22 Feb 2018

Major public reforms have been undertaken in various sectors such as education, public finance, health, water, legislative, information technology and land management, and were at various stages of implementation.

Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale stated that with regard to human resource reforms, initiatives included human resource information management system, re-organisation of ministries and right sizing.

Mr Molale said the reforms had given rise to legislative and institutional reviews and subsequent restricting where necessary. 

He said the government was not on any down sizing drive, and instead was right sizing the public service whose aim was to achieve both internal and external efficiencies as well as effectiveness. “This distinction is important given that down sizing is not the same as right sizing,” he said.

Minister Molale further explained that government had taken the decision to freeze the creation of additional posts in the public service owing to the increasing wage bill.

In addition, he told Parliament  that as a result, vacancies continued to be rationalised to create positions in critical areas.

“This exercise has resulted in 7 302 positions being rationalised to create 4 093 positions saving P92 433 744 and reducing the establishment by 3 255,” he said.

The minister stated that 879 employees were given exit packages resulting from the rationalisation of the water sector, outsourcing of cleaning services at the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the restructuring of civil aviation. He noted that “there are a total of 5 128 vacancies.”

He said it was worth noting that reforms in themselves were a process and not an event, and that they had both short and long term effects. 

He said positive changes in turn-around time for some services, reduction in operational costs in terms of wages and benefits, and improved regulatory framework had been realised.

He said there were no cuts and instead there was rationalisation of positions as a means to right sizing.

“I did indicate that these were never meant to raise revenue, but rather improve efficiencies including cost saving measures as well as effectiveness,” he said.

Mr Molale said the ratio of civil servants to the population stood at 1:18, which was the current size of the public service as against the projected population.

MP Shawn Ntlhaile of Jwaneng/Mabutsane had asked the minister to update Parliament on progress made regarding public service reforms and the down sizing drive. 

He also wanted him to state the number of civil servants who had been laid off from work, the number of vacant posts, and if the cuts produced greater efficiencies.

The MP also wanted to know whether the cuts had increased revenue, and by how much and the ratio of civil servants to the population. Ends