GAUTENG PREMIER'S OFFICE FAILS ON VACANCIES, CORRUPTION AND MANAGEMENT

Summary extract of speech by Jack Bloom MPL in debate today on the Annual Report of the Gauteng Premier's Office

According to the Auditor-General, the Premier's Office has a clean audit but has two matters of emphasis. There was material under-spending of R9.9 million on Programme 3: Policy and Governance, and the office is being sued in four cases amounting to R6.374 million.

The big failure is monitoring and evaluation. This is why the Honourable Premier is frequently embarrassed when all her grand promises amount to nothing.

Why did her office not pick up sooner that progress on the youth jobs target is abysmal? Why are virtually all major projects like the Jabulani and New Natalspruit hospitals way behind schedule and grossly over budget?

The collapse of local government services in areas like Bekkersdal should have been picked up and acted on before things boiled over.

Strategic objectives can only be achieved with proper staffing, but 26% of senior management posts in the Gauteng Provincial Government are vacant. It is really shocking that one in four senior management positions are unfilled, many for a long time. Firm direction from the top is needed for service delivery, but this is sadly lacking in Gauteng.

Another area of failure is fighting corruption.

According to the Public Service Commission, the Gauteng Provincial Government has ignored 787 out of 1626 tip-offs received from the National Anti-Corruption Hotline. This means that no feedback at all was given in 48% of cases.

These statistics cover all tip-offs given from September 2004 to 8 October 2013. Only 601 cases have been closed, leaving 1025 cases outstanding.

The most devastating evidence of provincial failure comes from the official assessment of the Presidency's Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation.

This department uses a Management Performance Assessment Tool to assess four Key Performance Areas. According to the 2012/13 assessment process, the results for Gauteng are shocking.

There was only 14% compliance with legal and regulatory requirements in Human Resource Management, which was the second worst of all the provinces.

Gauteng scored only 25% compliance for Governance and Accountability.

Financial Management was not much better, with 39% compliance.

This is conclusive proof using the ANC government's own performance measure that the ANC is failing dismally in Gauteng.

It shows that we have a very dumb provincial government that is badly letting down the smart people in our province.

And which province does this official government report show is the best on all measures? Yes, it's the Western Cape, which is shown to be way better than all the ANC-run provinces.

So, Madam Speaker, the nation awaits the opportunity in next year's elections to throw out a failed administration in Gauteng and replace it with a DA administration that will truly serve the people.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Caucus Leader, October 29 2013

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