National School of Government, Public Service Commission, Centre for Public Service Innovation, DPSA Annual Performance Plan

Meeting report

National School of Government Annual Performance Plan 2017/18
Prof Richard Levin, National School of Government (NSG) Principal informed the Committee that the presentation of the Annual Performance Plan (APP) for 2017/18 was against the backdrop of improved organizational performance the previous year. He said that the NSG welcomed and had met with the new Minister and Deputy Minister  and these engagements had provided the NSG with strategic direction for this financial year and beyond.

In an overview of its strategy, he stated that the NSG contributed to Outcome 12 (an efficient, effective and development-oriented public service) through three projects which were: developing and rolling out an executive coaching programme; developing and implementing identified in-service development programmes; and training of unemployed youths. NSG would place greater emphasis on the rollout of the Compulsory Induction Programme (CIP) across all salary levels in the public service and work has already commenced with the induction for senior managers (CIP 13-14 targeting Directors and Chief Directors; and Executive Induction Programme targeting Deputy DGs and DGs). The NSG contributed to the implementation of the Rutanang Ma Afrika campaign aimed at utilization of former and current serving public servants as training facilitators. NSG would intensify their international strategic partnership and networks and will create thought leadership between the public and private sectors.

Key priorities included building a value proposition for a directive on compulsory courses in the public service; new initiatives focusing on training for Government Communications; and deepening the turn-on strategy for the NSG and evaluation of NSG training. The NSG programmes were identified:

Programme 1: Administration
The performance target for this programme included an unqualified or clean audit report issued by the Auditor General; average of 60 days for debt collection; all suppliers paid within 30 days of receipt of valid invoice; maintain a vacancy rate of 10% or less by end of the financial year; facilitate three agreements supporting international exchanges and capacity building initiatives etc.

Programme 2: Public Sector Organization and Staff Development
This programme would facilitate the transfer payments to the Training Trading Account (TTA) for the training and development of public sector employees. The Programme comprised of sub-programmes such as training management and delivery, training policy and planning and specialized services. The strategic objective of this programme was to implement effective research to inform training and development needs and opportunities within the public sector; implement effective monitoring of the quality of training and development interventions and the evaluations of effectiveness of interventions; develop accredited and non-accredited curriculum responding to public service training and development needs and develop and offer technology mediated learning.

Performance targets included: complete 5 research projects to inform training needs and opportunities; undertake 8 training needs analysis with public sector institutions; maintain the status of the NSG as an accredited training provider by the relevant accrediting bodies; offer 22 e-learning interventions by the end of the financial year.

He highlighted the School’s training targets for 2017/18-2019/20 for the compulsory induction programme, breaking barriers to entry programme, administration, management and leadership. On training delivery, NSG would shift from being solely a facilitator of training to a mixed model of provider and facilitator of training. To achieve this, NSG has partnerships with four higher education institutions (University of the Free State, Tshwane University of Technology, University of Fort Hare and University of Western Cape) for the delivery of the emerging/advanced management development programme. NSG had contracted 162 individual independent contractors for the rollout of NSG courses and programmes.

The total allocation for administration, public sector and organizational and staff development R160.5 million for 2017/18 and R173.3 million for 2018/19 which covered compensation for employees, goods and services, transfer and subsidies and payment for capital assets.

The forecast budget for the MTEF trade account which included training related revenue, interest and other income, transfers received, reserve funds, total revenues, compensations for employees, goods and services and total expenses for 2017/18 was R225.8m and R237.95m for 2018/19.

On human resources, he noted that NSG had a total of 227 posts on the approved establishment for Programmes 1 and 2 with a vacancy rate of 7.5% as at March 31, 2017. On employment equity, 60.9% of the posts were occupied by females and 49% of females were senior management staff.

On corporate governance, NSG would continue to improve on corporate governance and would ensure in 2017/18 that all oversight meetings were convened to ensure operational efficiency; the strategic risk assessment would be assessed continually; and all performance agreements signed within the required timeline and financial disclosure forms submitted in time.

In conclusion, Prof Levin stated that NSG in terms of legal mandate remained the focal institution for capacity development in the public service and would remain committed to the mandate and fulfilling the ideals of the Constitution and the National Development Plan (NDP).

Discussion
Ms R Lesoma (ANC) asked if National Treasury’s approval of the sum of R5 million would affect its service delivery. She said that despite the importance of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department and SALGA, would NSG be perceived as having the capacity to carry out its function in the absence of an MOU? She asked if the European Union funding is still available to it and clarification on the nature of the studies presented by it.

