By Moshoeshoe Monare
Bureaucracy "strongly" frustrates most senior government managers, pushing them to the brink of leaving the public service.
On the other hand, clashes between directors-general and ministers are also impeding service delivery.
This is according to a self-assessment report on the review of senior management service compiled by the department of public service and administration.
| 'Lack of time for managers to attend programmes' |
The report also describes meetings and travel as bogging down the performance of senior government managers, who are otherwise described as patriotic.
"Senior managers cite ad hoc meetings and unscheduled travel as second only to staff and other resource shortages as the key impediments to their achievement of performance targets," the report says.
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It paints a stressful picture for the industrious managers.
"A major issue is the lack of time for managers to attend programmes and therefore the training should be structured to accommodate the high workloads. The capacity of departments is coming under ever increasing strain as the workload increases from year to year.
"Vacancy levels across all ranks are unacceptably high, and are rising over time."
| 'This is not conducive to stability or sound service' |
Directors-general are specifically frustrated by frictional relations with ministers or political executives.
"The relationship between the political and administrative heads of department is fraught with ambiguity, and subject to divergent interpretations as it is governed by different pieces of legislation.
"There appears to be no clear mechanism for intervening in disputes between them due to the varied interpretations of their powers and accountabilities at national and provincial levels."
Home Affairs is one department where the clash between the ministers and directors-general had led to a relationship breakdown, thus affecting smooth administration.
Jeff Maqetuka is the latest Home Affairs director-general to leave, after Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula asked that the department be placed under curatorship following "chronic" bad bookkeeping and unabated corruption.
Almost half of senior managers, according to the report, had not been in their posts for more than two years - an indication of an unstable public service.
"The 47 percent of incumbents with less than two years in the current post is cause for concern, as it means that nearly half of senior management posts became vacant during the past two years. This is not conducive to stability or sound service," the report says.
The report recommends a policy "to force departments not to appoint a (senior manager) who has been less than three years in a post".
However, the report points out that the recruitment process "takes an excessively long time, to the detriment of the departments."
"In many cases, the preferred candidate is no longer available for the post by the time an offer is made."
Following an outcry over the increasing number of senior civil servants and politicians leaving the government for private sector positions in the same or similar field, the report calls for a cooling-off period - a contentious issue that the government had tried to evade for years.
"A cooling-off period must be closely linked to the disclosure framework and must be enforced to prevent people from positioning themselves," the report says.
Senior managers are chastised for not implementing relevant laws relating to conflict of interest and ethical conduct.
"Non-compliance with the disclosure framework in a particular department and a lack of follow-up on disciplinary measures in this regard must be seen as a finding on the performance of the head of department.
"Prolonged suspensions, lack of closure to cases of misconduct and lack of disciplinary action of (senior managers) must be seen as a finding on the performance of the supervisor."
The review, which was done in June, was based on primary data collection in the form of interviews with 248 senior managers, focus groups "with selected middle managers in all participating departments, and key informant interviews with eight private recruitment agencies".
Ministry of Public Service and Administration spokesperson Clayson Monyela said on Sunday that because the report still had to go to the cabinet, "we are therefore unable to comment".
- This article was originally published on page 3 of The Star on November 13, 2006
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