Continuation of Deliberations on PALAMA

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Continuation of Deliberations on PALAMAs
Annual Report 2008/09 Response to Questions
raised by the PortCom on 28th October 2008

• Acting Director-General and Branch Heads
• Wednesday, 4th November 2009
• Cape Town

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Presentation Structure

• A. Background - Questions posed by the Committee
  from the last meeting (to be circulated)
• B. Process leading to MINCOM
• Cabinet Lekgotla decision of July 2005
• MINCOM Findings Summary
• Cabinet Decision of November 2006
• C. Process of Implementing of Cabinet Decision
• Task Teams
• Consultations and Organogram
• Matching and Placing of SAMDI staff and external
  recruitment
• Main Deviations from MINCOM and Cabinet
  decisions
• D. Current business model
• E. Financial and Budget Roll-over
• F. Palamas Procurement activities specific to
  training (separate presentation)
• G. Donor Supported Programmes

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B. Process leading to MINCOM

• Cabinet Lekgotla decision of July 2005
• In July 2005 Cabinet Lekgotla requested Minister
  for Public Service and Administration to report
  to Cabinet on capability of SAMDI to respond to
  the capacity development challenges in the public
  service
• The Minister for Public Service and
  Administration appointed a Ministerial Committee
  (MINCOM) to consider SAMDIs adequacy to respond
  to the challenge
• MINCOM comprised members from government, private
  sector, higher education, labour organisation and
  international expert
• MINCOM drew up a report with findings and a
  number of recommendations

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MINCOM Findings Summary

• SAMDI not effectively fulfilling its mandate to
  provide quality, customised training and
  delopment to the public service
• Performance of higher education institutions
  (HEIs) and other training providers, and their
  collaborations with SAMDI, has fallen way short
  of expectation (under-performing)
• SAMDI and stakeholders are operating without a
  coherent and coordinated national institutional
  framework to guide and integrate their work
• Sub-optimal efficacy of the training
  institutions within the public service and
  inadequate linkages and partnerships between
  government and the training providers resulting
  in doubtful relevance of training provided
• System encouraged competition rather than
  collaboration between providers leading to
  duplication and inefficient use of resources
• The mere strengthening of SAMDI in its current
  role will not address problems identified

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MINCOM Findings Summary Cont.

• Need for the establishment of a national public
  service academy
• Such academy shall have the powers and
  responsibility to set and enforce mandatory
  training programmes, common standards and quality
  assurance mechanisms throughout the public
  service including local government
• Whilst representing a radical departure from the
  current role and functioning of SAMDI, the
  academy will build on SAMDIs strengths whilst
  avoiding weaknesses
• The establishment of the academy will contribute
  significant to the development of a high
  performing public service
• MINCOM acknowledged that the implementation of
  the academy was going to be a complex and
  challenging process and therefore recommended the
  establishment of a Task Team to oversee the
  process

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Cabinet Decision of November 2006

• Cabinet approved MINCOM recommendations including
  some amendments e.g.
• Establishment of an Academy as a Schedule 1
  department reporting to MPSA as opposed to an
  entity with a board
• And, among others approved
• Establishment of an implementation task team to
  implement decisions over 18 months
• Academy to be established parallel to SAMDI
• Fully funded initially with element of
  cost-recovery
• Focused on practical management and leadership
  skills for a developmental state
• Training for development of common ethos and
  values for a professional public service

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C. Process of Implementing of Cabinet Decision

• Nine task teams established to look at various
  focus areas of the new Academy (e.g. learning
  framework, training system, etc)
• The business model was informed by the following
  strategic shifts
• From a provider of training to a facilitator
  (Resulting in no in-house trainers)
• From being a competitor to collaborating with
  other service providers
• To extend its coverage from selective to
  comprehensive high-volume (massification)
• New organogram was designed to fulfill this
  strategy
• Consulted with MPSA, SAMDI management, staff and
  unions
• Matching and placing of SAMDI staff conducted
  through competency exercises, and interviews
• A total of 19 staff members declared in excess
• External Adverts in print media for additional
  recruitments

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Main Deviations from MINCOM and Cabinet decision

• MINCOM
• Academy not to be a Department, but a public
  institution reporting to MPSA through a Board
  appointed by Cabinet
• Internal quality assurance, with peer input,
  later get ETQA status
• Fully funded initially, with a later element of
  cost-recovery
• Cabinet Decision
• Task team not established leaving the
  implementation to be led and driven by DG
• Outsourced capacity for training (Reliance on
  external training providers)
• Initially the Academy was to be established
  parallel to SAMDI

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D. Palamas current business model Outsourcing
Impact

• After its transition from SAMDI to Palama there
  was a shift in business strategy
• From doing training itself to providing and
  managing training
• From being a competitor to being a collaborator
  with the full range of training providers
• From selective to comprehensive coverage or
  massified delivery
• Palama accordingly adopted a strategy of not
  having internal trainers on its payroll and
  instead outsourced the capacity from
• Externally based individual trainers (IICs)
• Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and
• Private Training Companies

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Specific Question Women trained in Executive
Development Programme in majority of trainees
Unpack statistics in real figures
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Specific Questions Is Palama making an impact
and how is it measuring its impact through
training?

