STATE OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE REPORT 2005

Table of Contents

1. Foreword
   
2. Executive summary
   

3. Introduction

Table: SA public service by race and gender as at

4. PRINCIPLE ONE:

A high standard of professional ethics must be promoted and maintained.

5. PRINCIPLE TWO:

Efficient economic and effective use of resources must be promoted.

6. PRINCIPLE THREE:

Public administration must be development oriented

8. PRINCIPLE FIVE:

People's needs must be responded to and the public must be encouraged to participate in policy making

9. PRINCIPLE SIX:

10. PRINCIPLE SEVEN:

Transparency must be fostered by providing the public with timely, accessible and accurate information.

11. PRINCIPLE EIGHT:

12. PRINCIPLE NINE:

13. Conclusion

It is undeniable that South African democracy is now firmly rooted. Central to this, in the first decade of our democracy, was a solid commitment to laying the foundations of a developmental state underpinned by good governance as a means for creating a better life for all South Africans. Significant strides, of which the most commendable is setting the transformation of the public service on an irreversible path, have been made. In consolidating the achievements of the first decade, challenges lie ahead still for the public service in the second decade.

It is the hope of the Public Service Commission (PSC), the custodian of good governance, that this State of the Public Service Report will help focus endeavours in the second decade of democracy to strengthen the public service. In order to realise this ideal, Batho Pele and the Constitutional values and principles should be used as the guiding ethic in the delivery of services to improve the quality of life for all South Africans.

This is the fourth annual edition of the State of the Public Service Report. It draws on the vast amount of work done by the Commission since its reconstitution in 2000 on: public administration investigations; professional ethics; labour relations reviews; human resource management reviews; governance monitoring; leadership and performance improvement; service delivery; and, quality assurance. This work includes 14 in depth Monitoring and Evaluation departmental reports and a range of other reports on key delivery issues and structural concerns in departments conducted by the Commission on own accord or at the request of ministers. It is also informed by in-depth analytical studies of the qualifications and capability of our public service and work done by the Commission on the performance of Heads of Departments. Its recommendations see to build on systems, procedures and processes that the Commission has helped put in place such as the Performance Management Development System, grievance procedures, its guidelines on whistle blowing, protected disclosures, risk management and combating corruption in the public service. Needless to say, to support its conclusions and recommendations, the report also draws on related research by other institutions having a bearing on the public service. We hope that you will enjoy reading it and find its contents useful.

Professor S.S. Sangweni

Chairperson: Public Service Commission

The 2004 edition of this publication was retrospective in its conceptualisation, looking back on a decade of our democracy, highlighting the changes with the transformation of its society and the public service. This year's edition provides an opportunity for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to once again comment on the state of the public service by referring to research conducted both internal to the PSC and also drawing from external sources over the preceding year. More importantly, the timing of this version comes at a juncture where the PSC is provided with a platform to make its contribution to the ongoing transformation of the public service by providing a road-map and a vision for the next decade and beyond of what the ideal public service should be.

Principle One: Professional Ethics

• While a basic ethics infrastructure has been established, its implementation requires attention for it to become fully entrenched and integrated within the organisational culture and ingrained into the ethos of every public servant.
• The Code of Conduct will require further refinement with clear sanctions built in for non-compliance
• The PSC's National Anti-Corruption Hotline promotes ethics as misdemeanours can be reported and its usage demonstrate widespread public interest.
• Understanding of the whistle-blowing guidelines and legal framework should be promoted.

• The future public service should be corruption resistant with an entrenched ethics infrastructure that protects the public interest from abuse by private and sectional interest.

• While the public service is progressively starting to overcome its difficulties in spending its funds, many departments are not achieving some of their strategic objectives.
• There is a continuing problem of departments not relating their annual reports to their budgets and departments are in need of comprehensive management information systems that capture systematically progress in achieving objectives.
• Performance indicators need to be better defined with management reporting requiring attention.
• To improve reporting and performance in this area, a clearer understanding of the relationship between key concepts such as the difference between outputs and outcomes and activities and objectives are still required.

Vision

• The future public service should have well-structured human resource development strategies that focus on providing training and other support so that officials are well placed to achieve efficiency, economy and effectiveness in their daily work.
• A series of useful, practical and accessible guidelines should be provided by the future public service to assist officials in executing their responsibilities successfully and effectively.

Principle Three: Development orientation

• The daily activities of public administration should seek to improve citizen's quality of life especially for the disadvantaged and those most vulnerable.
• The developmental state needs to use participatory and consultative processes to achieve success rates in poverty alleviation projects.
• The Presidency's Ten Year Review calls for an all- encompassing development framework for SA's development in the next decade and beyond.
• Whilst there are programmes such as the Expanded Public Works Programme in place, more is needed and strategies should attempt long-term rather than short-term solutions.

Visions

• Every public service department should seek to address poverty through distinct interventions and also by integrating the issue into the core business of the department.
• Development initiatives should successfully bridge the gap between the two economies that both meet the aspirations of the poor and create opportunities for wealth creation.

Principle Four: Impartial, fair and equitable service

• The provision of impartial, fair and equitable services is the clearest reflection of justice in operation. Collectively, it ensures a high standard of the provision of public services.
• Equity in particular requires an appreciation of historical circumstances in making decisions.
• Embedding Batho Pele remains a priority and departments should be made to report on Service Delivery Improvement Plans in their annual reports.
• An assessment of the extent to which the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) 2002 is being implemented shows low awareness resulting in poor implementation of the Act.
• A survey of citizens' satisfaction in the policing and justice sector revealed that expectations were generally met but that service standards and redress mechanisms still needed to be made explicit.

Vision

• In the future public service, citizens will be empowered, knowing their rights, understanding procedures and able to actively engage. This service will have an accountability culture that comes from high levels of transparency and ongoing assessment about its performance.
• This high level of commitment will be exemplified by the senior management cadre, which uses performance management systems.

• Public participation and consultation is important because it draws people into decision-making processes.
• Consultation and involvement of citizens in all phases of government's programme is essential.
• Promoting participatory governance style requires clear policies and procedures.
• In many instances public participation tends to be managed on an ad hoc basis although there are some efforts to ensure genuine participation.
• Service delivery improvements are more successful when communities are mobilised and actively involved.

Vision

• The future public service should be consultative and flexible enough to offer solutions in diverse applications.

Principle Six: Accountability

• Accountability is one of the most important principles underlying democracy.
• This report has looked at both financial and non-financial dimensions of accountability.
• In terms of financial accountability, the increase in the number of qualified reports is a source of concern, indicating the challenge of compliance with the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (as amended).
• The PSC's management of the Head of Department evaluation process, which brings the highest level of public servants under scrutiny for performance, has contributed to an improved performance ethos in the entire public service.

