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Building A One Stop Culture In The Public Service

Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration

14 June 2006

“In defining our concept of a developmental state, Sen’s concept of removing poverty and tyranny is key, expanding economic opportunities and fighting social deprivation is critical, and providing public facilities and services to the poor is paramount…another important feature of our developmental state must be the provision of a seamless system of government, even as we continue to respect that it is constituted in three spheres.”President Thabo Mbeki, JUNE 7, 2006 On The Occasion Of The Budget Vote of The Presidency.

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Building A One Stop-Culture

There is a great need to improve service delivery in the public sector by entrenching a culture of efficiency and effectiveness in the way we serve our citizens and the way we work. This requires a paradigm shift in mindset and a set of behaviours and/or culture that will support the Batho Pele principles. A one Stop Culture is people-centred, driven and focused.

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Presentation Outline

• Introduction and Context• Objectives• Current Situation and Access Channels• Batho Pele Model• Implementation of the Model• Interventions • Assumptions

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Introduction and Context

• Batho Pele and subsequent Revitalisation Strategy are initiated to promote the principle of “putting people first” as a driver of transformation within the Public Service.

– Report on the implementation of BP pointed to need to take public services closer to the people.

– Comprehensive 2014 government wide Access Vision.• A holistic, integrated, and multi-dimensional approach to service delivery

– Front-office, back-office, internal and external communications, and culture• Speedy and convenient access to public services by citizens in remote areas by

location, gender, age, race, language, disability.• Recognition of existing range of departmental and intermediary initiatives to take

public services to the people, however there are variations in scope, depth and responsiveness to citizen needs .

• Challenge – to develop a better integrated approach to service delivery.

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Objectives

Speed Quality

Cost Efficiency

Objective

Current

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Objectives

• Provide a framework within which all access initiatives and points would exist and operate.

• Remove urban-rural disparities in service delivery.– Single-view of government and similar services despite geography

• Build and consolidate existing initiatives to enhance access. • Address both the supply and demand side of the service delivery value chain

with more focus on service users.– Specific emphasis on institutional re-orientation towards citizen rights and

entitlements (socio-economic rights)– Build strong M&E and redress mechanisms

• Use of multi-channels, not just traditional and conventional offices, to capture economies of scale, efficacy & citizen convenience.

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Current Situation and Access Channels

• Lack of basic infrastructure– Hindering reach and coverage, language availability, back-end processes

(quality, quantity, cost, turnaround, etc)• Departments undertaking their own initiatives with their own budgets, using their

own technologies, approaches, etc • Grey areas of accountability and ownership, especially in current integrated

environment• Lack of uniformity, viz. service standards, M&E, redress, compliance • Front-end and back-end not sufficiently integrated.

– Limited inter-operability, viz. systems, citizen data storage and processing

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Current Situation and Access Channels

• Current Service Delivery Access points are: – Traditional offices– MPCCs– Batho Pele Gateway Portal– Community Development Workers– Mobile Units– Intermediaries (SAPO, Retail and Banks)– Public Internet Terminals

• Planned – Urban Malls– SAPO– Retail

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Batho Pele Model

Batho Pele Model

Front Office

Back Office

Communication Culture

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Batho Pele Model

The following are the key elements of the model:• Front-office and back- office re-engineering;• Communications (external and internal), culture, leadership and

learning;• Back-office re-engineering;• People (training, empowerment);• Infrastructure and information technology; and• Processes and systems. All the key elements need to be in place and fully integrated in order to achieve

public service goals

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Implementation Of The Model

• Front-office re-engineering• In the Front-Office Reengineering a strategy is being developed to achieve a

comprehensive 2014 government wide Access Vision• Access strategy will provide a framework within which all access initiatives and

points would exist and operate, and more fundamentally, build and consolidate existing ones

• The Focus is on service according to citizens needs and intent• The strategy therefore proposes to:

– Develop a service standards framework– Develop basket of service offerings in an integrated fashion– Co-ordination (Monitoring & Evaluation)– Audit Access Channels initiatives and maximize their benefit– Promote language of choice and active citizen participation

• The Access strategy is an all encompassing framework within which Access channels and other relevant access initiatives exists

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Implementation Of The Model

• Back-Office reengineering • Intends to forge a common approach to E-Government in all three spheres of

government• It seeks back-end integration under the umbrella of E-Gov Programme• Regulatory framework as Policy and Regulations are in place and may request

intermittent review as technology changes• DPSA Initiatives prioritized are:

– Improvement of Batho Pele Phase I Portal, e-Inventory of Government Information Systems (eIGIS), Use of CabEnet System by Departments

– Government-Wide Enterprise Architecture, Build sound relationship with SITA through amongst others well maintained Shareholder Compact

– IT Audit Framework, Improve ICT Skills in the Public Sector and– Monitoring and Evaluation of all Government ICT Projects

• Identification of an ICT project that would serve as catalyst that would result in upsurge of E-Government

• Transversal Initiatives are Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS), Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS), Integrated Justice System (IJS),

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Implementation of the Model

• Communications– Internal Communications

• This element broadly refers to internal communications aimed at ensuring that public servants themselves are informed and consulted on matters that affect them and their work and therefore service delivery.

– External Communications • This element of Batho Pele model provides information to the public

about important matters and initiatives that affect their lives and provides an opportunity to ensure that the public’s concerns, ideas etc are taken into consideration in the implementation process. This includes a know your service rights campaign 

• To date ± 400 people have been trained in Limpopo. Roll out has already started in many Departments, e.g. Local Government, Municipalities, Public Works and the Office of the Premier. In Free State 25 Batho Pele Co-ordinators have been trained. Preparations are underway to roll the Programme out to all Departments in this Province.

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Implementation of the Model

Culture (Change Management Engagement programme) • Organisational culture is generally viewed as “the ways of thinking,

behaving and believing that members of a social unit have in common”. Culture may be seen in terms of the shared values and beliefs that guide the way organisational members behave towards one another and approach their work.

• To date 400 people have been empowered in change management in Limpopo. Roll out has already started in many Departments, e.g. Local Government, Municipalities, Public Works and the Office of the Premier. In Free State 25 Batho Pele Co-ordinators have been trained. Preparations are underway to roll the Programme out to all Departments in this Province. The rollout also started in KZN, targetting municipalities.

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Batho Pele Initiatives

Service Delivery Watch

Public Service Week

Africa Public Service Day

Project Khaedu

Change Management Engagement Programme

Know your Service Rights Campaign

Service Delivery Improvements Plans/Standards

Batho Pele Learning Network/Coordinating

Forums

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Interventions

• Develop a service standards framework– Analysis of what access standards and norms are there and gaps thereof– Minimum standards governing access channels-similarity in nature and

operations– Measurable indicators

• Develop basket of service offerings– Identification of basket of services that can be integrated– Analyze demand and supply of services and access to them– Improve processes (front-and back-end operations) that hinder access

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Interventions

• Co-ordination– A dedicated G & A Cluster task team coordinates inter-departmental

initiatives• M&E framework and best practice guidelines• Service standards compliance and redress• Role of CDWs in integrating front and back office• Role of CDWs in participatory M&E

• Promote language choice and active citizen participation– Ensure availability of services in relevant and applicable languages

(incl.translation of service offerings)– Public participation plan leveraging on existing platforms, viz. IDP forums,

Izimbizos, CDWs, citizens forums

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Assumptions

• Oversight role of Parliament, the Executive, the Judiciary and civil society over public administration exercised

• SPS Legislative framework to create an appropriate environment for integration and seamlessness

• Participation, appreciation and ownership by key line functional departments and sectors

• Emphasis on both supply and demand side of access to public services• Seamless integration of Front and Back-end System• CDWs facilitate targeted implementation of policy

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SIYABONGA