• Palama has not yet instituted impact studies on
  organizational- and societal level - recent
  impact evaluation guidelines released by the
  Presidency will be considered.
• However, Palama training impact is measured at
  certain stages during and after the training. 
  These stages are as follows
• Participant level Reaction evaluation
  questionnaires and interviews are conducted with
  participants, including onsite evaluations
• Programme quality this is measured through
  onsite evaluations as well as the feedback from
  the facilitators and the participants   
• Transfer of skills this is measured through the
  portfolio assessment where learners have to
  complete a work related assignment which will
  demonstrate their  competence and also whether
  the training had any impact on their performance
• Not all Palama programmes require learners to
  submit a portfolio of evidence after a training
  intervention

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Specific Questions Palama must give case
studies  giving a status quo before and after its
interventions where it has intervened  with its
training programmes

• We are not yet conducting case studies given the
  duration of Palamas existence

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E. Financial and Budget Roll-overFinancial
performance - Utilisation of donor funds
Name of Donor Purpose Opening Balance Revenue Expenditure Closing Balance
Name of Donor Purpose R000 R000 R000 R000
1. Received in Cash
1.1 Local Aid Assistance
African Renaissance Fund Training - 23,697 (8,873) 14,824
1.2 Foreign Aid Assistance
Aid assistance unitilised 28 10,742 (8,718) 2,052
CIDA Gender Mainstreaming Training (192) 4,400 (3,766) 442
CIDA Public Sector Training Training - 4,858 (3,586) 1,272
Government of Sweden Training 192 - - 192
Government of Germany Training - 1,484 (1,366) 118
Common Wealth Training 28 - - 28

Aid assistance receivable (250) - (68) (318)
Government of the Netherlands Training (1) - (68) (69)
Government of Flanders Training (249) - - (249)

Total foreign aid assistance in cash (222) 10,742 (8,786) 1,734

Total aid assistance received in cash (222) 34,439 (17,659) 16,558
2. Received in Kind
Total aid assistance received in kind 2,048 2,182 (4,230) -
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Income and Cost breakdown per Person Training Day
(PTD)
R000 2008/09 R Per PTDa
Income 131,921 982
Revenue from training 89,321
Transfer from VOTE (Parliamentary Grant) 42,600
Cost of Sales 83,261 620
Venues for training 16,229
Outsourced trainers (Consultants) 50,335
Other (Travel, Stationery, etc) 16,697
Contribution 48,660 362
Operating cost 53,865 401
Staff costs 32,917
Administrative costs 12,986
Other operating cost (Staff development, Audit cost, travel, etc) 7,962
Finance Income 7,023
Surplus for the year 1,818 14
a Calculation based on 134 375 PTDs
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G. Donor Supported Programmes Framework for
international and donor relations

• The Palama strategy for International and Donor
  relations is aligned to Governments
  international cooperation policy and the Official
  Donor Assistance policy of the the National
  Treasury.
• SAs international relations policy prioritises
  the AU/Nepad agenda for Africas reconstruction
  and, in particular, it focuses on the post
  conflict countries.
• The Joint Coordinating Commissions or Binational
  Commissions with other countries are initiated by
  DICO and Palama, like other national departments,
  forges joint programmes of cooperation and mutual
  interest with counterparts in countries
  identified by DICO, or more directly, the MPSA.
• Departments usually attend quarterly meetings at
  DICO where written quarterly progress reports
  are tabled.
• The Annual Consultations with various donors,
  faciliated by NT, provides an opportunity for
  South Africa to have ownership over ODA and to
  determine and monitor alignment of donor funded
  programmes with the our country policies and
  strategies and government POA. Further, NT also
  has a responsibility, along with individual
  departments to promote the harmonization among
  donors.
• The Paris Declaration (2005) obliges ODA partners
  (donors and beneficiaries) to adhere to the 5
  tenets of ownership alignment harmonization
  accountability and managing for results.

