Thousands of Eastern Cape civil servants will come under scrutiny when the provincial government conducts skills audits in its departments.Academic qualifications and skill levels will be probed as Bhisho sets out to determine whether its workforce is suitably placed.
In the past week, two provincial departments have invited bids for the skills auditing contracts.
On Friday, the provincial cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) department wants the skills of its 64 senior managers and directors audited.
Yesterday, the office of the premier (OTP) Phumulo Masualle issued a similar notice.
Provincial government spokesman Sizwe Kupelo yesterday said the process had already taken place at the provincial treasury and at the health department’s emergency medical services unit.
It will now expand to other departments.
Kupelo said all accounting officers at provincial departments were “at liberty” to call for a skills audit “at anytime” to establish what skills were available in their units “in line with the national development goals”.
Kupelo said this exercise was not meant to target any individual – it was as a result of a realignment and rationalisation of their organogram structures and the aim was to improve the quality of service delivery in the province.
The province already spends 70% of its budget allocation on personnel costs. The budget for 2015-16 was R55-billion. This means that a whopping R38.5-billion went to salaries with little to show for service delivery.
Various provincial departments have come under fire for poor skills and failing to produce results, notably the departments of education and health, which receive the largest allocations.
Already there is unhappiness within the health department over plans to redeploy some of its directors, currently working in Bhisho, to the outlying districts where they are needed most.
Putting more pressure on the province is a constantly diminishing budget.
This is a result of the migration of people out of the province to bigger cities in search of a better opportunities. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is expected to announce a further reduction next week.
At the last count, the Eastern Cape government employed 1.1 million civil servants, the largest contributors being teachers and public health workers.
Several South African politicians and high-profile administrators have in the past year been exposed for misrepresenting their academic qualifications.
ANC MP Pallo Jordan left his post at the National Assembly after it emerged that he had lied about possessing a doctorate degree from an international university.
SABC board chairwoman Ellen Tshabalala had to vacate her post after it emerged that she also misrepresented her qualification.
The chief operations officer at the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, also came under fire after it emerged that he had lied about having a matric certificate.
In the wake of these scandals, UDM MPL Thando Mpulu last year called on the provincial government to conduct a skills and qualifications audit, saying it could uncover “a lot” of dubious qualifications among the province’s civil servants.
Premier Phumulo Masualle is also expected to touch on the subject of skills at his state of the province address on Friday.
Cogta spokesman Mamkeli Ngam yesterday said it was an exercise all organisations should undertake from time to time to assess what skills they possessed.
OTP spokeswoman Mandisa Titi said the exercise was in preparation for the restructuring of their organogram in the next financial year.
“Before the restructuring, we needed to have a clear understanding of the skills we have so that we can match those skills to the posts we have,” said Titi.
She added that they had opted for an external service provider “to give credibility to the process”.
In June last year it was reported that the Bhisho Legislature planned to conduct a similar exercise.
A legislature budget and oversight portfolio committee report, tabled by committee chairwoman and ANC MPL Noxolo Abrahams-Ntantiso, stated that due to financial constraints the audit exercise would initially be limited to employees who had joined the institution in the 2014-15 financial year.
At the time Abrahams-Ntantiso’s committee recommended the exercise first be carried out at management level, “so as to set an example”.
She also warned that the legislature should avoid the use of “intermediaries or consultants” in assisting with the process, as they were costing the state millions in consultation fees.
“This is so that it could, in future, be conducted on a full scale where all employees can be included and all their qualifications scrutinised and verified,” Abrahams-Ntantiso said at the time.
Legislature employees had welcomed the move, but attempts to get an update from the institution’s administration head, Vuyani Mapolisa, yesterday proved fruitless. — asandan@dispatch. co.za
Skills audit for Bhisho staff
Academic qualifications and skill levels will be probed as Bhisho sets out to determine whether its workforce is suitably placed.
In the past week, two provincial departments have invited bids for the skills auditing contracts.
On Friday, the provincial cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) department wants the skills of its 64 senior managers and directors audited.
Yesterday, the office of the premier (OTP) Phumulo Masualle issued a similar notice.
Provincial government spokesman Sizwe Kupelo yesterday said the process had already taken place at the provincial treasury and at the health department’s emergency medical services unit.
It will now expand to other departments.
Kupelo said all accounting officers at provincial departments were “at liberty” to call for a skills audit “at anytime” to establish what skills were available in their units “in line with the national development goals”.
Kupelo said this exercise was not meant to target any individual – it was as a result of a realignment and rationalisation of their organogram structures and the aim was to improve the quality of service delivery in the province.
The province already spends 70% of its budget allocation on personnel costs. The budget for 2015-16 was R55-billion. This means that a whopping R38.5-billion went to salaries with little to show for service delivery.
Various provincial departments have come under fire for poor skills and failing to produce results, notably the departments of education and health, which receive the largest allocations.
Already there is unhappiness within the health department over plans to redeploy some of its directors, currently working in Bhisho, to the outlying districts where they are needed most.
Putting more pressure on the province is a constantly diminishing budget.
This is a result of the migration of people out of the province to bigger cities in search of a better opportunities. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is expected to announce a further reduction next week.
At the last count, the Eastern Cape government employed 1.1 million civil servants, the largest contributors being teachers and public health workers.
Several South African politicians and high-profile administrators have in the past year been exposed for misrepresenting their academic qualifications.
ANC MP Pallo Jordan left his post at the National Assembly after it emerged that he had lied about possessing a doctorate degree from an international university.
SABC board chairwoman Ellen Tshabalala had to vacate her post after it emerged that she also misrepresented her qualification.
The chief operations officer at the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, also came under fire after it emerged that he had lied about having a matric certificate.
In the wake of these scandals, UDM MPL Thando Mpulu last year called on the provincial government to conduct a skills and qualifications audit, saying it could uncover “a lot” of dubious qualifications among the province’s civil servants.
Premier Phumulo Masualle is also expected to touch on the subject of skills at his state of the province address on Friday.
Cogta spokesman Mamkeli Ngam yesterday said it was an exercise all organisations should undertake from time to time to assess what skills they possessed.
OTP spokeswoman Mandisa Titi said the exercise was in preparation for the restructuring of their organogram in the next financial year.
“Before the restructuring, we needed to have a clear understanding of the skills we have so that we can match those skills to the posts we have,” said Titi.
She added that they had opted for an external service provider “to give credibility to the process”.
In June last year it was reported that the Bhisho Legislature planned to conduct a similar exercise.
A legislature budget and oversight portfolio committee report, tabled by committee chairwoman and ANC MPL Noxolo Abrahams-Ntantiso, stated that due to financial constraints the audit exercise would initially be limited to employees who had joined the institution in the 2014-15 financial year.
At the time Abrahams-Ntantiso’s committee recommended the exercise first be carried out at management level, “so as to set an example”.
She also warned that the legislature should avoid the use of “intermediaries or consultants” in assisting with the process, as they were costing the state millions in consultation fees.
“This is so that it could, in future, be conducted on a full scale where all employees can be included and all their qualifications scrutinised and verified,” Abrahams-Ntantiso said at the time.
Legislature employees had welcomed the move, but attempts to get an update from the institution’s administration head, Vuyani Mapolisa, yesterday proved fruitless. — asandan@dispatch. co.za
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