Commission on Governance and Administration

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SMS CONFERENCE

• Commission on Governance and Administration

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Presidents task

• October 2004 President asked Ministers
• Whether we are properly organised and resourced
  to implement governments development programmes
• G and A
• Whether the state machinery has the required
  numbers of properly qualified, motivated and
  resourced people dedicated to ensuring the
  success of our social and economic development
  initiatives.
• Conduct an audit of human and other resources
  dedicated to the implementation of these
  initiatives and make proposals on measures to be
  taken to ensure that we have the required
  development units in place.

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Skills constraints

• Skills in the public sector excluding educators
  and security personnel
• 50 lower-skilled
• 40 semi-skilled
• 8 skilled
• 2 managers
• Representivity improved, but major challenges
  remain and need to be decisively confronted by
  departments
• African and Coloured concentrated in the lower
  levels
• White employees concentrated in skilled positions
  and over-represented in the SMS
• Women in lower levels and under-represented in
  management

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Skills shortages and gaps

• Shortages
• SSPs indicate financial and computer skills
• Gaps
• Transversal skills
• Hard skills eg. project management skills
• Soft skills eg. communication skills
• Specific skills associated with particular job
  profiles or occupational categories
• Other factors
• Remuneration of professionals
• Recruitment, succession and career planning etc -
  retention strategies required

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Skills needed

• High-level skills required
• Health (doctors and dentists, theatre nurses,
  etc.)
• Criminal justice (state prosecutors,
  interpreters, court managers)
• Education (mathematics and science teachers)
• Local government (engineers and technologists,
  financial managers, town and regional planners)
• SAPS (forensic scientists, crime investigators)
• Trade and Industry (economists and trade
  specialists, policy analysts)
• Crosscutting ICT (systems analysts, database
  administrators)
• New occupational categories eg. CDWs

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Skills supply

• Outputs of Higher Education institutions
• Skewed in terms of race and gender
• Participation of Africans and women in technical
  fields low
• Qualifications of graduates a mismatch with
  skills requirements of the public sector
• Inadequate strategic interaction between
  Government and Higher Education
• Foreign expertise under-utilised

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Macro-organisation of the state

• Local authorities responsible for delivering many
  developmental services of government
• Clear strategic and operational links to
  provincial and national government required
• Public entities have inadequate governance
  arrangements
• Organisational cultures in the public sector not
  transformed

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Planning, budgeting and coordination

• Too many priorities on the national agenda
• Strategic management needs to be improved
• Targets often not clearly defined ME inadequate
• Intergovernmental coordination requires
  strengthening
• Cluster system has made some progress with
  integration
• Public management framework underdeveloped in
  some practical implementation respects
• Many progressive and constructive policy
  directives are ignored

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Management information and other systems

• Shortages of systems and applications developers
• Government IT purchasing does not always promote
  interoperability
• Most departments have poor information management
  practices
• Common understanding on e-government has not
  emerged
• Current infrastructure not suitable for providing
  e-government services
• Other administrative and management systems
  archaic and inefficient

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Recommendations

• With regard to public service capacity
• Capacity assessment of major programmes of
  government that are developmental and integrated
• Development and implementation of an integrated
  database system of HR skills
• Implementation of short, medium and long-term
  skills retention strategies
• Improve conditions of service for selected
  professionals
• Strengthening of HR function in government
• Strengthening of HR planning

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Presidents task (2)

• SON Address February 2005
• FOSAD must conduct a thorough review of the
  functioning of the government system as a whole,
  and make proposals particularly on the capacity
  of the implementing agents, skills and competence
  within the public service, alignment of planning
  and implementation, and issues pertaining to the
  mobilisation of the public service to speed up
  social transformation.

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Presidents task (3)

• Budget Vote Speech May 2005
• Critical assessment of the capacity and
  organisation of the state
• Capacity to ensure social cohesion
• Evaluating interaction between government and the
  people
• Capacity to combat and prevent corruption
• Capacity to implement policy
• Assessing our system of governance
• Assessing the capacity of the state to play a
  catalytic and facilitating role
• Assessing whether the Presidency has the
  necessary capacity to discharge its role of
  supervision and coordination

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Questions to consider

• Does the state machinery have the required
  numbers of properly qualified, motivated and
  resourced people dedicated to ensuring the
  success of our social and economic development
  initiatives?
• Where are the major skills gaps in the public
  service and local government?
• What are the causes of the shortfalls?
• How can the state increase its capacity in terms
  of skilled human resources?

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Questions to consider

• To what extent does organisational culture play a
  role in state capacity?
• How can the public service be mobilised to speed
  up social transformation?
• Does government communicate effectively with the
  people? How would improvement in this area
  strengthen state capacity?
• Is the state properly organised to deliver on its
  developmental mandate?
• Does government deliver services efficiently,
  economically and effectively?
• Can integration of the public sector improve
  state capacity?