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Framework for donor programmes

• Annual consultations promote better
  identification of funding programmes and sources
  to match departmental priorities to ensure that
  financial modalities employed are aligned to SAs
  financial polices (PFMA) and to enable efficient
  allocation of funding to avoid duplication.
• Country agreements - such as the General
  Agreement on Development Cooperation between the
  Government of Canada and the Government of the
  Republic of South Africa signed 23/11/2006 at
  National Treasury, guides relations between
  Palama and Canadian institutions.
• Once a funding contract is in place, the
  Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP)
  Fund (at National Treasury) acts as a channel for
  funding from donors to departments. This enables
  NT to monitor funded projects.
• From the RDP, the funds are paid into the Palama
  Master General (PMG) Account on request from
  Palama for implemetation of funded projects.

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Palamas ODA strategy

• Palama ODA policy is aligned to Palamas
  strategic objectives and the governments MTSF.
• Palama utilises donor funds as seed capital to
  pilot or trial innovative and new interventions
  in areas of training and development. These are
  areas usually outside Palamas normal programmes
  and activities.
• Following such pilots, successful programmes may
  be taken up on a wider scale as part of Palama
  programmes.
• These funded inventions may pertain to
  international special programmes, i.e programmes
  of cooperation with other countries, such as the
  Regional Capacity Building Project with
  Management Development Institutions in 3 Post
  Conflict countries (Burundi, Rwanda and Southern
  Sudan). Palama also benefits from these
  programmes. In the RCB project just under a
  third of the budget is allocated to Palama.

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Palamas ODA strategy

• Funded interventions also pertain to special
  local projects such as the Gender Mainstreaming
  Programme which is innovative and targets
  beneficiaries within SA (hence local) .
• Develop strategic international partnerships
  which continue beyond donor projects e.g.
  showcasing indigenous models and best practices,
  learning networks, benchmarking best practice and
  exchange programmes
• Branch is a nodal point for ODA to enable more
  effective management of not only of donor
  programmes but of donor relations.

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Agreements for ODA

• ODA agreements between Palama and donors usually
  flow from initial Government to Government MOUs,
  depending on the nature of agreements and how it
  relates to the strategic objectives of Palama
• Agreements have been signed with the Netherlands
  (Training for LG municipal managers) Germany
  (Government Wide ME) Flemish (Development of
  women managers).
• For Canada, the Project Implementation Plan (PIP)
  constitutes a subsidiary arrangement pursuant to
  the General Agreement on Development Cooperation
  between the Government of Canada and the
  Government of the Republic of South Africa and
  sets out the responsibilities of Canada and South
  Africa in relation to the implementation of the
  Project (e.g. Regional Capacity Building with
  Burundi, Rwanda and Southern Sudan and the
  Gender Mainstreaming Project)
• The PIP has three signatories Palama, CIDA and
  the NT
• While Palama as implementing agency for the CIDA
  Regional Capacity Building Project but there are
  also insititutional agreements with MDI partners
  in Burundi, Rwanda and Southern Sudan
• The results based management approach, with the
  logical frame approach (LFA) as the planning
  tool, has been adopted by Palama as its ODA
  strategy as it specifies outputs (results) to be
  achieved.

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Donor funded projects for 2008/09

• CIDA R70m for South-South partnership to build
  MDI capability in Burundi, Rwanda and Southern
  Sudan. Progress to date Baseline Study and
  Training Needs Analysis finalised. Curriculum
  development in progress.
• R20m funding received from African Renaissance
  Fund for training and refurbishment of ENA
  building. Training for public service and support
  for the Ecole Nationale Administration (ENA) in
  DRC. 2,300 DRC officials were trained since
  training started February 2007.
• The Netherlands provided R2.4m to pilot for
  equipping Municipal Managers with core skills for
  improved service delivery. Training material is
  customised and training coordination will start
  as soon as curriculum review of learning material
  is completed.
• Tri-lateral cooperation between Palama/AMDIN/JICA
  to provide African Management Development
  Institutes Network (AMDIN) with Training of
  Trainers course in French to Francophone
  countries. Since inception of the project Palama
  assisted AMDIN with the training of 72 officials
  from 31 African countries.
• Extension approved for Government Wide ME funded
  through GTZ submitted financial expenditure
  report to get the next draw down.
• New developments Funding proposal in process to
  be developed for three Palama Branches (LFA
  sessions done to be integrated into one
  consolidated plan) for submission to InWEnt.
• GTZ provided in kind contributions for HRM MIP
  and inter governmental workshops

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Way Forward and Next Steps

• Further transformation of Palama is underway
• Strategic planning workshop will be held before
  the end of December 2009
• The comprehensive strategy that will emerge from
  the workshop will inform other process like the
  business model
• Palama is committed to achieve its set
  performance training targets, including
  Ministers four priorities
• Breaking Barriers to Entry experienced by
  unemployed graduates and women outside the main
  centres of South Africa
• Instilling leadership qualities the public
  service
• Induction of new public servants
• Supporting the public service reconstruction in
  post-conflict countries on the continent

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Thank You