Ms D Van Der Watt (DA) asked for clarification on the outcome of the skills acquired but were not applied in the workplace. She asked if it was on track with the backlog of the compulsory induction programme.

The Chairperson asked Prof Levin if he can assist in confirming if Treasury’s APP standards are constraining NSG because there were issues raised constantly that were absent in the annual performance plan and she wondered about the essence of annual funding if these issues were absent in the annual performance plan. She said that issues like funding of the NSG would help in tracking the performance of the NSG to avoid repeating the same programme. She requested clarification on what NSG would achieve with the approved R5 million budget for sales.

She suggested that there must be focus on graduates that intend to work in the Public Service and getting them exposed to the required compliance and regulatory matters early because it has been noted that these graduates when  employed, they lack the requisite knowledge on compliance. She stated the importance of general orientation of new employees of the public sector.

Ms Z Jongbloed (DA) asked if it is possible for the Committee to get a copy of the MOU executed between NSG and SALGA because she recalled that the MOU was initially executed for senior managers but customer service is not merely for senior management.

Prof Levin replied that compliance and developmental programmes are very important and he agreed that their basics must be mastered by all employees.

Prof Levin said that they face a lot of constraints from National Treasury and Department of Public Service and Administration because NSG runs a trading account and is seen as a business entity. Due to this, there are many programmes, systems and organizational structures imposed on them which are not necessary. This has only aided in building bureaucracy when it could be streamlined and NSG would avoid spending money on back office which should be spent on front office.

On the R5 million budget for sales, he stated that there must be key account managers that are knowledgeable with the business and the challenges faced in public service delivery in the various provinces. However, it had been impossible to remunerate these key officers that are qualified to assume the role with the R5 million budget. To an extent, the money is more of a burden to the department than a help.

He further stated that the huge compliance requirements was a hindrance especially in a delivery department like the NSG and despite the importance of the compliance requirement, it has hindered NSG from achieving their goals.

Buttressing the issue of compliance requirements, the Chairperson said that on one of their oversight visits, they noted the frustration of medical doctors because of these compliance requirements. She stated that the Committee as well as citizens are more concerned with the delivery of services than compliance with legislation and although compliance is a basic requirement, it cannot be a one size fits all and there must be areas where exceptions should be made, considering the level of development of the country.

On the Department’s integration with other African countries, Prof Levin said that the NSG is part of the African Development Institute Network and has recognition within the AU system. It has some programs with some post conflict African countries such as South Sudan, DRC, Rwanda, Burundi. NSG is currently working on partnership with some Francophone countries which has a lot of credibility in the continent and this will help the School make an impact on the continent.

The basic content of the generic programme was very strong and financial management and supply chain management which they offered has been developed in partnership with Treasury.

NSG is currently working on another MOU as they cannot afford to work without an MOU being that they are cost recovery entity. On SALGA, he stated that the MOU was generic in nature and basically for senior management positions since the request was for such positions.

On the training needs analysis, he stated that the EU funding would help in creating an improved assessment centre which will help in a training needs analysis across all sectors. The compliance required from NSG before the EU funding is released to them is absolutely onerous but NSG currently has no other additional source of funding and needs the funding.

On the backlog of payments, NSG still has significant number of debts owed to them by some other department but they have introduced a pre-paid system to enable them manage this with the support of the Office of the Auditor-General.

On the compulsory induction program backlog, he stated that it had not been fully covered but NSG was working hard to ensure that this is done.

The Deputy Minister emphasized the importance of the School which is critical for the government. She stated that it must not be forgotten that the School was established to equip public servants with the skills they require in carrying out their functions. There is still room for development in the progress made so far and the orientation programme for new employees is not adequate. She suggested that there should be mandatory training requirements for all newly employed public servants.

Ms Phindile Mkwanazi, CFO: NSG, said a target of 60 days has been set for recovery of outstanding debts that NSG has. NSG had entered into some agreements with some departments on the timeline and structure of the payment in other to ensure that payments are effected within the timeline. They have employed the assistance of Treasury in recovery of these payments and this has been very helpful in recovery of old debts.

Ms Lesoma said that it is expected that the Annual Performance Plan for the incoming year should highlight the challenges with policies and performance in other to avoid repetition as it seemed that NSG and the Committee are complaining without any results. She suggested that NSG should sit with other departments to determine the challenges and their solutions that would help in service delivery.