Vision

• In future, public service institutions should be accountable for service delivery and financial management as evaluation criteria and systems become used.

Principle Seven: Transparency

• Transparency involves making the workings of government visible so that citizens know what is being done with public resources.
• The quality of annual reports has improved in recent years, although there are stilt a number of areas of weakness.
• Performance information in annual reports needs to be properly linked to plans and budgets.
• The envisaged Government Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System (GWM&ES) aims to provide accurate and reliable information on all government institutions.

Vision

• Annual Reports should be accurate, timely and accessible and structured to provide citizens with useful information on performance.
• The GWM&ES should be fully operational presenting useful customised reports.
• Performance management systems should be properly implemented.

Principle Eight: Human Resource Management and Development

• Recognising that people are the most valuable asset In the public service requires that this resource be managed effectively
• Staff who are well managed tend to be productive resulting in better service delivery and performance.
• Departments should ensure that internal human resource policies are in place and that high levels of vacancies are addressed.
• Departments need to consider the impact of HIV/Aids from a strategic perspective.

Vision

• The public service should be the employer of choice.
• Human resource management practices should be aligned to government's vision for a developmental state and should succeed in dealing with HIV/Aids in the workplace.

Principle Nine: Representivity

• Personnel practices need to be based on criteria such as ability objectivity and fairness.
• Whilst progress has been made in achieving numeric target areas of concern remain low representivity of women in management and persons with disabilities.

Vision

• The public service should demonstrate diversity and representivity as valued elements of improving Its legitimacy.
• A clear link between human resource planning and employment equity is needed.
• Parliament and other oversight bodies should continue to engage with these issues in order to achieve this ideal.

This report focuses on the public service as defined in the Public Service Act of 1994, which includes only national and provincial government entities but excludes local authorities, parastatals and public entities. Its assessment of the state of public service thus defined, for 2005 is based on the 9 principles set out in Chapter 10 of the Constitution. Accordingly the structure of the report is aligned to these principles. The conclusions drawn and the recommendations made are derived primarily from the body of the work done

by the Public Service Commission on its own and with partners, and are informed by the vision of our democratic government.

The 9 Constitutional Principles underpinning our Developmental State

The 9 Constitutional principles are as follows:

1. A high standard of professional ethics must be promoted and maintained.
2. Efficient, economic and effective use of resources must be promoted.
3. Public administration must be development oriented
4. Services must be provided impartially, fairly, equitably and without bias
5. People's needs must be responded to and the public must be encouraged to participate in policy making
6. Public administration must be accountable
7. Transparency must be fostered by providing the public with timely, accessible and accurate information
8. Good human resource management and career development practices, to maximize human potential, must be cultivated
9. Public administration must be broadly representative of the South African people, with employment and personnel management practices based on ability, objectivity, fairness and the need to redress the imbalances of the past to achieve broad representation.

Chapter Content

Each chapter evaluates progress made by the public service in fulfilling each of these principles. Without losing sight of strides made in fulfilling these principles, risks and challenges are also identified. To help brace the public service to meet the challenges of the second decade of our democracy a vision for the future is also proffered.

Last year's Report took a long view of what was achieved in the first decade of our democracy. This year's Report is forward looking and challenges readers to consider where the South African public service should aim to be In the next ten years and beyond.

The Key Challenge for the Second Decade - Consolidating The Developmental State

The key challenge remains the consolidation of the foundations of our developmental state. This requires a public service that is attuned to the needs of the citizenry, capable of meeting these, and highly focused on effective policy implementation and delivery. The Ten Year Review conducted by the Presidency also identifies the need for delivery as a critical challenge for the public service in our second decade of democracy and urges it to: "Focus on practical implementation as distinct from setting out a policy framework which now exists, through the adoption of project management practices and community development works".

Further challenges to sharpen delivery include: continuous focus on institution and capacity building coupled with enabling processes; improving the capacity of provincial and local government, focusing on technical capacities for delivery and financial management; entrenching integrated approaches to delivery between different levels of government in order to enhance co-operative governance; improving accountability and interaction with the electorate; developing and maintaining partnerships with civil society; and, further strengthening existing systems to address fraud and corruption.

If South Africa is to consolidate the gains achieved thus far as a result of the new democratic constitutional dispensation, eradication of poverty and the creation of an environment conducive to sustained economic development and job creation, and improving State performance are all imperative.

Table: SA public service by race and gender as at 31 December 2004

(Source: Department of Public Service and Administration)

Headings on gender corrected and all departments included - 17 February 2005

Department names and gender figures of North West Province updated

Working With Principle One in the Second Decade

Central to the promotion and maintenance of a high standard of professional ethics in our second decade of democracy is continued rigorous focus on corruption. To ensure that effective service delivery in a manner imbued by the ethos of Batho Pele is neither distorted nor undermined and public resources exposed to plunder and misuse by unscrupulous elements, risk management will have to be pursued with resolve and diligence. To buttress this, sustained education and awareness campaigns to inculcate an ethical culture will be required. Furthermore, the extension of this culture to the private sector and civil society, with which the public service transacts, is also very vital.

Summary of Key Points and Recommendations

To assess the state of ethics in the public service, the PSC monitors and evaluates how cases of professional misconduct are managed. Key findings show that both national and provincial departments take too long in some instances to address cases of professional misconduct, which can be misinterpreted as lack of action. National Departments, however, generally appear to manage their cases of professional misconduct far better than provincial departments. Policies and procedural guidelines for handling such cases need to be widely distributed to officials.

There is a strong need for a clearer link between the National Anti Corruption Strategy and departmental strategies, and departments are required to create a minimum anti-corruption capacity. There is still need for training on integrated Ethics Management that should be given to all managers.

There is a need for continued research and information on ethics management. The widespread tendency to sensationalise aspects of the problem still exists and would be best addressed through the provision of accurate and reliable information.

Overview of recent research

As part of its overall anti-corruption strategy, Parliament enacted the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004. The Act, amongst others, aims to: provide for the strengthening of measures to prevent and combat corruption and corrupt activities; the establishment and endorsement of a Register in order to place certain restrictions on persons and enterprises convicted of corrupt activities relating to tenders and contracts; and, to place a duty on certain persons holding a position of authority to report certain corrupt transactions.

While Resolution 2 of the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Chamber is appropriately used as a national framework, this needs to be supplemented by internal procedures that are rarely in place. Procedures tend to be known by a few persons rather than documented and accessible to all.

A PSC report entitled "Measuring the efficacy of the Code of Conduct for Public Servants" (July 2004) contends that the current Code of Conduct is "not very reader-friendly and is difficult to implement because it comprises elements of both an aspirational and a compliance-based code".

