Thank you, hon member. [Applause.] Order, hon members. I now call on the hon Minister in the Presidency. Hon Minister. [Interjections.] Order, please! The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY - PERFORMANCE MONITORING, EVALUATION AND ADMINISTRATION IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers and members, I would like to thank members for the support they have shown to this debate and for the issues raised related to the contents of the Green Paper. Members have raised very important points and we take those points as contributions to the process of strengthening what we are trying to do.
We would like to admit that we don't have all the wisdom and knowledge for the work we need to perform and we believe that our strength lies in the multitude of brains and experience which is available in the country as a whole. Therefore, the comments that have been made by the Members of Parliament will make a great contribution to improving both the contents of the paper and the effectiveness of the work which we will perform. I would like to allude to just a few issues that might have not been raised now but were raised before.
Firstly, we have received a lot of comments from interested parties - mostly in writing - which have been very valuable for us to improve the content of the paper and also the work which we must do.
There is a question that has been asked in the past about how we will relate to the audit between ourselves and the Auditor-General. I would like to add the Public Protector because some of the issues the Public Protector will deal with are complaints from the public with regard to the services which we have to deliver.
I would like to announce that we have agreed with the Auditor-General that there will be a quarterly meeting between our office and the Auditor- General. We will look at the issues which arise from the work they do with the various institutions and government. If there are necessary interventions that we need to make, these will be made even before the Auditor-General presents the report.
As I have said, it will include other institutions and the Public Protector. We are here to have a discussion with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts in Parliament and the legislatures, to understand how we are going to interface and how our work is going to enhance the accountability role which Parliament has to play and vice versa.
Other comments which we have received, in terms of the contents of the paper, include that we did not pay specific attention to the international experiences and to the work which is being done by various international organisations with regard to monitoring and evaluation. We have also not paid attention to setting proper benchmarks related to the international experience in order for our work and that of the country also to be benchmarked within the international experience. It is an area we need to strengthen, to ensure that we at least accommodate that view. The other area which has been raised is how we are going to work with the institutions. We have realised that, in the Green Paper, we did not go into detail with regard to how we are going to work with other institutions in the country. We have started discussions with universities to see what role they can play and what expertise we can tap from them as well as what amount of work and service they can do to assist us to undertake our work. We are doing so and consulting in that manner because we believe that the work we must do will be very valuable, not only for the Presidency but for all South Africans.
I understand the comments of the members of both the ruling party and the opposition parties, that all of us are committed to seeing an improvement in government performance. We all want to ensure that the priorities and services are delivered and all of us as members agreed that, together, we are going to strengthen those areas that need to be delivered.
I know that as time goes on, however, there will be a disagreement, particularly on one area of how we interpret accountability and especially with regard to various people who are supposed to execute other responsibilities. I hope that even in that area, all of us will be united, to see the improvement of the work we are supposed to do as government and to deliver a better service and quality of service to the communities that we serve.
An issue has been raised about whether we should not start in the Western Cape. I would like to warn against using the institution of performance and management, whether to settle political scores or to make a political point. It is very important for us to be aware that we have taken much care, from the beginning, to ensure that the work we do is aimed at improving the performance of government everywhere.
I can confirm that we had a number of discussions with various politicians in the Western Cape, including the premier, with regard to this work, both multilaterally and bilaterally. We have not seen any hostility with regard to the work we must do. I would like to confirm that at least for now, until we start to work, we should not judge people by where they stand but by what is supposed to happen.
There is an issue that has been raised with regard to the extent to which we want to provide information which will be available. We have said at the beginning when we have started that the work which we do is not underground, but open. Our performance targets are the ones which will be public, the ones which will be agreed to and which are supposed to be dealt with.
One member said that we should not set unrealistic targets. It is not our intention to set unrealistic targets. We think we will set targets jointly with the stakeholders who will be involved so that all of us commit ourselves to deliver a better service to our people.
A warning sign has been given with regard to what is called a delivery unit. The Green Paper is very clear and deliberate that a delivery unit is an intervention strategy for those who need assistance with regard to several areas where they need additional capacity, in order to deliver the type of service or to resolve a particular problem which might arise. We have said, even in the paper, it will be done in partnership and agreement.
Those who are involved in the line function and those spheres of government that will be responsible for their function, must understand that we are just providing support to ensure that a particular service is delivered properly or that a particular problem is resolved. It is not for us to take over the responsibility to deal with those issues.
One of the issues that have been raised relates to our approach to the hotline. We have said in the Green Paper that we are not a line function department and where problems arise we are not going to take over those functions. Our responsibility is to make sure that things are being done properly and efficiently and as fast as expected by the communities. Therefore, if issues are raised within the context of the hotline or within the context of any mechanism or any medium which will be used to interact with society, it is the responsibility of those departments or institutions which have to perform those functions.
That is why we have established a forum for ourselves and the various departments and the provinces. We will then be able to check and get people to follow up, to ensure that those things are attended to and responses are provided to the society out there.
We are currently busy with discussions with the parastatals and state-owned institutions. Sometimes it will probably help us to deal with some of the questions which you have raised such as how people will get bonuses, on the one hand, when the state institution is losing money on the other. Hopefully, we will be able to address those types of issues or find solutions which we believe will be beneficial not only to government, but also to society in general.
Finally, I would like to thank members for their contributions and would like to welcome those who have inputs in writing to bring them to us so that we can incorporate them into our work, as we finalise the work. We believe that we will continue to improve the mechanisms we are putting in place. It is not the final bite. We will continue to improve as we get experience and more information on how we need to conduct our work. I thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.