In conclusion, the Chairperson proposed that NSG and the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) should come together and prepare a paper on the challenges they face that undermine their efficiency and then present the report to the Committee for presentation to Parliament. She suggested that NSG should provide more details of the proposed training in its APP.

Prof Levin noted that the issues raised have been helpful to NSG and they would collaborate with CPSI and come up with a common report on their challenges, as advised by the Committee.

Public Service Commission Annual Performance Plan 2017/18
Dr Dovhani Mamphiswana, PSC Director General, said the areas of oversight by the PSC covered the organization of the public service, administration of the public service, personnel practices, public administration practices, and adherence to applicable procedures in the public service. The outputs of this oversight function were to advise, recommend, propose measures, give directions and report.

PSC performance against its 2016/17 operational plan targets indicated that 96% of its targets were achieved. Some of the key achievements were preliminary percentage spending on expenditure as at March 31, 2017 was 99.93%, 6 people with disabilities were employed, 22 of the 44 filled posts at SMS level were women, out of the 709 grievances registered on the PSC database, 615 (87%) were concluded and 94 (13%) still pending. Others were a framework and template on constitutional values and principles was produced, pilot assessments on the Departments of Correctional Services, Water and Sanitation, and Economic Development in the North West Province commenced. Inspections of health facilities, police stations and border posts in selected provinces were conducted. On Integrity and Anti-Corruption (IAC) programmes, out of 360 complaints lodged, 302 (84%) were finalized, reports on the investigation and evaluation of the awarding of higher salaries on appointment and counter offers in the national departments of Health and Human Settlements were produced.

The targets in the PSC Annual Performance Plan for 2017/18 included achieving 80% of the programme performance before March 2018, an annual vacancy rate of below 10% maintained monthly, 12 Director General newsletters produced monthly and 4 internal newsletters produced quarterly. On grievance management, its targets were that at least 75% of all grievances received would be concluded within 30 days; six monthly reports on departmental grievance resolution compiled by August 2017 and February 2018; a report on implementation of labour court orders and arbitration awards and implications for labour relations produced by June 2017; a study to determine factors impeding government departments in achieving employment of 2% of people with disabilities and employment of 50% of women in senior management in the public sector, with suggested proposals by December 2017.

The PSC expenditure estimates per economic classification for 2017/18 which included compensation of employees, goods and services, transfer and subsidies, payment for capital assets and payment for financial assets was R245.7m while the 2018/19 was estimated to be R262.8m on expenditure. The allocation for payment of the capital assets in the budget was 0.28%, transfer and subsidies was 0.12%, goods and services was 22.75% while compensation of employees was 76.64%.

He noted that one of the major challenges impacting on the implementation of the APP was operational costs which took up to 97% of the budget leaving only 3% for the outputs on the operational plan. The office accommodation has been noted to impact negatively on the health and the morale of the staff.

Discussion
Mr M Dirks (ANC) noted that the Amendment Bill had lingered for long with little or no progress made. He wondered if the appointment of the new Minister would cause another delay. He suggested that the proposed amendments should first be reviewed outside the meeting and then brought to the Committee for approval. He asked PSC  about the rate of compliance with the directions given by them to the departments and if these departments usually comply with the directions within the 60 days deadline.

Ms Lesoma said that the 3% of the budget that would go into execution of the core mandate of PSC  should be reviewed and that National Treasury should be advised. She noted that it was worrisome that most departments deal with operational costs while their core mandates are ignored. She asked how often were the occurrences of the abuse of awarding of higher salaries on appointment and counter offers in the national departments of Health and Human Settlements.

Ms W Newhoudt-Druchen (ANC) asked PSC  to confirm when the study to determine factors impeding government departments in achieving employment of 2% of people with disabilities would be concluded. She said that some disabled people interviewed for positions in the public service were never employed and gave an instance of a deaf radiotherapist that was not employed because of her disability despite the fact that she is the only deaf radiotherapist in South Africa. Many disabled/deaf teachers are being laid off or their salaries cut without any explanation and this would affect the sign language community in South Africa.

Ms Jongbloed said that considering that over 77% of the Department’s budget would be used for salaries and compensation, the PSC must get innovative in carrying out their core functions as this was not sustainable because, despite any budgetary review, 77% would still be used for salaries and compensation. She asked for clarification on what was wrong with the building that currently housed the Department.

