The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) will leverage ICT as a strategic resource enabler.
During her budget speech this week, acting public service and administration minister, Mildred Oliphant, said in this regard the department has assisted with ensuring there is connectivity in Thusong service centres.
“Out of the 100 ICT connected Thusong service centres across the country, 50 were validated and 38 of these were declared fully functional and have been providing a wide range of key public services to our people. This year, the ministry will strive to make sure that all the remaining Thusong service centres are fully functional in terms of ICT connectivity, as part of the effort to bring government closer to the people.”
Oliphant also said one of the most urgent tasks is to finalise the issue of the location of Thusong centres.
“The DPSA, National Treasury and the Government Communication and Information System have already embarked on an assessment in this regard, and this will be completed during the course of the 2012/13 financial year.”
Still turning
Oliphant said the five ministerial strategic focus areas are to strengthen back-office systems in order to improve service delivery, improve labour relations, improve internal efficiency through the implementation of the State IT Agency (SITA) turnaround strategy, accelerate training and development of a new public service cadre through the repositioning of the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA), and tackle corruption effectively.
These are accompanied by clearly defined projects, with targets, indicators and delivery timelines.
To improve internal efficiency, the department will, among other things, maintain and support the roll-out of the human resource module for the Integrated Financial Management System.
As part of the implementation of the SITA turnaround strategy, the ministry will encourage government to take advantage of available technologies to advance accessibility to government services by citizens.
“SITA plays a critical role in the modernisation of the public service through the implementation of ICT projects and solutions that seek to achieve economies of scale, reduce ICT costs, minimise procurement bottlenecks and generally improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the public service.”
Insufficient capacity
The acting minister highlighted the importance of the National Anti-Corruption Hotline for tackling corruption.
It has, since its inception, resulted in 1 499 public servants being charged with misconduct, 603 of whom were dismissed from the public service. An amount of R120 million was also recovered.
“The ministry, through the Public Service Commission, is now working together with the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation to ensure that departments provide timely feedback on the cases of alleged corruption that have been referred to them through the National Anti-Corruption Hotline.”
Oliphant said allegations of corruption reported to the Anti-Corruption Hotline are referred back to departments to be followed up, but due to insufficient investigative capacity, initial investigations are seldom completed or are unduly protracted.
Self-sustaining
The ministry will also introduce new polices in the public service. These relate, among others, to e-learning in the public service, reasonable accommodation and assistive devices for people with disabilities in the public service, and recognition of prior learning for the public service.
The portfolio's entire budget for the 2012/13 financial year is R731.4 million. The DPSA receives an allocation of R411.4 million; PALAMA receives R123.4 million; The Centre for Public Sector Innovation is allocated R16.036 million; and the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority receives R22.086 million.
The Government Employees Medical Scheme and SITA are self-sustaining and do not require any allocations from the portfolio's budget.
Share