Although there have been some examples of effective implementation of the code, this has not been the case in all departments surveyed. "It is clear that there has not been a clear and co-ordinated roll-out of the Code throughout the country and that certain departments have not been able to perform certain basic activities". Lack of political will and ethical leadership are also some of the reasons cited for this situation.

While the research was constrained by a poor response, identified a low level of compliance with the Code and argued strongly for the establishment of effective ethic infrastructure in all departments.

The application of the Code still requires further refinement such as making it more compliance based with clear sanctions built in for non-compliance. This should be done through a participatory process that integrates ethics training into the organisation's training strategy. The appointment of ethics champions will assist to promote the issue.

During 2004, the PSC released a study into remunerated work outside the Public Service that was critical of practices amongst health care professionals in some Gauteng hospitals. Reaction to the study was defensive, showing how complex and subtle corruption is and revealing a reluctance to confront poor ethical behaviour in certain groups.

The PSC also undertook research into compliance with financial disclosure requirements. It emerged that around half of public servants had failed to submit forms disclosing their financial interests. Of concern is that no clear steps have been taken to address this situation.

As part of its ongoing initiatives to combat corruption in the public service, the PSC recently established a national hotline facility where fraud and corruption can be reported. Although still in its infancy, the hotline initiative is part of the whistle-blowing framework. The hotline is fully supported by Cabinet. Indications of its use reflect high public interest.

To support public sector managers promote accountability and implement the Protected Disclosures Act of 2000, an easy to read whistle-blowing guide has been compiled. Recent media reports show a lack of understanding by the public and officials of the legal framework and guidelines for whistle blowing. This gives rise to an urgent need for education and awareness raising of the guidelines and the legal framework for whistle blowing.

It is vital for a strong developmental state to be underpinned by a corruption resistant public service with a sophisticated ethics infrastructure that protects the public interest from abuse by private and sectional interests.

To reach this point, consistent and sustained work is needed to put all the basic building blocks in place such as anti fraud and corruption strategies. "An anti fraud and corruption strategy can only work if heads of department and senior managers are committed to it. Adequate structures and mechanisms must be put in place, communication of the strategy is also vital to get buy in and creating awareness in all spheres. While implementation should be championed by top leadership, efforts should always be made to ensure that all stakeholders are involved in order for the strategy to gain impetus. Development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms will be a key to the success of the strategy.

Transparency and accountability should form the backbone of public service integrity systems ensuring that transactions involving public funds are undertaken ethically.

As we enter the second decade of our democracy, in working with this principle the key challenge will be to ensure that the public service is an effective service delivery machinery of a better life for every South African man and woman. This should entail working smart to produce optimum results with very limited resources. Sound strategic planning, budgeting, implementation and embedded performance monitoring and evaluation will be critical.

Previous editions of The State of the Public Service Report have called for an improved performance management framework with better systems and procedures.

Overview of recent research

The need for a clearer link between planning, budgeting and service delivery (allowing more accurate costing) was noted previously and it was proposed that poor monitoring and evaluation practices must be addressed. The need for better co-ordination and integration amongst and between different components and spheres of government was also noted.

Work done by the PSC in this area has involved a number of institutional studies, the development of procedural guidelines and manuals, as well as the completion of research and investigations into a number of strategic areas within the public service.

Reports were produced on the Chief State Law Adviser's Office and the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport. The PSC provided advice to the Limpopo Premier on the possible reconfiguration of the provincial administration.

A guide on performance management for social development departments was also produced. These studies generally showed that while basic structures and systems are in place, performance can, in many instances, be significantly improved through practical, simple interventions.

Working in partnership with the German Technical Co-operation Agency (GTZ) the PSC implemented a project to develop procedural manuals for government's most essential services aimed at providing frontline staff with useful resources that will assist with enhancing accountability and performance.

The first was a manual on social grants and was undertaken with the Department of Social Development. Other guides have been prepared on aspects of hospital and school district management. Future manuals will focus on the services provided by the Department of Home Affairs.

Through its Public Service Monitoring & Evaluation System (PSM&ES), the PSC has revealed that while the public service is starting to overcome its difficulties in spending its funds, most of the Departments researched are not achieving some of their strategic objectives.

Few departments relate their annual reports to their budgets and most need a comprehensive management information system to capture progress in achieving objectives. Most departments need to define their performance indicators in a more useful and illustrative manner with management reporting requiring attention. In this regard, guidelines have been provided by National Treasury. Key management concepts such as the difference between outputs and outcomes and the relationship between activities and objectives are still not well understood indicating that training in this area is still required, particularly in provinces.

Investigations undertaken by the PSC included the institutional and system related risks in the procurement and distribution of state medicines and, systems for provisioning, warehousing and distribution of learner support material in the KwaZulu Natal and Free State provincial Departments of Education.

A vision for the future and stepping stones for getting there
The future public service should provide useful, practical and, accessible guidelines to all officials to assist them in successfully executing their responsibilities effectively. These guidelines should be aligned to other strategic tools, including governmental priorities, departmental strategic objectives and programme plans and individual job descriptions. Human resource development strategies should focus on providing training and other support so that officials are well placed to achieve efficiency, economy and effectiveness in their daily work.

Performance management systems should assist not only in assessing the quality of performance but would need to be sophisticated enough to help identify the reasons for the results achieved and should clearly indicate bottlenecks and good practices.

Transformation and change management should be integrated into the normal public service routines with continuous improvement strategies being used alongside regular restructuring processes.

There remains a clear need for performance evaluation frameworks to continue to be developed in a participatory and collaborative manner, and for these to be properly implemented.

Principle Three: Public administration must be development oriented

Key to the fulfilment of this principle in the second decade of SA's democracy is sustained poverty eradication. This is as the public service consolidates its transformation and seeks innovative ways of ensuring public participation and consultation of its recipients of services in particular, the most vulnerable and marginalized. Essentially this means that the public service must instinctively be informed by the need to bridge the gap between the first and the second economies and narrow income disparities in all its activities from strategic planning, budgeting to implementation. This will require sophistication by the public service in balancing complex and sometimes competing needs. Mechanisms to get feedback in the course of implementation in order to effect necessary adjustments will be crucial. Above all, coherent and integrated functioning by all the spheres of government will be paramount. The PSC supports a cluster-based approach as against departments/agencies/stakeholders working in isolation in resolving development issues.

The National Spatial Development Perspective provides guidelines on what kinds of development should take place in specific areas and is a step in the right direction but it is not clear that its suggestions are being well promoted or properly monitored.

There is poor monitoring and evaluation of development programmes. This is consistent with the general weakness in monitoring and evaluation in the public service as a whole.

