Chair, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation performs, or is supposed to perform, a management function. Management consists of four elements which run in sequence. They are planning, leading, organising and control. All four elements are vital for good management. If only one of them is missing, poor management results.
Good management therefore starts with a good plan. An excellent example of a good plan is the National Development Plan, the NDP, recently publicised by the National Planning Commission, NPC. Although the DA has some reservations about certain recommendations contained therein, it nevertheless forms a perfect backdrop for the future growth that is so desperately required in South Africa in order to redress the injustices of the past and to achieve reconciliation for the entirety of our diverse population.
Unfortunately, in South Africa we have become accustomed to some excellent plans by government, only for these to be followed by a lack of leadership, poor organising and poor control. The result is management at standards way below acceptable norms. [Interjections.]
The element of control is of particular importance. This is a function to be exercised by the directors-general of the departments but, as a result of the government's policy of jobs for pals, the control function is often neglected, resulting in failed management. No wonder, then, that the President saw fit to create the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, at great expense, to start performing a function which should ordinarily have been performed by the director-general, together with the relevant Minister.
The Standing Committee on Appropriations has been tasked with performing the function of a portfolio committee for the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation. This in itself is a misnomer, as it is imperative that there should be a portfolio committee for the whole of the Presidency, inclusive of this department and the National Youth Development Agency, about which my colleague the hon Dion George will have something more to say.
To date, the Standing Committee on Appropriations has not received copies of any reports on performance management and evaluation conducted in state and/or provincial departments by the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, and it is unclear whether any such reports will be made available to the committee in future, or only to Cabinet. Oversight by the committee is therefore impossible.
From what the Appropriations committee could ascertain, the department has, in any case, finalised only one evaluation report on early childhood development since its inception more than two years ago, in January 2010. I was pleased to hear, Mr Minister, that more reports will be forthcoming.
No work is done by the department at municipalities, and I am pleased that the Minister also mentioned that this will receive attention. This is where most of the service delivery functions take place and where control by way of performance monitoring and evaluation is more important than anywhere else.
The department proposes a budget of R174 million for the 2012-13 financial year, increasing to R204,4 million in the 2014-15 financial year. The major portion of expenditure envisaged by the department goes towards the compensation of employees. The department currently employs 130 employees and more than 53% of expenditure will go towards the compensation of employees.
The position will worsen as the department envisages the employment of 170 staff members in 2013-14, later increasing to 190. [Interjections.] To hide the ever-increasing salary bill, the department has started using the services of consultants more and more. This is an even worse scenario.
Een van die probleme wat hierdie departement in die gesig staar, is dat baie van die werk wat hulle doen, eintlik mag lei tot die oorvleueling van werk wat reeds deur ander instansies soos die Ouditeur-generaal, interne ouditkomitees, die Staatsdienskommissie en die Nasionale Tesourie gedoen word. Die funksies van die departement in hierdie verband moet dus duidelik omskryf word.
Die departement het geen magte om op te tree teen departemente of provinsies wat nie na behore presteer nie. Wetgewing om die departement die nodige tande te gee, sal eers in 2015 deur die departement ter tafel gel word. [Gelag.] Wat hul verslae intussen veronderstel is om te bereik, bly onduidelik. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[One of the problems facing this department is that much of the work they do may lead to the overlapping of work that is already being done by other bodies such as the Auditor-General, internal audit committees, the Public Service Commission and the National Treasury. The functions of the department in this regard should therefore be clearly defined.
The department does not have the power to act against other departments or provinces that are not performing properly. Legislation to give this department the necessary teeth will only be tabled by the department in 2015. [Laughter.] What their reports are supposed to achieve in the meantime remains unclear.] Maybe the department should start its work in its own backyard, by monitoring and evaluating its own handling of the NYDA, which reports to the same Minister, especially as far as it relates to the organising of the exorbitantly expensive international youth festival.
The department has, generally, not produced any reports in the public domain in which poor performance and management by national departments and provinces is encountered, or in which corruption has been unearthed by them, or in which poor service delivery by civil servants is the order of the day. They have also not come up with recommendations on how they propose to deal with problems of this nature. Yet, in its strategic and annual performance plans, the department states that it will make progress visible to the public. The absence of such reports and recommendations threatens the very existence of the department, and making a budget available to the department becomes questionable.
The Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation states that measuring results achieved by national departments and provinces will work as a catalyst for change in government. Indeed, the introduction of results measurement, if introduced as a measure of control, could go a long way towards drastically improving service delivery, but then only if action plans are instituted and controlled to rectify what is wrong. Results measurement will also prove that excellent results are achieved where the DA governs. The Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation is a relatively new department, and it will have to pull out all the stops to prove that its existence is justified and that the department was not formed with the intent of merely giving a loyal supporter of the President a ministerial position. I thank you. [Applause.] [Interjections.]