Content

Introduction 1

OpeningRemarks 2

Critiqueofthereportbytherespondents 2•Recommendationsbytherespondents 3

Critiqueofthereportbytheparticipants 4•ResponsebythePSCtoconcernsraised 5•Recommendationsbytheparticipants 5

Conclusion 6

Wayforward 6

Since the introduction of the Public Service M&E system ten yearsago,thePSChasevaluated131departmentsinnationalandprovincialspheres and published seven consolidated M&E reports. Thesereportshaveprovidedgeneraltrendsintermsofadherenceofsampleddepartments across the country with the nine Constitutional valuesandprinciplesgoverningpublicadministration.Thesamplefor2009/10included all housing departments in the Public Service, and allthedepartmentsof theNorthWestprovince, thusallowingthePSCto focus specifically on the housing sector in the country, aswell asthestateofthePublicServiceintheNorthWestProvince.Emanatingfrom the assessments, two Consolidated Reports were produced,namely,theConsolidated Report for Housing and the Consolidated Public Service Monitoring and Evaluation Report for the North West Province.

In terms of the Consolidated Public Service Monitoring and Evaluation Report for the North West Province, the PSC recognised the need tosolicit the views of the political and administrative leadership of theNorthWestProvincebyco-hostingaroundtablediscussionwith theOfficeoftheProvincialSpeakeron21October2010attheLegislatureChambersinMafikeng,NorthWestProvince.

The roundtable discussionwas the culminationof a longmonitoringandevaluationprocesswhich startedwith thefirst assessment cyclebetween2001/2and2008/9andthereassessmentofall11departmentsin the 2009/10 cycle. The event was attended by 80 participantsincludingthePremier,ProvincialSpeaker,ChairofPortfolioCommitteeChairpersons, Members of the Executive Council (MECs), MembersoftheProvincialLegislature(MPLs),HeadsofDepartment(HoDs)andseniordepartmentalmanagers.

ThePSCwasrepresentedbythreecommissionersandeightofficials.

INTRODUCTION

REPORT ON THE FIRST ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON THE CONSOLIDATED PUBLIC SERVICE MONITORING AND

EVALUATION REPORT FOR THE NORTH WEST PROVINCE

OCTOBER 2010 ISSUE 3

Welcome Address: Premier Ms Maureen Modiselle (left)Opening Remarks: Adv. M Malahlela (PSC) (right)

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OPENING REMARKS

TheeventwasofficiallyopenedbythePremierofNorthWestProvince,Hon.M.Modiselle,whowelcomed all present andencouraged all participants to engage in robust discussions.This was followed by the opening remarks from the PSCCommissioner,AdvocateM.Malahlelawho,onbehalf of thePSC,expressedappreciationontheroleplayedbyboththeSpeaker and the Premier’sOffice, in helping coordinate thefirstRoundtablefortheProvince.HesaidthattheNorthWestProvincewasatorchbearerinthisregard.

HeexplainedthatasabuilduptotheRoundtable,therehadbeenaseriesofindividualmeetingsheldwithallMECsintheProvince on their individual departmentalM&E reports.TheengagementswerefruitfulasanumberofMECsalsopointedoutsomeoftheaspectstheydisagreedwithintheirindividualdepartmental reports. He further said that the PSC appre-ciated feedback fromdepartmentswhocommentedon thedraftevaluationreports.

HefurtherpointedoutthatsincetheLegislaturewasnotdirectlyinvolved in all of the engagements with MECs and HoDs,adecisionwastakentoholdtheRoundtableafterhavingtabledthereportinordertogivetheLegislatureanopportunitytoengagewiththereportandholdalldepartmentsaccountable.

With regard to the PSC’sM&ETransversal System itself, theCommissionerstatedthatthePSCacknowledgedthatitmaynotbeallperfect,henceacriticalanalysisaswellasproposalsfromparticipants,tohelpenhancethesystem,wouldbegreatlyappreciated. He concluded by introducing the PSC teammemberswhocontributedtothesuccessoftheentireproject.Therespondentswerethengivenanopportunitytocritiquethe report, which was followed by a lively discussion bytheparticipants.Theprogrammewas ablydirectedbyDrD.Mamphiswana,fromthePSC.

This concise report provides an overview of the key issuesraisedduringtheroundtablediscussionandsuggestionsonthewayforward.

CRITIQUE OF THE REPORT BY THE RESPONDENTS

Mr D. Setsetse, first respondent (right), Dr D. Mamphiswana, the facilitator (centre) and Prof. C. Miruka, the second respondent (left)

MrDan Setsetse and Prof. Collins Miruka from the NorthWestUniversitywereinvitedtocritiquethereport.

Amongst others, they highlighted the following issues:

• The Report clearly provides an assessment of the performance of the departments in relation to the Constitutionalvaluesandprinciplesofpublicadministration. It also specifically addresses data requirements for the ExecutiveandManagementintheProvince.• However, the Report does not provide the reader with detailed and relevant information about performance in terms of the CVPs in relation to service delivery in government departments – performance indicators are some what non-specific. It also does not provide an in-depthexpositionoftheCVPs.• It restricts accountability to issues pertaining to fraud, corruption and internal control systems. However, public administrationmustbeopenlyaccountable for itsactions within the framework of ministerial responsibility to the Government, Legislature / Parliament and the South Africanpublic.