The previous edition of the Report noted that public service departments are in need of an overarching national development strategy and clear guidelines on what kinds of projects should be supported. It also highlighted the Ten Year Review, which calls for the "articulation of an encompassing framework for South Africa's development in the next decade and beyond."

Overview of recent research
The PSC's research into departments' development projects found that many poverty-oriented programmes are not well managed and do not involve sufficient beneficiary participation. In too many instances poverty alleviation projects are unsuccessful and also usually represent an insignificant proportion of departmental budgets.

Development projects do not appear to be prioritised, with some departments not making any efforts to implement such projects. This is particularly true for departments in which the core business is not obviously related to poverty.

In some instances departments employ the wrong strategies and partner with inappropriate service providers for development projects. The National Department of Arts and Culture, for example, outsourced part of its poverty alleviation programme to a service provider and despite well-framed intentions, it was poorly implemented and changes have had to be made to its implementation approach.

Implementing developmental programmes is complex and difficult and often does not deliver results as quickly as intended. An example of this is the effort being made to introduce Community Development Workers (CDWs), a new public service occupation designed to bridge the gap between the providers of services and the communities who use them.

A unit has been established to drive and roll out the CDWs implementation process in all provinces. To date four provinces have recruited a total of 557 candidates into a new learnership programme with a target of 1254 by March 2005 and 2840 by March 2006. CDWs will be provincial employees deployed in municipalities, facilitating the conclusion of service level agreements between the parties concerned. The institutional framework is complex and challenging and as this is a fairly new initiative, will require ongoing review.

A similar case in point is the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), a major national initiative involving a R3 billion investment in labour intensive infrastructure provision that seeks to overcome underdevelopment and link the first and second economies.

These examples are instructive and provide clear lessons. Even where there is a clear commitment to implementing developmental interventions, the underlying processes needed to deliver the intended results are complex, frustrating and time consuming.

The return on initiatives such as CDWs and the EPWP must be clear and agreed upon, given the financial and institutional investments they require. Practical work on innovative developmental initiatives need to be started as early as possible and must follow simple, logical design and implementation processes implemented according to clear, time-bound plans. Consensus on obvious strategic questions on funding, resources and responsibilities must be reached in the earliest conceptualisation phases so that genuine buy-in by all stakeholders is fostered from the outset.

In our second decade of democracy, the public service should integrate and embed poverty eradication into everything it does. This means that all of the public service should address poverty, both through distinct interventions and by integrating the issue into their respective core business and mainstream activities.

Interventions to address poverty should be well managed according to best practices, involving extensive participation and adherence to high standards of project management. The future public service should successfully bridge the gap between the two economies, linking them through effective income generating activities that meet the needs of the poor and also create opportunities for wealth creation.

The future public service must operate on a pedestal where poverty eradication initiatives succeed in addressing the needs of their clearly defined target groups, providing appropriately large-scale, sustained and cost effective remedies to previously intractable problems. Such initiatives should be based on a vibrant and imaginative national development strategy with which public service development efforts will be aligned.

Initially reliant on government support, many of these projects should successfully evolve over time into sustainable community-owned enterprises that build on the provision of publicly provided training and support.

The government agencies providing these support services should grow into flexible, responsive and creative institution that successfully empower the users of their services.

To reach this situation, public service development programmes need to be clearly based on generally accepted good practices and shaped by a consensus based national development strategy that builds on South African traditions of community based, responsive and demand driven development practices.

An integrated public service should also be redefined, in which the three separate spheres of government are successfully linked by common policy and implementation frameworks allowing the seamless mobility of personnel and resources to where they are most needed.

Working With Principle Four in the Second Decade

At the core of the challenge posed by this principle for the public service in the second decade of our democracy is Just Service Delivery while simultaneously taking into account the need to redress the legacy of past inequities. Central to achieving this is a highly developed ethical consciousness in the public service.

Impartiality demands that factors such as race, ethnicity and family connections should play no part in the delivery of services. Fairness demands that account be taken of people's context and their living situations. This requires a highly developed ethical consciousness.

Summary of Key points and Recommendation

Embedding Batho Pele as an underlying ethos remains a priority for the Public Service and is a key tool for addressing the overall challenge of performance improvement and sustainable service delivery.

To promote the implementation of Batho Pele Service Delivery Improvement Plans (SDIPs), departments should be required to specifically address SDIPs in their annual reports.

Government has addressed the need for fairness in service delivery through a number of initiatives such as the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act of 2000 (PAJA). However, research indicates that compliance by departments with the provisions of the Act is almost uniformly disappointing. Few have provided training on the matter as required by the statute and there are limited instances in which service users are advised of their rights.

Increased training should be provided to all officials on the PAJA and financial support should be provided to civil society organisations working in this area.

Overview of recent research
The Department of Justice is responsible for championing the implementation of the PAJA and has an agreement with the Public Service Commission to collaborate on monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the Act. The PSC researches PAJA implementation because reviewing the ability of the public service to implement the PAJA provides useful insight into the current situation and extent to which human rights are being protected and promoted.

The research done by the PSC found that awareness of the PAJA amongst public servants and staff in civil society organisations is very low. Activities to increase awareness of the Act are definitely needed and can be provided as a component of other activities, such as training programmes.

Some awareness raising activities provide only a superficial understanding of the Act and while they communicate the need for administrative decisions to be fair they do not unpack what this means in practice. Awareness raising activities also often do not create awareness of the need to provide reasons for decisions.

A strategy for integrating PAJA awareness raising activities into other public service programmes should be sought, especially in partnership with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and the SA Management Development Institute (SAMDI). Internal departmental training components should be targeted and be provided with a summary handout they can include in other training programmes. Awareness raising materials should highlight in a summarised form the main provisions and requirements of the Act and those that already do should be better distributed.

In terms of the extent to which administrative practices meet the fairness standards stipulated in the Act, implementation of the PAJA is not being prioritised or adequately addressed by government departments. Despite a general and discernable desire and intention to operate fairly and justly, the legislation is not being applied or systematically implemented. Manuals and guidelines that prescribe procedures, identify where decisions are made and that help minimise deviations from specific processes are widely needed. Practical, case based training interventions that assist administrators are needed while more visible support for the legislation from supervisors and senior managers is also required.

Government departments are neglecting implementation of this important area of legislative compliance. It needs to be specifically mentioned and addressed in assessment frameworks and performance agreements of Heads of Department and Senior Management Staff (SMS) generally.

Administrative actions are not being undertaken as prescribed by the Act. Efforts to increase awareness of the Act should be supplemented by the provision of training and by developing practical guidelines and procedures that consistently ensure fairness. The Department of Justice needs to systematically and coherently plan and diligently implement its activities in this regard.

