Thank you, Chairperson. Ministers and Deputy Ministers, and Members of Parliament, the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration undertook an oversight visit to the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, Palama, and the State Information Technology Agency, Sita, on 3 to 4 August 2010. The purpose of the oversight visit was to observe the operations of Sita and Palama practically, and to receive a response to outstanding matters raised in the committee's previous engagements. The committee intended to get a sense of the operations of these entities and see how they conducted their business of delivering services to government departments.
I must indicate that this happened immediately after the committee undertook a study tour to Ghana and Indonesia and interacted with some institutions that are like Palama. The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Gimpa, operates the same way as Palama. The committee realised that in Ghana most of the work that Gimpa was doing was taken from Palama. We therefore realised that Palama had realigned its objectives and started to gear itself to the correct direction.
Palama has the following objectives. Firstly, there is operating as a government training institution to provide capacity building interventions aimed at developing a public service cadre who cares, who belongs, and who serves and delivers in a developmental manner.
Secondly, there is managing and offering training and development opportunities to public servants in the national, provincial and local spheres of government.
Thirdly, there is expanding its reach to support legislatures and Parliament with the design and delivery of training in governance, leadership and management.
Finally, there is designing specific courses, tailor-made to enhance competencies in human resources, monitoring and evaluation, and supply chain and finance management functions across all departments and local authorities.
In this instance we want to report to the House that the visit to Palama's operations convinced us that the institution would be able to deliver on the facilitation of training programmes in the Public Service, given space and time. We know that at this point they are still battling and it is unclear what they want to do.
We are also of the view that the institution can improve and do more than is expected in regard to in-house training, rather than largely outsourcing. We believe that after they have held their indaba, where they will coordinate all the stakeholders in the country in terms of the vision they have created, they will definitely be able to map out a clearer way, which we are all envisaging in the country. On Sita, we are happy to report that it undertook to devise a turnaround strategy in order to address its previously tainted image concerning the way it handled its operations, both financially and operationally.
It was our observation that Sita, too, has ample capacity to deliver on its mandate, again financially and even operationally, since every entity requiring a Sita service in terms of the Sita Act is obliged to pay for such service. It means that all the entities that utilise services of Sita are paying, and therefore it can be self-sustainable. We are of the firm belief that Sita is not fully utilised by all state departments, some opting for Sita competitors instead of using this readily available state resource.
There is a common belief, and it is not wrong, of course, that Sita services are expensive and that Sita is perceived as both a referee and a player, and thus self-regulating.
Of course, there were a lot of witnesses that we were following up as a committee, and we believe that there is quite a lot of progress. We are therefore encouraging state departments to utilise Sita, after they are satisfied, of course, with the results of their turnaround strategy.
The connectivity project that Sita is progressively undertaking at this point at the Thusong service centres appears a progressive move and it's being applauded.
Hon Chairperson, the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration is tabling the Palama and Sita oversight report to this House, and I have outlined the detailed report. I thank you.
There was no debate.