Dear Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, I am currently employed with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture NC Legal Services. Much talk has been made about consequence management lately. It must be noted that in order to complete investigations and proceed with disciplinary hearings managers require a dedicated person to conduct the investigations and prepare the charges. It has been entrenched practice to use Labour Relations Officers but this I disagree with as they are employees tasked managing employee relations within a department. Ensuring discipline is out of the scope of work as the Resolution 1 of 2003 in the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) makes it clear that discipline is a management function this includes from the rank of assistant directors upwards. It would be appreciated if the roles can be clearly defined and for necessary budget be appropriated preferably from existing budget to allow for proper training and initiating disciplinary hearings within Departments. I propose 1% from each programme within a Department or within Government.This would allow for proper implementation and consistent application of discipline within the Public Service.
I hope this will receive attention. Please note further that discipline is a corrective measure not a punitive one and should never ever be used to target particular employees or to deal with people. This will enable consistent application of discipline and consequence management.
Please note further that a disciplinary hearing must not imitate nor replace court proceedings but I have observed that this is not consistently applied.

In conclusion to have effective consequence management it must be properly planned, budgeted for and consistently applied without fear favour or prejudice. I try to do this every day despite the constant obstacles.