PR glitch highlights EC underspending issue

Dear reader, as you read this, kindly put my ANC membership and government employment aside because my argument is not based on the information I accessed through these institutions but on the information published by the media.

The Daily Dispatch story with the headline “Fire him”, calling on the premier to fire his education MEC Mandla Makupula on the basis of unspent education funds being returned to the National Treasury, surprised me. At issue for me was the lack of critical information in the story.

I have been told the MEC refused to be interviewed for the story. One wonders why this was not put in the story.

If a department fails to spend its budget, the highest office in the province should know about it in advance. Makupula reports to the premier and news of under-expenditure shouldn’t have caught the premier by surprise as the statement from his office projected it.

When the Dispatch saw the statement from the premier’s office saying the premier demanded answers from the MEC, it went for it like a bull charging to a red flag.

In the process of pursuing this and follow-up stories, anchored on the statement from the premier’s office which demanded answers from Makupula, the newspaper allowed its position on the matter to cloud rational consideration of the facts of the story.

The newspaper should have asked why the statement showed a surprised head of provincial administration? What happens to the reports Makupula submits to the premier as per their delivery agreement, cluster reports to the cabinet, treasury budget expenditure reports?

By refusing to be interviewed by the newspaper, Makupula missed an opportunity to present his perspective on this matter, including how he is addressing the challenges facing his department.

I was wittily surprised when director-general Marion Mbina-Mthembu made what could be deemed a flip-flop during a portfolio committee meeting where she said the provincial government voluntarily returned the money to treasury after realising they would not spend it before the end of the financial year.

Her concession presents the administration with a public relations problem as the DG and the statement issued by her office gave conflicting comments on the same issue.

The DG’s comment would suffice were it given to the media first and not the press statement, which projects the provincial administration damagingly.

Bigger challenges start from poor government planning, continuously reflected in bad performance results especially in departments like education and health.

Have you wondered why these two departments, with the lion’s share of the provincial budget, underspend and underperform? Why is it that lack of capacity to use the funds is thrown as the reason why this money was returned?

Government is the biggest buyer of goods and services, including built infrastructure. But many departments of the same government don’t invest in developing the capacity of their service providers to meet their quality and performance standards.

Many private sector businesses master this perfectly by inducting all their suppliers into a supplier development programme to empower them to meet their standards.

While the province has a PR glitch from this, it needs to review its relationship with suppliers by empowering them to deliver quality goods and services, ensure planning and budgeting to stop employees from thumb-sucking figures presented in the budgets.

It is perhaps opportune for the province to review its communications policy to start communicating the entire processes of government work, discussions within government about development and not decisions of government, as it appears to be the case. currently.

Perhaps, the Dispatch was justified in going for the jugular on this matter because its sources within the premier’s office and in the ANC promised them a cabinet reshuffle early this year.

While the premier’s first cabinet reshuffle is as uncertain as a toss of a coin, one must challenge the decision by unidentified sources in these structures to leak only rumours about firing and hiring of MECs as if that is the only thing the public is interested in from government.

The public wants to know cabinet and government discussions on the handling of unviable schools and rationalisation of others, construction of rural roads, food security programmes, job creation and issues of supplier development, among others, and not only decisions taken. They need this information to participate in the process as informed citizens.

This is the approach that the premier’s office should adopt as a matter of strategic communication, to engage broader society on issues of government not just to issue statements on decisions of government.

Communication is not about grabbing headlines or publicity but a transparent public engagement process that empowers communities to have information to engage in their own development.

The principle that regulates political communications is that communicators have a duty to facilitate creation of platforms for their principals to communicate the work they do.

I refuse to accept that premier Masualle was not aware that education was under-spending, the DG’s belated concession attests to this.

Unfortunately – and wrongly so – the statement by the premier’s office attempted to project him as someone who was not informed about the performance of his education department.

Also, because this was not the first time premier Masualle was reported to be demanding answers from the same MEC, the posture of the statements from his office projects him as someone who demands answers continuously, with less or no action.

A cabinet reshuffle is news. It sells more newspapers but journalists must ask all questions of their sources, including spokespersons tossing out statements to hog headlines.

Without publishing critical and correct information, the newspaper did not give readers all the facts about the performance of the department, underexpenditure of its budget and Makupula’s performance against his delivery agreement targets.

Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha is a public servant and a member of the ANC. He writes in his personal capacity