By More Matshediso
Pretoria - Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Jeff Radebe, says paying unannounced visits to government’s frontline facilities has resulted in a tangible improvement in services across the country.
“Since 2011, together with the Offices of the Premiers, we have conducted unannounced monitoring visits to frontline facilities in more than 600 facilities in all nine provinces.
“Results have shown that in about 65% of these facilities visited, managers have acted on the findings and this has resulted in visible improvements, while in others the culture of problem solving is very poor,” he said.
The Minister was briefing media on Tuesday before tabling his department’s budget vote in Cape Town.
With regards to the Presidential Hotline, Minister Radebe said government continues to provide a service for the public to lodge their queries and complaints.
“Every year, we are able to process about 20 000 new complaints and queries. To date, we have recorded 207 000 complaints and queries at the hotline. Thirty-five percent are general queries and 65% are complaints.
“I can report that for all complaints and queries we received, 94% are recorded as resolved and 6% remaining to be resolved,” said Minister Radebe.
Building capacity
Government is focused on building capacity to improve services. Minister Radebe said capacity building is a primary and key National Development Plan (NDP) imperative.
He said his department is playing its role in building capacity for planning, monitoring and evaluation across government.
“Internationally, we are recognised as key players in the area of planning, monitoring and evaluation… Our National Evaluation Policy Framework has been translated into Russian and has been used as far afield as Kyrgyzstan and Bhutan.
“We have also been working closely with Benin and Uganda since 2012, and this year we will start a regional Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) project anchored by ourselves and these two countries,” he said.
Local government
Minister Radebe said the department has exceeded its target of assessing 20 municipalities by 10 in the previous financial year, using its Local Government Management Improvement Model (LGMIM).
“In the past financial year, we planned to assess 20 municipalities and produce LGMIM scorecards. This target has been exceeded and 30 scorecards have been submitted along with the uploading of evidence on the LGMIM site.”
Minister Radebe’s department piloted the LGMIM in the 2013/14 financial year. It tested 12 municipalities and thereafter discussed with partner departments to reflect on what worked, what did not work and what improvements may be required.
Minister Radebe said they will continue to work very closely with Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and other entities to ensure that there is improved management practice in municipalities for better service delivery. - SAnews.gov.za
