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Building an interactive government

COMMENT - How about taxing the mines and a greater emphasis on Local Government?

Building an interactive government
Written by Jacob Zuma
Sunday, October 18, 2009 2:50:30 AM

During the election campaign we committed ourselves to promote effective two-way communication between South Africans and government.

We said we needed to change the way government relates to the people, not as a slogan but in practical terms. We made an undertaking to remain in touch with the people and to listen to their needs and respond. One of the major response mechanisms we promised was a Presidential Hotline, to enable citizens to raise their concerns directly with the Presidency.

The launch of the Presidential Hotline and public liaison service on a pilot basis on the 14th of September took government to a new level with regards to communication with the public to improve service delivery.

We have found ourselves engaged in an unprecedented massive conversation with the nation. The Hotline has received a total of 312,137 calls from the South African public from 14 September to 08 Oct 2009. This excludes letters sent through fax and email. My email address, president@po.gov.za This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it is constantly overflowing. We received 27 000 calls on day one, having received almost 2500 calls in the first hour, hitting 7000 by the third hour. This service was clearly long overdue.

There are three levels of interaction. The Presidency has 21 Hotline and Public Liaison staff, backed by 50 call centre agents at the State Information Technology Agency, and a network of 43 Public Liaison Officers in the nine offices of the Premiers and the 34 National Departments who are responsible for the follow ups.

For the staff, every hour is spent listening, recording, responding and even counselling countless of people in distress. Many callers are people who have spent months or even years trying to get their problems resolved to no avail.

I met the 43 public liaison officers from national departments and provinces as well as the 21 presidency call centre staff on the 14th of September and warned them that the work would be emotionally draining. I emphasised that they were the face of government and should project the caring government we want to be. On the 6th of October I visited the 50 staff members at SITA in Centurion, Pretoria and shared the message with them as well.

They have all handled their work professionally as evidenced by the letters and emails of gratitude we receive from citizens who have obtained assistance. The excitement of it all is to see people's problems resolved and to see the frowns turn to smiles.

The intention is to introduce a culture of taking people seriously, regardless of their station in life. When citizens or anyone calls a government department they must be treated with courtesy and be assisted as speedily as possible.

Common queries and complaints across all provinces relate to housing, and access to water and electricity. There are many enquiries relating to unemployment, which take the form of requests for assistance to find jobs or to overturn dismissals as well as to report corrupt practices. There are various enquiries regarding access to grants, special pensions, access to identity documents or allegations of corruption in the social grants system which government has been attending to for years.

Many young people contact the centre to seek assistance with outstanding school or university fees. There are also many cases relating to abuse of power by government officials at various levels.

The service is clearly helpful to people who had no way of ever accessing authority to obtain assistance. The Hotline staff was contacted late one evening to assist an elderly woman who was sleeping on the bench at Moroka Police Station in Soweto, who had nowhere to go. The Department of Social Development was contacted and she was moved to an old age home the following day.

A woman complained about a police station where she opened a case against a stalker. The police claimed it was not a serious matter, and after intervention from the Presidential call centre, the police are now investigating. As government we undertook to take cases against women and children seriously and this must be done.

A man whose RDP house had been attached by a bank had given up hope until he emailed the Presidential call centre. The house was about to be auctioned. The Centre negotiated with the Bank and the family now has their home back. The man will pay back the money and is receiving debt counselling. In another case, an Ekurhuleni man who called about burst sewerage pipes in his area is most grateful as these were fixed just one day after calling and speaking to the President at the Centre.

Most of the people who call the Hotline or who send letters want their enquiries to remain confidential. This therefore limits our ability to share many success stories with the public.

The functioning of the Presidential call centre is continually being improved on the basis of the lessons learnt so far. One of the greatest challenges has been the high volume of calls, with the result that some people have not been able to get through. Our technical teams are looking into this.

The callers spend at least 20 minutes on the phone explaining their predicament. Our staff members in The Presidency have been instructed to treat each call as if it was the only one, they are not allowed to drop callers before concluding the conversation. That on its own reduces the number of calls they can take each day.

We need to educate the public that the Presidential Hotline and public liaison service do not replace the existing hotlines and public liaison facilities of departments, provinces or municipalities. It is intended to be used as a last resort where other systems have failed.

There are various call centres within government. They need to be improved in order to reduce the pressure on the Presidential Hotline, to enable it to deal with cases that provinces or departments were not responsive to. Amongst some of its immediate benefits, the Presidential Hotline has already helped re-awaken public liaison as a key function across government. Numerous government departments across all spheres already perform functions similar to those carried out by the new public liaison function at The Presidency, but there was no coordination and integration.

Now, following the launch of the Presidential Hotline, public liaison officers across government are beginning to form a strong network, sharing experiences and best practices and working together towards the common goal of making government more responsive to the needs of members of the public.

Another benefit of the Presidential Hotline is that it will be used for purposes of monitoring and evaluation. Through the enquiries and complaints that we receive, government will be able to spot patterns in relation to service delivery problems so as to make more informed decisions about the nature of interventions required.

The long-term solution is that the public service needs to change the way it works and the attitude towards the public. We have started meeting with senior public servants to explain our vision and what change we expect. I met with school principals in August and the police in September. I will meet with various other categories of public servants such as health professionals, social workers, local government practitioners and others.

We want them to know that the people come first in everything we do, and we want excellence. There is no place for complacency, cynicism or excuses.

Working together we can do more!

Labels: GOVERNANCE, JACOB ZUMA

posted by MrK @ 1:50 AM