performance indicators
• Recognize and appreciate the limitations of the
  research
• Champion/s

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Themes emerging from PSCs experience

• Selecting and agreeing on outcomes to M E
• Selecting and agreeing on indicators
• The importance of building a participatory and
  consultative process
• Gathering and using the data on indicators
• Reporting the findings
• Using the findings
• Sustaining the M E System within the
  organization

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What about your Department?

• An effective state is essential to achieving
  sustainable socio-economic development
• Growing pressures on governments around the world
  to be more responsive to the demands of internal
  and external stakeholders for good governance,
  accountability, transparency, greater development
  effectiveness and delivery of tangible results
• As the demands for greater accountability and
  tangible results increase there is also an
  attendant need for enhanced M E of policies,
  programs and projects

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What about your Department?

• Depts need to demonstrate results
• Interest is more about outcomes and impacts
• Have policies, programs and projects led to the
  desired results and outcomes?
• How do we know we are on the right track?
• How do we know if there are problems along the
  way?
• How can we correct these?
• How do we tell success from failure?
• Govs everywhere are struggling with ways of
  answering the above questions

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What about your Department?

• A carefully designed M E system can be a
  powerful public management tool that can be used
  to improve the way governments and organizations
  achieve results
• It can also help you to answer the so what?
  question, that is, have the programs or policies
  produced the actual, intended results (outcomes
  and impacts)

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What about M E within your organization?
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Conclusion

• International studies have shown that designing
  and building M E systems such as the PSCs will
  take many years to refine and perfect
• Also important to start with a limited number of
  indicators (be careful of information dump)
• Notwithstanding the challenges raised, the PSC
  remains committed to this system
• Provides us with a platform that we can only
  improve over time
• Also achieve overall result

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Conclusion (cont)
Better Governance and Service Delivery In South
Africa
Thank you for your attention. Lynette Sing Email
Lynettes_at_opsc.gov.za