Mr S Motau (DA) asked PSC  if the directions given as part of their oversight functions are binding on the executive authorities and heads of departments and if there were consequences when these directives were ignored by the departments. He asked if under Programme 4 (Integrity and Anti-Corruption), there were certain trends from the complaints lodged with PSC  that can help in preventing these issues.

Ms Jongbloed asked PSC  about the turnaround time for finalizing the complaints and the nature of monitoring that is done to ensure that the outcome of the complaints were implemented.

The Chairperson said that Section 196 of the Constitution that established the PSC vested in it the power to investigate and propose measures within the public service. Her concern was that despite these objectives, their achievement would always be impossible if only 3% of the PSC budget would be used in achieving these goals as the capacity to function was almost non-existent. This issue must be discussed by the Committee as PSC,  which is research driven, cannot achieve anything with 3% of the budget.

In response, Adv Richard Sizani, Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, said that in respect of the employment of 2% of disabled citizen in each department, the PSC was currently carrying out an exercise to create a problem statement that would help carve out a solution to the issue. He stated that PSC would need the input of Ms Newhoudt-Druchen considering her expertise in that regard. On teachers with disability, he said that the PSC would contact Ms Newhoudt-Druchen for further details and undertook that a comprehensive study would be carried out to find a solution.

On 77% of the budget being used for payment of salaries and compensation, he explained that this was because PSC  does not outsource its research but carry it out itself to be able to vouch for the integrity and quality of the reports. Due to this, PSC  has high personnel to carry out these duties. They have been forced to restructure and have retrenched 23 staff when National Treasury cut down the PSC budget thereby putting a ceiling on the number of personnel. PSC  has been forced to cut their budget to bare minimum to ensure that the approved budget was adequately used.

The Chairperson at this point said that she has noted although the Public Protector which has similar objectives to the PSC, its budget increased while the budget of the PSC was reduced.

On the office building of the PSC, Adv Sizani said that since 2011, the Department of Public Works has not been able to provide a building that would house the Department. The building that was built for them was not built according to their specification and has structural issues like bad sewage and looks like a squatter camp. He said that they have reached a situation where they cannot a decent discussion with the Department of Public Works on the provision of adequate accommodation for them.

On the directives of PSC  being binding on heads of departments and other executive heads, he said that the PSC has the option of going to court to enforce the directives or laying a criminal complaint with the Police Service as this was allowed by the Public Service Commission Act.

On the turnaround time for finalizing the complaints and the nature of monitoring that is done to ensure that the outcome of the complaints were implemented, he said that the turnover for the implementation of the outcome of the complaints was about 75% from the feedback they got.

On compliance with the directives given to other departments, he stated that their input is usually personnel-related and dealt with unlawful acts. These directives are usually complied with because no department would want to carry on with acts that are unlawful.

On requests for higher salaries on appointment, Dr Mamphiswana clarified that this issue has been regulated with new regulations by DPSA that came into effect in August 2016 that have stated that all salaries must be within a specific salary band.

Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) Annual Performance Plan 2017/18
Ms Thuli Radebe, CPSI Executive Director, said that the CPSI was a cross-cutting facility of government aimed at entrenching and driving the culture and practice of innovation in the public sector. The mandate of the Centre is achieved through unearthing, encouraging, rewarding, showcasing, piloting and facilitating the replication and mainstreaming of innovation in the public sector. CPSI has reviewed and revised its 2015/16 Strategic Plan and had added annual targets for the five year strategic objectives.

The CPSI had identified the following programmes:

Programme 1: Administration
This programme provides strategic leadership, overall management and had three sub-programmes: strategic management, corporate resource management and office of the Chief Financial Officer. The 2017/18 annual performance targets include quarterly performance reports submitted to the Executive Authority, DPSA, DPME and National Treasury within 30 days from the end of each quarter; annual reports developed and submitted to AGSA for audit, the National Treasury and the Executive Authority for tabling in Parliament within the required time frames; at least two Customer Relationship Management (CRM) policies and/or strategies developed and/or reviewed and implemented annually; quarterly ICT governance framework reports developed and submitted to EXCO for approval.

Programme 2: Public Sector Innovation
The strategic objective of this programme was to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public sector service delivery through research and development, solution support and incubation and enabling environment. The three annual targets for 2017/18 included research and development of potential innovative models and solutions; incubation of innovative solutions for public sector and nurturing of enabling environment for innovation in the public sector. Other targets included investigating at least three service delivery challenges in order to identify possible solutions and finalize two multi-year pilot projects to address delivery challenges.