Another important piece of legislation protecting citizens and ensuring fairness is the Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2000 that grants citizens the right of access to information held by the state. The Human Rights Commission, within whose ambit the monitoring of the implementation of this Act falls, is currently faced with serious problems of non- compliance by government departments with this Act.

The effectiveness of the delivery of services to meet the basic needs of all citizens is judged by the extent to which citizens' expectations of these services are met. During 2002 the Commission rolled out a project to survey citizens' satisfaction by focusing on four departments in the social sector. This was followed up in 2004/2005 by a survey of selected services in the Criminal Justice Sector, namely by police stations, magistrates courts. Master's offices, correctional centres and correctional supervision. In the majority of cases citizens' expectations were generally met and they were satisfied with the different services received. Users of services at the Master's offices, family members of probationers and inmate visitors, were amongst the most satisfied clients. The areas where the highest levels of dissatisfaction were exhibited are with the services received by inmates at correctional facilities and services at the magistrate's courts. Areas that need attention in the provision of public services are the availability of adequate information and also the possibility for redress on complaints. Departments must put mechanisms in place and make them known to the public to enable them to complain where the promised standard of service is not adhered to. This is not only a principle of the Batho Pele campaign, but also the right to just administration in terms of the PAJA.

The PSC conducted a study to evaluate the performance national and provincial departments in implementing service standards in accordance with the Batho Pele White Paper Transforming Public Service Delivery (1997). The second Batho Pele principle states that citizens should be told what level and quality of public services they will receive so that the are aware of what to expect.

The main findings were as follows:

• 132 departments received questionnaires. Of the 115 departments that responded only 57 had service standards;
• Of these departments only 35 had standards that complied with the concepts of quantity, quality and time; and,
• Just 20 departments had standards that specifically addressed redress or complaints.

The results point to critical challenges in the implementation of the Batho Pele programme in both the national and provincial spheres of government that requires urgent attention.

Developing service standards is important because it define the levels of delivery that departments are expected to achieve. The development of service standards should also be done in a way that is inclusive and participatory so that levels of services and standards can be said to be truly responsive to the needs of the citizens of the country.

More importantly developing service standards enable departments to be consistent in measuring performance over time and demonstrate the progress being made in improving service delivery.

A vision for the future and stepping stones to getting there
In the second decade of our democracy all decisions in the public service should be reached by following procedures clearly mapped out in useful guidelines and manuals that show where decisions get made and who is responsible.

Where decisions are likely to have negative ramifications on existing rights enjoyed by citizens, the citizenry should be forewarned and provided with reasons and opportunities to challenge official decisions.

In order to reach such a level of fairness, public service departments will need to systematically develop and implement plans to comply with the PAJA and the Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2002 and become far more responsive to requests for information.

A fundamental shift in workplace cultures would also need to take place so that citizens are treated as valuable stakeholders. In future, citizens should not be disregarded but given their rights accorded to them by the values and principles of impartiality, fairness and equity.

The public service of the future should be one that has fully integrated the spirit of Batho Pele in its work ethic, work culture and operations.

In order to reach this point, a focused and concerted effort to improve not only service standards but also performance under all the Batho Pele principles will need to be undertaken across the public service. Senior managers will need to show strong commitment to improving standards across government by embedding service standards in individual workplans and performance agreements. There should be training and toots provided to increase knowledge and competency to develop good standards. There should be routine and continuous assessments of performance against the standards. Departments should genuinely place citizens at the centre of service delivery. They must entrench an accountability culture that is based on the priorities of citizens and that should keep citizens informed about their performance.

Principle Five: People's needs must be responded to and the public must be encouraged to participate in policy making

Central to this challenge in the second decade of our democracy is the internalisation and embedding of a consultative and participatory culture to ensure that delivery is matched to the needs of the people. Enhanced public participation in alt the phases of government programmes is therefore key for the public service firstly to ensure enhanced precision in the determination of peoples' needs and focus in meeting these.

Summary of Key points and Recommendations

Increasing public service effectiveness and improving long- term outcomes of its programmes in creating a better life for all is the challenge facing the public service in the next decade. Public participation has a major role to play in this.

Promoting a participatory governance style will require that all departments have formal policies, supported by clear procedures that address the matter.

More innovative consultative techniques are required as well as wider adoption of participatory approaches such as Citizens Forums, lzimbizo weeks and Provincial Executive Council Outreach programmes. To achieve this, clear policy guidelines with supporting regulations should be issued prescribing the minimum levels of consultation and participation required when developing Public Service policy and legislation.

Overview of recent research

Research undertaken for the PSC's Public Service M&E System has found that very few departments have clear, formal policies addressing public participation, even in those institutions that generally make efforts to involve stakeholders in their policy formulation processes.

Systems for managing public participation tend to be informal and ad hoc, although genuine efforts appear to be made to incorporate public inputs where these are sought.

There are some isolated pockets of excellence in participation, such as the Gauteng Department of Health, in which innovative and systematic efforts are made to consult service users.

In its research for 2004 into sector policing strategies, the PSC found that service delivery innovations were more successful when communities were mobilised and were actively involved. The implication of this is that government is more responsive and participatory when communities are drawn into processes.

A vision for the future and stepping stones to getting there

As it consolidates its transformation, the public service must internalise the importance of public participation and consultation and make these integral to its workings.

Furthermore, the findings of consultative and participator processes must guide and lead government's strategic and operational planning and its programmes.

The PSC has previously called for the development of clear national policy and guidelines on public participation it policymaking and this remains a clear need. Such policy should indicate exactly what levels of participation are required and should offer practical and realistic strategies the can be applied in diverse settings.

Principle Six: Public administration must be accountable

The key challenge for the public service posed by the pursuit of this principle is ensuring clear knowledge of who is responsible for what at any stage of policy formulation, implementation and execution and where the buck stops. Essential to the achievement of this is the ability to give a clear sense of resource utilisation in particular, government finances. Central to the creation of a better life for all our citizens is prudent use of scarce state resources. Therefore, the PSC in working with adherence to this principle places great emphasis on Financial Accountability. However, other elements of accountability such as those that relate to the evaluation of Heads of Departments also receive attention.

Building public service accountability will require that both capacity and capability be built systematically and incrementally. Instituting an accreditation system for public service managers could perhaps help ensure that appointees have the skills and experience needed for their work.

A specialist capacity that will support Departments in difficulty should be created. Such capacity should be established to undertake thorough problem analysis, design appropriate solutions and support project implementation.

The Eastern Cape experience has shown that specialist skills are needed for such sensitive and complex tasks.

Implementation of departmental risk management and fraud prevention plans needs to be prioritised.

