Mid Term Report - Gauteng Online

ensure that by 2009, 70% of provincial governmentsenior managers are black and 50% arewomen. By the beginning of 2006, 63% ofsenior management was black and 30% werewomen.• Skills development and training of staff is regardedas a priority. Programmes have beenimplemented at all levels of the public service,including at a senior management level throughthe Gauteng Management Development Programme.• Learnerships and internships have been introducedto give young people work experienceand training and to make it easier for them toaccess employment. The provincial government’slearnership/internship intake in the GPG for the2006/7 financial year has since exceeded theset target of 8% of the workforce. It has recordedan intake of 8.44%, which translates to 5 381people. Of these, a number of the programmesfocused on developing people in areas of criticaland scarce skills.• The implementation of a workplace Aids programme.All provincial government departmentsare responsible for implementing comprehensiveHIV/Aids programmes aimed at public servants.• The provincial government has introduced anEmployee Assistance Programme (EAP) to provideadvice, counselling and other services toGPG employees.Anti-corruption and ethicsIn fulfilling its commitment to clean and ethicalgovernance and a zero tolerance approach to corruption,the provincial government has made steadyprogress in entrenching public service ethics andpreventing fraud and corruption.A range of measures have been institutionalisedto prevent corruption, including in the procurementsystem. The anti-corruption strategy was reviewed in2006 and a revised strategy has been developed inline with the anti-corruption and ethics imperatives ofthe province. All the provincial departments re-alignedtheir fraud prevention plans based on fraud and corruptionrisk as identified in a 2005 risk assessmentexercise. Fraud prevention and anti-corruption awarenesstraining sessions were conducted throughout theprovincial government.Batho PeleTo promote effective service delivery and in line withthe Batho Pele principles, provincial governmentdepartments in 2006 finalised the development ofservice standards and service charters. These servicecharters commit the provincial government to thedelivery of high quality services to citizens. They setout the expectations that citizens may reasonablyhave of departments and provides opportunities forcomplaints, public comment and suggestions onservice delivery improvement.The provincial government established a ServiceDelivery Forum to facilitate the promotion andimplementation of the Batho Pele ethos within GPGdepartments.The celebration of Africa Public Service Day, GautengPublic Service Week and the Premier’s ServiceExcellence awards, provided further impetus for theinstitutionalisation of Batho Pele across the provincialgovernment.Multi-PurposeCommunity CentresService delivery has been further improved andmade more accessible to Gauteng residents throughthe establishment of Multi-Purpose Community Centres(MPCCs) as a joint initiative by local, provincialand national government.The MPCCs provide one-stop access to a rangeof government and non-governmental services andmake it easier for residents, particularly those inpreviously neglected communities, to access servicescloser to where they live. Since April 2004, 13 newMPCCs were established, bringing the total by theend of October 2006 to 25 MPCCs.In 2006 a GPG ethics survey was carried out to assessthe provincial government’s ethics capacity andsupport the needs of provincial departments. The studyfocused on ethics initiatives that promote ethical decisionmaking as part of a comprehensive approach togood governance in the provincial government. Anethics capacity building programme has been finalisedto enhance ethical conduct on an ongoing basis.58 • Midterm Report - 2004/06