Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon members, the Presidency has to be commended for introducing, for the first time in South Africa's history, a Ministry that is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of government departments, both horizontally across the spheres of government and vertically between these spheres.
Besides the budget process, I wish to focus primarily on Programme 4: Public Sector Administration Oversight, and in particular on the new initiative of citizen-based monitoring of services that is to be driven by the department and informed by the Constitution, an initiative that gives true meaning and substance to the principle of "the people shall govern".
The Constitution states that "The Republic of South Africa is one, sovereign, democratic state", established on a number of values. The Bill of Rights guarantees the citizens certain rights and the Constitution recognises a common South African citizenship, which is entitled to those rights. Besides these various rights aimed at developing a common citizenship, the Bill of Rights provides for socioeconomic rights of citizens such as housing, water, sufficient food, social security and health care. The Constitution states further that the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights.
Chapter 2 places responsibility on the state to respect, protect, promote and fulfil its obligations in terms of the rights of all South Africans in a democratic state.
A system of democratic government, which is accountable, responsive and open, attests to the importance placed by the Constitution on government's and legislatures' obligations to interact with the citizenry by creating a framework that promotes interaction and social partnership. Section 1(c) makes provision for the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law, and section 2 further stipulates that the Constitution is the supreme law of the Republic, and that "law or conduct inconsistent with it is invalid, and the obligations imposed by it must be fulfilled". It is to be noted that in these provisions, the principals of good governance is promoted and protected, which will become a core function of the department.
The Constitution, while establishing the rights of the citizen, also expects the citizen in return to be subject to the duties and responsibilities of citizenship; in effect creating a partnership between the state and the citizen. The democratic partnership is further concretised in the preamble to the Constitution which states, amongst other things, that the people of South Africa, through their freely elected representatives, adopt the Constitution to establish a society based on democratic values in which the government is based on the will of the people.
South Africa's constitutional framework establishes a complex network of institutions that are independent of one another, but through their functioning are interrelated. The constitutional obligation on each ensures that the relevant checks and balances are put in place to safeguard democracy and promote the principles of transparent, accountable government which is informed by and accountable to the citizenry. The department's efforts to introduce, for the first time, in my opinion, the citizen into government are applauded.
Chapter 10 of the Constitution deals with public administration, setting out in section 195 the basic values and principles governing public administration. These values and principles are re-enforced through the provision that "Public administration must be governed by the democratic values and principles enshrined in the Constitution", that "Public administration must be accountable" and that the public is to be encouraged to participate in policy-making.
The Constitutional Court, in its ruling pertaining to the right of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill, tested its constitutionality in respect of public-participation processes. It stated that the legislature has as much of an obligation to facilitate public involvement in the legislative process as it does to educate the citizens on their rights and how these rights can and should be applied in democratic processes and structures.
In delivering its ruling in favour of the applicant, the court, on behalf of the citizen, recognised that the citizen, through the processes of the legislatures, was entitled to be empowered to participate effectively. The court noted that the legislature has an equal responsibility to educate the citizen on his or her rights and how these are to be effectively applied, as well as consulting the citizen on matters of policy. One can, therefore, deduce from the above that public participation in the functioning of the executive and the Public Service, while carrying out their mandate, would be subject to the principles contained in the judgment. Therefore the department is going to have to expend a huge effort on educating the public through its envisaged role within the department's programmes.
Constitutional and policy prescripts pertaining to public participation and the expected role the citizen is to play in informing the state's developmental role lays a foundation for a working partnership. This partnership has introduced to the civil service a politico-administrative style of governing the provisions of services. The framework has been defined in which the new civil service is required to operate. Focus has shifted to the task at hand to deliver on the expectations of the citizens, based on sound policies and principles of good governance. Public managers have the responsibility of translating these policies into action plans and strategies to achieve policy goals - and the department has the responsibility to oversee this.
This means essentially taking responsibility for implementation, a factor which, to a certain extent, has been lacking. The capacity of government to facilitate and stimulate co-operation amongst and between role-players within the social partnership has not been applied adequately to date. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including available resources, structural frameworks, and defined roles and functions between state and citizen. The department will be required to find solutions to these challenges when rolling out its citizen-based monitoring programme.