Overview of recent research
PSC monitoring and evaluation shows that public service performance continues to be characterised by under spending, although the extent of the problem has been reduced significantly. Departments continue to set over-ambitious targets, with too many objectives and often fail to achieve their intended outcomes. More focus and greater emphasis on the achievement of programme results is needed. National departments generally continue to perform better than their provincial counterparts. However, this needs to be viewed against the backdrop that both the content and the context that national and provincial departments have to work with and within, are varied. Thus any comparison needs to be viewed in this context. The work of public service entities needs to be better defined and their indicators need to be better formulated.

In many instances departments are still not succeeding in articulating their work properly. For example, indicators are often neither measurable nor easily understood, and in some cases achievements reported in annual reports do not clearly relate to priorities stated in expenditure plans and budgets.

The Auditor-General's Audit Outcomes Report for the year ending March 2004 noted that three departments have received qualified audit statements for the past four years. These are Home Affairs, Public Works, Water Affairs and Forestry. Statistics South Africa and Correctional Services have received a qualified audit opinion for the past three years.

Of the qualification issues raised, 27% related to the lack of policy frameworks, contradicting the commonly held view that most policy frameworks are in place.

There has been an increase in the number of matters emphasised in the Auditor-General's Audit Report, from fewer than 150 items in 2001/2 to more than 250 matters in 2003/4. The most commonly reported matters are income statements, asset management and information systems, internal audit and audit committees. Issues on audits relate to the failure of internal audit functions to carry out their planned workloads.

A total of 11 national departments received qualified audits in 2003/04. This represents an increase in previous years. It suggests that the implementation of policies and procedural frameworks by management, such as the Public Finance Management Act, is proving difficult. At the provincial level the number of unqualified audit opinions has decreased from 51% to 37% in the health, education and social development sectors.

The Public Service Commission on an annual basis facilitates the evaluation of HoDs. The evaluation methodology applied focuses on performance against set objectives in the performance agreements of HoDs. These performance agreements are normally a reflection of the business plans of departments and the performance assessment process therefore serves as a mechanism to enforce accountability. Evaluations for the 2002/2003 financial year were held during the end of 2003 and most of 2004. In total 17 national and 37 provincial heads of department were evaluated.

Of those that could not be evaluated, seven (7) national and 19 provincial HoDs did not comply for various reasons with the requirements of the HoD evaluation framework (required documentation not submitted, etc.). The remaining HoDs could not be evaluated for valid reasons (not in the post for a full financial year, etc) and will be evaluated for the next financial year. But this does suggest that 26 HoDs did not comply with their requirements for a proper evaluation during the year under review.

Out of the 17 HoDs evaluated nationally, twelve (70%) received an outstanding rating of 5; four (24%) received a significantly above average rating of 4 and only 1 HoD was awarded a fully effective rating of 3. In the provinces 4 HoDs (13.5%) received an outstanding performance rating of 5, twenty-two HoDs received a significantly above average rating of 4 (73%) and four HoDs (13.5%) received a fully effective rating of 3.

Overall, about 34% of HoDs evaluated received an outstanding performance rating, 55% received a significantly above expectations rating, and 11% received a fully effective rating.

In order to supplement the HoD evaluation framework as an accountability mechanism, the PSC is considering developing and implementing a system to evaluate organisational performance in parallel.

A vision for the future and stepping stones to getting there
In the second decade of our democracy, the public service should have clear and easily measured evaluation criteria for assessing the performance of all public service departments in terms of the quality of their service delivery and financial management.

Public financial management systems will have to achieve the highest level of the capability model used by the Auditor-General and cases of poor service delivery or financial management should be regarded as unusual.

Regular and accurate reports on progress in achieving targets should be provided in the public domain and key stakeholders should hold government accountable for performance and the use made of public funds.

In terms of financial management, all public service institutions should have adequate control systems in place and be able to provide detailed information for use in benchmarking and performance improvement.

The effective implementation of accurate performance management systems remains a key step in becoming more accountable. These systems should assess the effectiveness of sub-programmes in terms of financial management and service delivery.

The key challenge posed by this principle .for the public service in the second decade of our democracy is making the workings of government clearly visible and understood by the people to avoid alienation from their government. Vital for this, is timeous flow of credible information in line with Batho Pele principles. This will also serve to enhance the sense of ownership of government programmes and processes by beneficiaries.

Summary of point and recommendation
Reporting requirements for the Annual Reports could be simplified and streamlined including promoting the use of plain, simple language that is accessible and easily understood.

These reports need to be structured so that they directly reflect plans presented in the National and Provincial Expenditure Estimates and allow for a clearer comparison of performance against plans and budgets.

Departmental monitoring and evaluation components should play a greater role in the preparation of annual reports, since their findings and outcomes should form the basis of the reports.

Annual Reports need to be supplemented as a transparency tool by additional methods of reporting to the public.

Overview of recent research

Generally, the quality of annual reports has improved recent years, although there are still a number of areas of weakness. Many departments, national and provincial, do not systematically report on their results in achieving strategic objectives. They also often fail to reflect a link to the Expenditure Statements as the basis for their reporting.

Most public service Annual Reports are reader friendly and accessible but in many instances they are public relations documents rather than useful sources of information. Research by the Auditor General analysed the Annual Reports of 19 national departments and found that around half of them did not link their performance information to their plans and budgets.

Adequate detail on the results achieved is also often not provided. Objectives were generally found to be very poorly stated and there is still a tendency to report on activities rather than outputs or outcomes.

Monitoring and evaluation, along with planning and implementation, are the key elements of management. While policy and implementation practices have been the subject of transformation initiatives over the last decade, monitoring and evaluation are generally recognised to be underdeveloped and in need of attention.

In recognition of this, the Governance and Administration cluster has embarked on a long-term project to create a Government Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System (GWM&ES) to provide reliable and accurate data on the progress and performance of all government institutions.

An ambitious project, it will take years to come to fruition. Its importance in the interim is the catalytic role it will play in prompting all government entities to strengthen their own internal M&E practices and capacities so that they are able to provide the required information to the GWM&ES.


A vision for the future and stepping stones to getting there
Information should be widely and easily available in the future public service and should be used to improve performance and ensure optimal use of resources.

Annual Reports should be accurate, timely and accessible, written in plain language and should be carefully structured to provide citizens with useful information on a department's performance.

Other ways of reporting back to the public, such as community meetings and izimbizos should also be widely practiced, contributing to a flourishing culture of transparency.

The GWM&ES should be fully functional, drawing data off other institutional and transversal systems and presenting this in diverse ways that meet the particular needs of its various users.

