Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, hon members, officials and guests, it is now universally accepted that the most critical aspect and resource for any organisation is its people. The Public Service is no exception to this observation.
It is through the Ministry of Public Service and Administration and its department that the government's human capacity is developed and harnessed to meet the challenges of delivery. The department's aim of leading the modernisation of the Public Service, through a generally applicable framework of norms and standards to improve service delivery, assumes that within itself it possesses superior skills, knowledge and competencies to improve leadership and advise on human resources management to government as a whole.
The debate on this budget today is to ensure that this assumption is a reality and is complemented by equally appropriate financial resources that will allow for the achievement of its noble aim.
Given its broad mandate, this department can generally be seen as being responsible for the human resource management and development arm of government. From a government institutional perspective, it is the responsibility of this department to ensure that the principles governing the Public Service and Administration, as stipulated in the Constitution of the country, are translated into a reality and implemented.
Two of these principles stipulate, firstly, that good human resource management and career development practices to maximise human potential must be cultivated. Secondly, the principles stipulate that public administration must be broadly representative of the South African people. Therefore employment and personnel management practices should be based on ability, objectivity, fairness and the need to redress the imbalances of the past, in order to achieve broad representation.
Additional to these constitutional obligations, is the mandate which derives from the Public Service Act of 1994, as amended, which calls for the development of norms and standards. I will just mention two: firstly, labour relations in the Public Service and, secondly, transformation, reform, innovation and any other to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Public Service and its service delivery to the public.
When assessed historically against the broad constitutional mandate and the Public Service Act, the department has performed relatively well in building a system of human resource management in the Public Service. That is comparable to international best practice. Compared to the period before 1994, change has overwhelmingly taken place in the arena of Public Service administration, and best practice in the management of human resources is to be utilised.
The necessary legislative, legal and regulating framework has been established, and continued to be reviewed on a regular basis to keep up with the changing environment and new challenges.
Some of the human resource management challenges have been identified in the reports of the Public Service Commission and by the Auditor-General, the Ministry itself and us as parliamentarians, arising from our oversight work. The most pressing challenges requiring urgent human resource management interventions include amongst others, firstly, a failure to inculcate and entrench a culture of service and performance based on the values and principles of Batho Pele, which have been adopted by government. They include, secondly, the limited success in effectively utilising the performance management and development system and, thirdly, the weaknesses in the management and implementation of disciplinary processes.
The persistence of the challenges should not, however, blind us to seeing the enormous improvements in human resource management that make our Public Service function and deliver the services we are receiving on a daily basis. From the department's 2009-10 annual report we have noted the following recorded achievements with regard to improving the human resource management and development environment in the Public Service. I will mention two.
Firstly, we have continued with the implementation of the capacity development programme and training of community development workers. Secondly, we have the development of the Integrated Financial Management System and Human Resource Module and the rolling out of the HR Connect system to some departments.
Although we have expressed our concern about the persistence of the challenges as identified above, we are encouraged by the measures that are being proposed in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, plan to address them. In particular, we welcome the priorities that you have identified as critical to addressing the challenges going forward.
These priorities are, firstly, the revision of the Performance Management and Development System in order to strengthen Senior Management Service performance in the Public Service; secondly, efficient management of working time in the Public Service; thirdly, revision of the recruitment processes; fourthly, improvement of gender and disability mainstreaming and ensuring that government representation targets are achieved; and, lastly, increased training and development of public servants.
We believe that speeding up the implementation of these measures will greatly assist in making the Public Service work better and with speed, as was asked for by the President in his state of the nation address. From the perspective of the ANC, a Public Service and Administration that is adequately staffed with personnel that are qualified, skilled, competent and representative, as required by the Constitution, is crucial, not only to achieve the goals of a developmental state, but equally so for nation- building.
In the ANC's view, human resource management and development constitutes one of the critical elements of the technical capacity of a developmental state. Its ability to translate broad objectives into programmes and projects and to ensure the implementation thereof is overwhelmingly dependent on proper training, orientation and leadership in the Public Service, as well as acquiring and retaining skilled personnel in the Public Service.
In our support for government to improve the functioning of the Public Service, we have consistently called for and promoted measures that will make it flexible, operationally integrated on the frontline level, and innovative, and will promote managerial accountability and performance in respect of its human resource management and development systems.
It is on the basis of this that we have advocated the establishment of a single Public Service, so that we can establish a better integrated and harmonised system of resource management and development across all spheres of government. We believe that this ...