In order to simplify a complex and technical process, a budget is the aligning of figures to policy within a legislative framework. It is this framework that specifies the process and procedures of how the budget is to be passed and allocated. Various mechanisms are legislated regarding how they are to be allocated and ultimately accounted for.
It is our responsibility as the portfolio and standing committees to be able to ensure that the department's budget does not become a budget that is incrementally increased based on percentages, but one that is crafted in a manner that would fulfil the department's mandate. Therefore, we do not believe that over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period and the outer years, the budget is sufficient to be able to drive the department's mandate.
Chapter 3 of the Constitution, which deals with co-operative government, states that the national, provincial and local spheres are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. It requires these spheres to provide effective, transparent, accountable, and coherent government for the Republic as a whole. It is clear from the intention of these provisions that the drafters of the Constitution envisaged various spheres to work together to achieve the national agenda, whilst recognising the distinct and separate roles of each sphere. The Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation will play a significant role in co-ordinating, evaluating and monitoring the alignment of national and provincial departmental budgets. This will be done with a particular focus on achieving the objective of the 12 priority outcomes of government.
This is a very confusing clock. I thought it was counting down, but it is counting up. [Laughter.]
There are a number of government co-ordinating structures established at a national level that facilitate the alignment of the national Budget to achieve national priorities by all spheres of government. These structures have the ability to influence the allocation of funds broadly in meeting national policy objectives - you see, that is a practical example of how we educate to be able to assist each other. However, their influence is limited in respect of aligning specific allocations to specific objectives pertaining to national policies within a provincial budget, the result of which can transpire in departments established at a national sphere and those established provincially, with concurrent competencies, not utilising the revenue raised nationally to effect policy implementation in an integrated, co-ordinated manner. The net result is that service delivery is compromised, and the state does not extract from the fiscus the optimum utilisation of its resources.
The approval of the National Evaluation Policy Framework by Cabinet in November 2011 and the soon-to-be-introduced results Bill by the department will significantly assist the department in achieving its envisaged mandate, ensuring that the state and its spheres work in closer collaboration with each other.
Through interaction with the citizen, public representatives are able to accumulate first-hand knowledge and information pertaining to the roles of the various stakeholders at grass-roots level and apply this knowledge in conducting oversight. Public representatives are obliged to ensure that the department's budget progressively achieves the provisions contained in the strategic plan and annual performance plans of the department.
The executive and, in particular, the Office of the Presidency, is to be applauded in that, through the establishment of this department, they will have the tools at hand to monitor and evaluate, on a scientific basis, the impact of government policy on service delivery - due to the oversight role the department will play in partnership with us.
It is quite unique at the moment that we are tasked with oversight over all departments of government, and now the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation has been given the same mandate. So, somewhere we need to be able to find a manner in which we can partner ourselves to be able to achieve what we, as the ANC-led government, set out to do on behalf of government and on behalf of all citizens of the country.
Public Service managers have, to date, been preoccupied with the analysis and implementation of policy in terms of its impact on institutional functioning. This has resulted in the structured implementation of policy in terms of service delivery being placed somewhat on the backburner. Managers have not been driving the social transformation aspects of policy in a sustained and measurable manner, nor has there been any concerted effort to take on board departmental staff in this process. Managers have a responsibility to conscientise internal stakeholders of their envisaged roles in developing and implementing departmental frameworks in consultation with external stakeholders.
The necessary management structures need to be developed that would facilitate the setting of service standards and inform organisational design. It is critical for aspects of good governance and the morale of internal stakeholders that they are informed by and evaluated against performance indicators and deliverables that are crafted in consultation with them and informed by the service delivery needs of the citizen. The co- ordination of these aspects will need to be done by the department and it will not be easy.
The department's evaluation of outcomes and its advisory role to improve other departmental outcomes, linked to structural re-engineering of themselves in implementing improvement plans, will have a positive effect on the functioning of departments. The department, in analysing government departments' Annual Performance Plans, APPs, prior to their submission to Parliament, will greatly assist in aligning priorities and strengthening our partnership in oversight.
Citizens have not been educated to any great depth as to their expected roles nor ...