On the MTEF allocation per programme, she noted that the medium-term expenditure estimate for all the programmes under the 2017/18 budget is R34 million while in 2018/19 it will be R36 million.

Discussion
Ms Newhoudt-Druchen asked CPSI for the number of staff with disabilities.

Ms Lesoma asked if funding of the awards could be mobilized externally instead of CPSI funding them from its budget. She asked if the revenue collected is ploughed back into delivery of service by CPSI.

The Chairperson emphasized the importance of innovation as well as the importance of role played by the CPSI. She said that CPSI was expected to be aggressive in accelerating development in the country. She asked if an audit has been done by CPSI on the impact of the digital revolution on the South African civil service and if there are laws in place or if the laws needed to be reviewed in the face of this digital revolution. On the CPSI budget of R34 million, she expressed her disappointment at the meagre sum approved for CPSI and asked if that sum is adequate to enable CPSI to carry out its functions.

In response, Ms. Thuli Radebe said that the observations made by the Chairperson were right and that the CPSI has noted them and would incorporate them in its functions.

On the of disabled staff in the CPSI, she said that they have about 6% of disabled persons making up the staff considering that the CPSI has only 32 staff including drivers and cleaners.

The Chairperson advised the CPSI to formally communicate the challenges it faces to National Treasury with the help of the Department of Public Service and Administration. She stated that CPSI needed to be adequately funded considering its importance to the economy.

The Deputy Minister agreed with the critical issues raised by the Chairperson and said that there must be a review of implementation of the functions of CPSI as well as upgrade of the skills required in the public service to match the current situation faced by the economy in the face of the ongoing digital revolution. She said that they would review all the issues raised by the Committee and they would be discussed in the next meeting.

The Chairperson asked the Director General of Department of Public Service and Administration if there is a platform or forum in the Public Service Commission where issues/challenges like the ones highlighted by the NSG and CPSI and other entities are discussed. This meeting may be quarterly but would help in discussing and finding solutions for these challenges.

Mr Diphofa replied that in the past, there was a formal structure in the ministry which was called ‘mainport’. He said that they are working on resuscitating the ‘mainport’ with the Minister and Deputy Minister where the Minister and Deputy Minister are expected to interact with the various entities. DPSA had worked with the NSG on case by case basis but that was merely an arrangement with the NSG. The PSC had invited DPSA to their main events with the primary purpose of sharing certain developmental issues with them.

The Chairperson said that it was the duty of the DG to ensure that these meetings and a proper forum for them were institutionalized and that the entities meet when necessary.

Ms Lesoma reiterated that it was the responsibility of the DG to ensure that such meetings are held considering the importance of the meetings.

Mr Mashwahle Diphofa noted that this has been noted but confirmed although the formal structure seemed not to be in place now, DPSA usually meets with all these entities directly but undertook that the ‘mainport’ would be resuscitated.

On various funding ‘cuts’ experienced by the entities, he said that the cutting became necessary because of funding needed by the country for other important issues like ‘Fees Must Fall’.

Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) Annual Performance Plan 2017/18
Mr Mashwahle Diphofa, DPSA Director General, noted that the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan has been revised in line with assessment feedback from National Treasury and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME). The DPSA APP was aligned to the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) and included projects and interventions linked to its mandate and policy priorities. Annual performance was broken down into quarterly targets which would be monitored on quarterly basis to track progress towards the achievement of the annual targets. The DPSA programmes are:

Programme 1: Administration
The purpose of this programme is to provide strategic leadership, management and support services to the department and coordinate the department’s international relations. The targets under this programme include: comply with the submission of the quarterly interim financial statements by 31 July and 31 October, 2017; report progress on the implementation of the internal audit and risk management plans to the audit and risk committees.

Programme 2: Policy, research and analysis
The purpose of this programme would be to manage and oversee the formulation, design and review of policies and policy reform through revised norms and standards. Some of the targets under this programme included consulting on the draft strategic framework for norms and standards which will inform the structure, governance and functioning of the Office of Standards in terms of the Public Administration Management Act (2014); submit final productivity measurement tool to the Minister for approval.