Commissioner M. Malahlela (left) and Ms P. Seabelo (right)

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• It ignores democratic values:This means loyally helping political office bearers, under the rule of law and the constitutiontoservethepublicgood.• Approachesinthereporthavefocusedmoreoninternal resultsratherthanonservicedevelopment,design,pricing and delivery. Also, there are a lot of external factors whichcouldhaveinfluencedthereport.• ProfessionalEthicswaslimitedtomisconductcaseswithout lookingatotherareasofconductbypublicofficials.• TheConsolidatedM&Ereportfocusesmoreonissuesof compliancetothe9Constitutionalvaluesinsteadofbeing results-driven.

During the introduction of the PSC Team: Mr I.A. Naidoo (left) and Mr J. Mathe (right)

Ms F. Mathoma (left) and Ms T. Masangu (right)

RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE RESPONDENTS

TherespondentsmadeproposalsthatcouldbeconsideredbytheCommissioninfuturemonitoringandevaluationprojects.The following recommendations were made:

• The report should go deeper by clarifying goals and documenting the contribution toward achieving those goalsinordertobeusefulasamanagementtool.• Itmustalsobe responsive to theneedsofGovernment by providing frank, honest, comprehensive, accurate and timely adviceon implementingGovernmentpolicies and programmes.• Thereportshouldevaluatethedepartmentsagainstclearly defined expected results, which should be at the heart of any successful program/projectmanagement. Inmany programsandprojects,thiswouldinvolvecleararticulation of thecoverageor reach soas to identify theexpected numberofbeneficiariesoftheintendedchange.• Furthermore, it would be appropriate if in future, the process towards selection of performance indicators is begun by analysing the management functions at each level, identifying their information needs according to

those functions and deciding on performance indicators thatcatertothoseinformationneeds.• ThePSCmust consider incorporating theCVPs into the HoDs’PerformanceAgreements.

Due to increasing pressure on government departments tofocusonservicedelivery,therespondentsrecommendedthatthePSCprojectteamshouldconsiderhavingthreesectionsofthereport:

Section A

This section should provide the vision, mission and goals ofthe province and the strategic objectives as well as internaland external factors posing challenges for the province. Itshouldalsoincludecommentsontheprovincialself-evaluationreport, whichwill emanate from the proposed internal self-evaluationconductedbytheprovince.Thefollow-upexternalevaluationby thePSCwillbeanevaluationof theprovincialself-evaluation(meta-evaluation).

The critical review by the respondents also includedproposals for improvement. The next section focuses ontheseproposals.

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Section B

This section should retain the current format of theconsolidatedpublicservicemonitoringandevaluationreport.However,itshouldincludeatooltoensureaction is taken on the recommendations in the monitoring and evaluation reportsin each department. Perhaps the project team for publicservicemonitoringandevaluationshouldbemoreinnovative,for example, by showing the synergy between CVPs andservicedelivery.

Mr F. Podile (left) and Mr J. Mathe (right) Mr I.A. Naidoo responding to questions raised by Participants

Section C

Thissectionshouldfocusonpriorityareasandservicedeliveryinthedepartments.Basicconceptsofresultbasedmonitoringand evaluation should be considered in order to improveperformanceandservicedelivery.

The above introductory inputmadeby the respondents setthe tone for the discussion. The next section provides asummaryoftheissuesraisedbytheparticipants.

CRITIQUE OF THE REPORT BY THE PARTICIPANTS

The key issues raised by the participants were the following:

• Thereisadisjuncturebetweenthefindingsofthereport and reality. Some of the findings paint a good picture about departments’ performance, yet the real situation onthegroundisdifferent.TheDepartmentofEducation wasusedasanexampleto illustratethis. It scored70% and emerged as the second highest yet it is currently experiencingchallenges.• There is no correlation between the findings of reports producedby theAuditor-Generaland thePSC’sfindings. The Department of Education was again cited as an example, where theAG indicated weaknesses in terms ofinternalfinancialcontrolbutthePSCallocatedanoverall scoreof70%.• ThereisnocommonunderstandingbetweenthePSCand the departments on expectations and areas thatwill be evaluated.Thereisaneedforacommonunderstandingof theprocessbeforethecommencementoftheevaluation.• ThemethodologyusedbythePSCwasquestioned.Itwas noted that the PSC relies mainly on the information

suppliedbythedepartment,suchastheannualreport.• Somedepartmentsfailtosupplyinformationonthebasis that a particular principle is not relevant to them.This results in theaverageperformanceof theprovincebeing disadvantaged by the poor or lack of cooperation by these departments.ThedepartmentofHealthwas cited as having indicated that principle 3was not relevant yet thedepartmenthaspovertyreductionprojects. Inorder to avoid this situation, it was suggested that the PSC should verify information supplied by the departments beforeallocatingazeroscore.• Further questions were raised on the influence of the humanhandintheoutcomeofthereport.Whodecides whattherealityis?Areresultsmanipulatedbythehuman hand? In other words, how does the PSC ensure the validity and reliability of its findings given the fact that it reliesonsecondarysources,namely,documentsproduced by departments such as annual reports and interviews withdepartmentalofficials?Arethefindingsthereforenot compromisedbyrespondentsubjectivity/“humanhand”?• The findings of the consolidated report contradict the findingsoftheHoDEvaluationReport.Inotherwords,at

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timestheperformanceoftheHoDwouldbeexcellent,yet theperformanceofhis/herdepartmentwouldbepoor.

