Pretoria - Delivery agreements based on government's 12 outcomes to improve performance and speed up service delivery are to be signed in the coming weeks.
Minister in the Presidency responsible for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Collins Chabane said the delivery agreements, which is a negotiated agreement between the key partners (government ministers and stakeholders) who will work together to deliver on an outcome, will be signed from tomorrow and over the next few weeks.
The agreements are detailed and provide descriptions of key activities - who needs to do what, by when and the resources needed to deliver on a particular service delivery outcome. Accountability therefore on the delivery of an outcome lies with all the roleplayers who will be involved in providing that outcome.
Minister Chabane said on Wednesday the delivery agreements followed the successful completion of the performance outcomes and the signing of performance agreements between President Jacob Zuma and ministers in April.
"The Department for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation will now facilitate the process of regular reporting and monitoring of progress against the agreed outputs and targets in the delivery agreements."
He said many aspects of the delivery agreements were already being implemented and the process was therefore intended to strengthen the current systems to ensure a co-ordinated and results focused approach to service delivery. Where implementation of a particular outcome is seen as lacking, remedial action would be recommended.
Chabane said government had adopted an outcomes approach to guide the work of Zuma's administration following his State of the Nation Address earlier this year.
"The outcomes approach follows a four step process. The first step involves the adoption of a set of key strategic outcomes with measurable outputs and key activities. The second step was the development and signing of performance agreements between the President and ministers which outlined high level outputs, indicators, targets and key activities for each outcome.
"The third step, which is where we are now, is about converting the high level outputs and metrics into a detailed delivery agreement with the key partners that need to work together to achieve the outputs. The forth step is the monitoring of the implementation of the delivery agreements and deciding on interventions when required," said Chabane.
Monitoring of the progress of the outcomes on the delivery agreements will be done by delivery forums which will produce quarterly progress reports to be submitted to the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Department for submission to Cabinet.
This, according to Chabane, will provide a feedback loop to regular reviews of the delivery agreements. Cabinet will review these progress reports and agree on remedial actions where necessary.
President Zuma will be meeting with ministers who are coordinating the development of the delivery agreements during October and November to obtain progress reports and to discuss the likely challenges which lie ahead in their implementation.
"The President will be continuing with his programme of visiting service delivery sites to monitor progress. The purpose of these site visits is for the President to gain first-hand experience of service delivery and to highlight issues that need to be worked on by the various arms of government," said Chabane.
Supporting these delivery agreements, Chabane said would be meetings together with tours of the country's service delivery points to monitor and evaluate work being down at the coalface of government.
The site visits, said Chabane, would enable government to celebrate achievements and assist those lagging behind to perform better and faster.
"The main aim of these performance assessments will be to develop a culture of continuous improvement in the public service," he added.
