Clamp down on poor service delivery

Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System
Date: 16 Mar 2011
Title: Clamp down on poor service delivery
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By Bathandwa Mbola

Pietermaritzburg - When government said they were serious about rooting
out non-delivery from its departments, they meant business.

Just before lunch time at Northdale hospital on Wednesday, staff was not
expecting any visitors when the Deputy Minister of Performance
Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency Dina Pule, Premier Zweli
Mkize and Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo walked in for a surprise
inspection.

They were greeted by despondent patients, some of whom were waiting in
queues since 5am. Complaints varied from long queues at the pharmacy and
staff shortages.

One of the patients, Ayesha Mohammed, said she had arrived at the
hospital soon after 6am but was still waiting for attention two hours
later.

"Many of us arrive at the break of dawn, just to make sure that we get
seats because we know the wait will be a long one -- and we might have
to come back again tomorrow," she said.

Pule, who could be seen talking to patients, asking them about their
experience at the hospital, said the reason for the surprise visit was
to see how patients were being treated in government hospitals, and to
see first-hand the challenges facing staff.

She was in Pietermaritzburg to outline her department's expectations and
its plans to filter down monitoring and evaluation at provincial level.

The Pietermaritzburg visit was the second of its kind. Pule visited
Mpumalanga last week and similar meetings are planned with the
governments of the Free State, Eastern Cape and Gauteng.

Pule, is one of three ministers in President Jacob Zuma's office --
including Collins Chabane and Trevor Manuel -- tasked with ensuring that
government's promises to the people are fulfilled.

During the visit, she was pleased with the cleanness of the hospital.
However, she said the problem of long queues, drug unavailability and
staff shortages was not on, vowing to take up the matter with the
relevant departments.

Many such visits to other departments across the country would be
undertaken, she said.

Hospital matron Jessica Webster said she was happy the MEC could see the
challenges the hospital faced.

"I'm glad the people from the national government came. We are under a
lot of stress because of a staff shortage. There are not enough
facilities and we need equipment. They listened to us and said she
[Pule] would take the matter up with the provincial and national health
managers," said Webster.

Mkhize said they wanted to change the mindset of all public servants so
that they can be accountable.

"We need public servants who are dedicated and capable, and who care for
the needs of citizens," he said.

Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal government will soon undergo performance
management appraisals.

As part of the project, the provincial government has provided the
Presidency with a programme of all planned developmental projects, which
will cover key priorities of government.

MECs will also provide quarterly reports on the work they are doing,
what issues they face whilst working and plans on how they intend
resolving those issues.

Pule says this system will help to give early warning signs when things
are not going right.

Plans also include monitoring special projects that provinces already
have in place, such as the Nerve Centre. The provincial Nerve Centre
provides an automated and integrated information management system,
complete with reporting and analytics, dashboards and geographic
information system (GIS) mapping to monitor and evaluate government's
key performance indicators and to promote transparency and anti-corruption.

All components and services are managed from a single point at the Nerve
Centre, reducing the administrative effort for maintenance of
applications, users and security.

It also monitors the province's performance on projects that are
currently under way and groups them by region and time frames.

Pule was impressed by the Nerve Centre strategy, saying her ministry
will assess its impact and how it could be rolled out to other provinces.

She said programmes like these enhance focus on the delivery of
government services, as well as strengthen
government-to-citizen/employee/business organisations and
government-to-government relationships.

Pule's visit was in line with President Jacob Zuma's promise in his
State of the Nation Address, where he indicated that ministers would be
going to the provinces to outline the details of what needed to be done
in the identified priority areas.

Government had devised a model that would ensure all levels of
government are held accountable.

"We are confident that this endeavour will help government reward good
performance and detect bad performance as early as possible to ensure
that corrective measures are implemented," said Pule.

Although the ruling party outlined creation of decent work and
sustainable livelihoods, education, health, rural development, food
security and land reform and the fight against crime and corruption as
their top priorities, Zuma has promised to speed up service delivery.

Pule, who was worried about the recent public protests over the lack of
delivery of essential services, hoped her ministry would help resolve this.

There have often been protests in the country over the perceived slow
pace of delivery of basic municipal services such as water, electricity
and housing.

"The performance evaluation system will oversee the quality of work done
and the impact of service delivery ...That way, there is an efficient
unit that will monitor progress of projects and ensure that the
integrated flagship projects and interdepartmental collaboration is
continuously tracked to yield the desired outcomes."

Mkhize was optimistic, saying this will be part of the strategy to
ensure service delivery and accountability, and serve as a bridging gap
between strategic provincial objectives and the execution thereof.

The system will help to link objectives to tangible outcomes in terms of
information on key performance indicators and programme outputs across
departments and local government institutions, he said, adding that it
will support fact-based decisions needed to deliver better, more
proactive services to the public. - BuaNews