ThePSCdelegationrespondedtoalltheissuesraisedabove.ThefollowingisasummaryofthePSC’sresponse.

MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Hon. G. Kegakilwe

Listening attentively: Commissioner P. Helepi

RESPONSE BY THE PSC TO CONCERNS RAISED

RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE PARTICIPANTS

In response to a concern raised by Mr B.Tshwene, MECfor Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and RuralDevelopment,CommissionerMalahlelaexplained that it is astandard practice by the PSC that for every project that itundertakes, of which M&E assessments are part, a letterintroducingsuchaprojectandexplainingthepurposeoftheprojectwouldbewrittentotheMECandcopiedtotheHoD.Withspecific reference to theM&Eassessments,before thePSC commences with the assessments, presentations arealwaysmade to theHoDandhis seniormanagers,whereathoroughexplanationisgivenonhowtheframeworkworks.

Furthermore, HoDs would be requested to make availableseniormanagersduringtheactualassessments,somethingthatunfortunately does not always happen.The Commissioner

also explained that for the first time during the 2009/2010evaluations, the PSC took this approach further by makingpresentations on the findings and recommendations con-tained in the departmental reports and also how theframeworkworkstoallindividualEAs,includingthePremier.

In response to the concern raised that the PSC’s M&Eframework is more compliance driven than results driven,theDDG:M&E,MrI.A.Naidoo,explainedthatcompliance iscriticalintheresultschainandthatresultscannotbeachievedwithoutcompliance.

The recommendations made by the participants followhereunder.

ThemainrecommendationwasthatthePSCshouldconsidermethodologiesusedbyother institutions.Thegeneral feelingwasthatthePSCshouldnotrelyonsecondarysources,butshouldalsogatherdatafromservicedeliverysitestoensurethatthefindingsreflectreality.

Additional recommendations were the following:

• Inorder toheightencooperation fromdepartments, it is critical that thePSCputsmoreeffort intoeducatingand ensuringthatthereiscommonunderstandingofhowthe M&Eframeworkworks,amongstallrelevantroleplayers.• Departments need to self-evaluate themselves and the PSCneedstoconductanevaluationofthedepartmental self-evaluation(meta-evaluation).• Thedefinitionofdevelopmentalismshouldbebroadened andacommonunderstandingonthisneedstobefostered.• PerformanceManagement in the public sector needs to betightened.Inthisregard,moretimeshouldbeallocated forassessmentofpublicofficials.• The reportmust also indicate the impactof Information andCommunicationTechnologyonservicedelivery.

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In general, participants considered the roundtable a worth-whileexercise.ThePSC’scontributionandeffortinevaluatingallNorthWestDepartmentsandcompilingtheConsolidatedProvincial M&E report was acknowledged. Notwithstandingthe critical comments raised about the report during thediscussions,itwasrecognisedthatitwasthefirstconsolidated

CONCLUSION

WAY FORWARD

reportofthisnatureproducedbythePSC.

Commissioner P. Helepi concluded by summarising the keyissuesraisedduringthediscussionandthankedallparticipantsforthefruitfulandenlighteningroundtableengagements.

Inhisclosingremarks,theProvincialSpeaker,MrN.Maloyisaidthat issues raisedduring thediscussionwill indeedassist thelegislature inplanning itswork.Henotedthat,basedononeoftheirkeyresponsibilitiesofoversightovertheExecutiveandotherorgansofstate,theoutcomeofthediscussionsindicatethatmore needs to be done by the legislature to hold theExecutiveaccountable.

Hismainconcernwasthat,whilstthediscussionshavepointedoutclearlythatvariousMECstogetherwiththeirHODshaveengaged collectively and individually with the PSC findings,recommendations,whichwouldotherwiseassistdepartmentsimproveontheiroverallperformance,werenotimplementedby someof the departments.He further indicated that thisstateofaffairscannotbeacceptedasitimpactsnegativelyonservicedeliveryissues.

As a way forward, the Provincial Speaker proposed that:

• MECs must ensure that HODs respond adequately to the issues raised in the PSC report, implement the recommendations, and provide progress reports to the PSC;• The legislaturewill continue to play its oversight role of ensuring compliance by departments based on what transpiredduringthedeliberationsandinthereportitself;• As part of its oversight responsibility, the legislature will conducton-site inspectionsbasedon responsesgivenby the departments in the report and ensure that EAs are heldaccountable;and• Thefindingsofthereportwillbedebatedfurther inthe legislature and a decision will be made thereafter on whethertoadoptitornot.

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