In order to reach this point, performance management and its various components need immediate and urgent attention. Objectives need to become much more realistic, streamlined and achievable, indicators must be properly formulated and more widely used to communicate progress, and reports need to be consistently linked to underlying plans and budgets.

Ongoing implementation of human resource performance management frameworks must continue. This will require ongoing revision of such frameworks to improve its comprehensiveness and effectiveness.

Principle Eight: Good human resource management and career development practices, to maximize human potential, must be cultivated.

Working with Principle Eight in the Second Decade
The key challenge for the public service posed by this principle in the second decade of our democracy is to consolidate its transformation and empower its key asset, its human resource. Of essence here is ensuring that not only are its workers champions of delivery* but that they are also fully equipped to make meaningful contribution as they realise their own individual potential. By far the biggest employer in the country, employing over a million people, and with effective delivery a key objective of government, the public service should lead the country in sound human resource management practices. Central to achieving this is the cultivation of a nurturing and supportive workplace environment and good career development practices.

Human resource management refers to the measures put in place to ensure that employees are willing and able to implement government programmes, while career pathing are the systems that determine promotions and advancement. It is important for individuals working in any post to feel that they are on a clearly defined career path and that their efforts today will be rewarded with promotions in the future.

Creating a workplace in which staff members have a clear sense of being nurtured and supported promotes productivity and creates a positive dynamic that is felt in and beyond service points.

It is important to note that the central concept in this principle is the maximisation of human potential. This expresses a humanistic political impulse that puts people and their advancement at the centre. This is rare amongst civil services and is a wonderful legacy of our struggle for liberation.

Summary of Key Points and Recommendations
Work organisation in the public service remains hierarchical and innovation resistant. Challenges identified include the adoption of more egalitarian, flatter structures as well as adopting more modern, team-based work methods for producing better results.

Increased decentralisation and delegation of authority relating to human resource management to lower levels have in many instances overloaded managers. In instances where performance suggests it is necessary, consideration should be given to revoking these delegations until capacity to manage them properly has been built. An accreditation system should also be introduced in which powers are only delegated once public service institutions prove they can use them effectively.

Improving the use of IT remains a priority challenge for improved human and other resource utilisation. Career pathing remains the major area for attention. The Code of Remuneration or CORE that replaced the Personnel Administrative Standards, does not adequately define career paths for most workers.

HIV/Aids remains potentially an enormous threat, placing pressure on the Public Service, both in terms of increasing demand for services while eroding its work force through increased absenteeism and mortality. Departments need to consider the impact of HIV/Aids from a strategic perspective. This should include incentives to encourage public servants to undertake regular Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT).

Overview of recent research
Many departments only have draft policies on recruitment and selection that still need to go through internal processes. Vacancy rates are still high. Reporting on vacancy situations often not done or only done at a lower level. Workplace skills development plans are often not in place and even when they are, their impact is often not monitored or evaluated.

A report by the Department of Social Development and the Centre for the Study of AIDS at the University of Pretoria estimates that just over 10% of the public service may currently be infected with HIV. It also speculates that by 2012 up to a quarter of public servants may have died of AIDS. Even if these figures are indicative, they raise concerns and pose clear challenges in terms of the need for effective succession planning and Employee Assistance Programmes.

Both the private and public sectors in South Africa face major problems with regard to the availability of skilled human resources. "The public service faces particularly serious skills constraints that are multi-dimensional and cannot be addressed by improving skills levels alone. The context in which skills are used exacerbates shortages, and thus focusing only on skills and technology transfer is a limiting perspective. Training often focuses on providing skills to use new technologies but many public servants do not have meaningful work to do, the skills they have are not effectively employed in their jobs and the quality of their performance is irrelevant to their career development".

Our public service does not have enough skilled managerial staff. The heroes of the next wave of public sector reforms "will not be a handful of powerful technocrats versed in the complexities of macro-economic management. Rather they will be a myriad of midlevel managers adroitly building indispensable organisational structures and logistics to run the state". Building this cadre is a priority.

Public service professionals (such as doctors and nurses) are paid markedly less than in the private sector while environmental factors and working conditions are not conducive to the retention of such personnel in the public service. Recruitment, succession and career planning, employment equity, reward and recognition and employee relations are important factors that affect the supply of these vital skills.

The public service recruits personnel from a variety of fields such as medicine, finance and development disciplines amongst others, in addition to the field of public administration. Despite various links between higher education institutions and governments there is still not enough strategic interaction between government and higher education over the supply of skilled personnel.

Training delivery is not sufficiently integrated. Internal training units are inadequate and are often undervalued. Links between HR development and HR management functions are vague, synergy is rarely generated and a co-ordinated approach is not usually followed.

A vision for the future and stepping stones to getting there
In the second decade of our democracy the public service should be a natural first choice of employment for skilled and dedicated South Africans keen to make a contribution to society.

Human resource management practices should be aligned to government's vision of a developmental state and should succeed in dealing with HIV/AIDS in the workplace by providing treatment and prevention programmes and ensuring care and support is received by affected people.

The skills required for a dynamic and vibrant public service should be available and future needs should be clearly provided for. Skilled personnel should enjoy long and prosperous careers in the public service, enjoying the benefits of career paths that retain and grow them, professionally as well as personally.

To reach this point, a sophisticated human resource planning capacity is needed. In order for this to become a reality, proper skills audits need to be undertaken in all public service institutions. These should be aligned to departments' strategic plans and should focus on realistic and rigorous analysis of current skills and future needs.

Key elements of the human resource management framework that are either incomplete or poorly implemented will also have to be addressed: this includes issues such as assessments and evaluations; career pathing; performance management and retention; and. conditions of service.

Principle Nine: Public administration must be broadly representative of SA people, with employment and personnel management practices based on ability, objectivity, fairness and the need to redress the imbalances of the past to achieve broad representation.

Working with Principle Nine in the Second Decade
The key challenge for the public service posed by the principle is consolidating its transformation to ensure not only that those who serve it are fully equipped to deliver, but also that they are fully representative of the rich diversity of the people they serve. This can be achieved with efficacy and integrity, without necessarily compromising sound personnel practices. For a democratic South Africa, a public service that fails to draw on the fabric of the miracle of our democracy would be tremendously impoverished and it legitimacy undermined.

Summary of Key Points and Recommendations
Previous research has shown that the public service has become more representative in terms of race but that there is still a need to create more opportunities for women and disabled people.

This research also shows that the extent of race and gender disparities varies widely between provinces, with Western Cape the least representative.

There is need to move beyond numerical targets to address diversity management and career development and also for capacity building and training programmes that target inexperienced and recently affirmed employees.

Amongst the challenges facing the public service is improving the labour relations functions in departments. Of particular concern are areas such as staff retention, recruitment and selection strategies.