Programme 3: Labour relations and human resources management
The purpose of this programme is to implement and monitor labour relations, human resources management and remuneration. Some of the targets under this programme include: issue a policy framework on the graduate recruitment scheme for the implementation by departments; submit a report on the appointment of 20 000 youths into learnership, internship and artisan programmes within the public service to the Minister.

Programme 4: Government’s chief information officer
The purpose of this programme is to create an environment for the deployment of IT as a strategic tool of public administration. Some of the targets under this programme include: compile quarterly progress reports on implementation of the 5 prioritized e-enabled services; develop Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project implementation standards.

Programme 6: Governance of Public Administration
The purpose of this programme is to manage and oversee the implementation of policies, strategies and programmes on public service integrity, intergovernmental relations and the macro organization of the state, organizational design, senior leadership management and strategic planning. The APP targets include: support 5 departments to strengthen their internal human resources capacity; designate further category of employees to disclose financial interests.

He informed the Committee that the DPSA allocation for 2017/18 was R897 million. The compensation of employees made up 31% of the allocation while goods and services made up 20% of the allocation..

Discussion
Ms Lesoma stated that on the issue of submitting a report on the average percentage of funded vacant posts on PERSAL against the targeted 10% or less to the Minister Of Public Service And Administration (MPSA), she said that the performance of DPSA cannot be measured on this because it was not part of the business plan of the Department.

Ms Jongbloed asked how DPSA intends to achieve the protection of whistle blowers. On the employee housing scheme and the fact that the money is being saved with National Treasury, she asked what happens when an employee who is a beneficiary of the housing scheme resigns. Does DPSA monitor if the money used by the employees is for the purchase of houses.

Ms Newhoudt-Druchen asked DPSA how they ensure that the DPSA staff get all necessary training. She asked how the DPSA assists NSG in ensuring that old employees as well as new employees get all the necessary training. She asked for clarification on the use of the prioritized e-enabled services and if job applications are now completed online or if they still need submission of hard copies of an applicant’s documents.

The Chairperson expressed her disappointment that from the DPSA APP, there was over R70 million allocated to human resources while R34 million was allocated to CPSI despite the importance of innovation to the economy. She was uncomfortable with the proposed Annual Performance Plan considering that entities that have very important roles to play were under budgeted while human resources in DPSA seemed to be heavily budgeted for. She stated that this cannot be approved unless there is a compelling reason furnished by the Director General for its approval. She requested that the Director General provide a further breakdown of the items contained in the budget.

Ms Lesoma insisted that the DG must furnish the Committee with a written breakdown of the budget and said that this can be done by the DG later and not necessarily by the end of the meeting.

In response, Mr Diphofa said that DPSA would furnish the Committee with a written breakdown of the budget as requested although the breakdown was contained in the actual APP submitted. This breakdown would help DPSA in highlighting its shortfalls as well as the challenges they faced.

On whistle blowing, he stated that it was on the 2017 work plan of DPSA and just about being commenced.

He said that in respect of the housing plan for public servants, the money being saved belonged to the employees and would be disbursed to the employees even when they resign. But they would not be able to access the money upon resignation for any purpose other than housing because the reason for the scheme is to ensure home ownership for public servants. Some evidence is required from them when they want to access the funds.

The Chairperson noted that the disbursement of the housing funds to the public servants seemed to have a punitive approach as some of these employees may want to access the funds to build houses in the rural areas and would not be able to get bonds from banks.

Mr Diphofa clarified that there was a non-mortgage arrangement in place that enabled access to the housing funds for building in rural areas.

On the work with the NSG in terms of training, he said that the role of the department have been merely policy intervention. He elaborated that a policy was put in place by the Minister of Public Service and Administration which stated that all public servants must attend compulsory training. DPSA has always supported NSG in any area it need policy support for training but NSG carries out the training itself.

On the e-enabled services, he explained that it was the use of ICT in ensuring that service delivery was modernized and accelerated.

On the online application of jobs, he stated that forms and can be downloaded and completed but there was still need for submission of hard copies of documents such as certificates for the purpose of verification and certification.

He noted that DPSA would submit written responses to the other questions raised by the Committee.

The Chairperson said that the Committee’s request for proper analysis of the Annual Performance Plan did not mean replication of the copy already presented to the Committee but further clarification on the issues raised by the Committee. She informed the Committee to always read the documents prior to presentation.

Ms Lesoma explained that the documents only get to Committee members at the meeting and does not afford them enough time to review the documents before the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.