The current HR framework remains incomplete in certain fundamental areas, contributing to poor performance. These areas include career pathing, performance management and recruitment and selection. Assessment procedures and incentive systems also need attention.

Overview of recent research
Recent research undertaken by the PSC has revealed that in terms of compliance with affirmative action (AA), national departments perform better than provincial administrations.

This is in areas such as the setting and monitoring of numeric targets and plans and the use of performance management systems to assist with the achievement of affirmative action targets.

Areas in need of improvement include better employee profiling, AA surveys and the allocation of AA responsibilities such as making managers accountable for achieving AA targets.

Interestingly, the research also shows that those department that appear to have AA administrative and planning system in place often implement it worst, while those with the worse systems are often most successful in its implementation. This shows that the setting of plans and the identification of targets alone are not a good indicator of success in AA and in fact often conceals a failure to address issues.

Good progress has been made in the appointment of black people in senior management levels both nationally and provincially, as well as in the general representation of women, although they continue to be underrepresented at senior levels.

Gender and racial representivity at middle management remains the biggest concern along with the under representation of disabled people at all levels.

There is also a clear need for a better strategy for dealing with the supply of scarce skills.

Difficulties are often experienced in the programme management area of employment equity, in areas such as generating profiles and monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of policy implementation. This appears to be a consequence of the nature and orientation of HR functions in departments which are often consumed by routine functions rather than addressing strategic concerns such as planning, organisational development and service delivery improvement.

HR functions are rarely linked to the strategic functions of the departments they serve.

A vision for the future and stepping stones to getting there

In the second decade of our democracy, the central dynamic driving the consolidation of the transformation of the public service must be the authentication, valuation and appreciation of diversity. This should strengthen the productive capacity of the public service and improve service delivery to all South Africans. Furthermore it is essential for the legitimation of the public service.

A clear link between affirmative action and HR planning is required. It would also be useful to appoint champions of employment equity who should be delegated with responsibility to achieve certain targets and promote specific measures. This should be incorporated in performance agreements and non-compliance dealt with.

A key reason for undertaking monitoring and evaluation is that it sends out very clear signals as to what is considered important: this makes it critical that data on race, gender and disability representation should be gathered and systematically analysed so that the importance of the issue is constantly reiterated and the need for attention is emphasised.

Powerful oversight bodies, particularly Parliament and Provincial Legislatures also need to be seen to be engaging consistently and meaningfully with this issue.

Conclusion

The state of South Africa’s public service in 2005
Since the inception of democracy, the SA public service has achieved much to be proud of. A coherent institutional base has been created and a consistent and progressive policy framework has been developed that recognises the complex and contradictory challenges facing the country.

Dynamic and energetic political leadership has successfully ensured that most gaps in governance and administration systems have been addressed. Authentic and coherent efforts have also been made to address current and future problem areas such as corruption and service delivery improvement. South Africa has also started to play a leadership role in related world affairs, sharing its lessons and contributing meaningfully to current debates.

However, there are also reasons for concern, relating to issues of effectiveness. Our public service is still susceptible to the loss of experienced personnel that can affect institutional memory. Basic administration and management practices are often not implemented properly, officials are still often distracted and services fragmented. Important initiatives are left unfinished when new ones are started, while the support provided to implementers is often not comprehensive nor practically useful.

The back ends of service delivery chains are still not properly integrated and seamless delivery remains a challenge.

Nurturing and developmental leadership that inspires and guides is needed now more than ever. This may involve a programme to reward good performance and correct poor performance. Many of the above points made resonate very closely with the points made in the previous edition. This suggests that change may not be visible within such a short period of time.

What needs to be done
Two clear challenges present themselves:

• We need to complete, consolidate and monitor compliance with the public management frameworks; and,
• Address negative workplace cultures and the problematic attitudes and dismantle environments that cause them.

The role of monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a key tool for effective governance and provides the information essential for transparency and accountability. Learning organizations need M&E systems to provide the raw materials for knowledge creation. Because "what gets measured is what gets done", M&E has a major effect on what gets achieved. Measuring the wrong things distorts and limits programmes by distracting implementers while skilful target setting helps provide focus and clarity.

Current M&E performance in the public service
Preliminary research by the Presidency on existing M&E systems has found that monitoring and evaluation is widely seen as an important area of management that is generally acknowledged as strategically important and useful but that systems are generally very underdeveloped and inadequate. There is a widespread preparedness to improve and enhance systems and practices and the basic building blocks of M&E are in place and ready to be built upon.

Even though not always centrally located or ideally configured, most departments have some level of and evaluation capacity with varying human and other resources available. Once Government articulates its reporting requirements more clearly, departments will be well placed to comply within stipulated time frames.

M&E strategies are generally poorly stated but this is partly a consequence of a lack of guidance on the issue. Clearly defined terms and standards must be an integral part of the system so that departments are able to assess their own M&E products and outputs and make improvements as necessary.

With capacity in place and system development processes under way, public service organisations are now well placed to make use of practical guidelines and other forms of support to enhance and improve their M&E strategies and to ensure that they meet the required standards and achieve the intended results.

Because many systems in use are not entirely adequate, may also be a useful strategy to provide some kind of assessment and accreditation service so that it is clear when the necessary standards are met and whether improvements are required.

Overall, it is important that the government wide system makes its purpose absolutely clear to all participants and stakeholders. Service delivery improvement through learning needs to be the overarching theme of the system and the underlying processes for its implementation.

Using Batho Pele to revolutionise service delivery
Batho Pele is government's single most important policy initiative to bring excellence into service delivery and to put the citizen's at the centre of planning and operations.

Previous research has shown that while the concept of Batho Pele has been enthusiastically welcomed, its implementation has been very slow especially where it matters more, in the provinces. In recognition of this problem, the Batho Pele Revitalisation Strategy was developed and disseminated during 2001. The four pillars of the strategy are as follows:

• Re-engineering and improving the back-office operations of government;
• Re-engineering and improving the front-office operations of government;
• Internal communication; and
• External communication.

Further research was undertaken post the Strategy. The findings show that although achievements have been made, more work is required if Departments are to fully achieve the objectives of the Batho Pele.

Batho Pele is revolutionary in its conceptualisation. It represents government's intention of firmly adopting a citizen-orientated approach to service delivery that is informed by the eight principles of consultation, service standards, access, courtesy, information, openness and transparency, redress and value for money. These principles set the tone of the type of public service that is envisaged and is based on the values enshrined in our Constitution.

The PSC fully supports initiatives to strengthen its implementation and believes that for greater infusion of the 'spirit' of Batho Pele into the mindset of officials and at the operational level, efforts across the public service will need to be intensified.