Turnaround Strategy

Briefing of Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs & Select

Committee on Social Services
24 February 2004
 Overview

• Outlines the challenges facing DHA

• Discusses the elements of the turnaround
strategy
• Highlights the funding implications
 The DG’s Crash Course
• Reading, meetings, discussions
• Visits to departmental units
• Visits to provinces
• Visits to Consular Offices
• Meetings with counterparts
• Visited:
– 29 regional offices
– 32 district offices
– 14 service points
– 3 MPCCs
– 16 ports of entry
– 5 refugee reception centres
– Lindela
 Overriding Impressions
• DHA critical to Government’s delivery agenda,
national security and crime prevention and
combating
• DHA is a window to government and SA
• DHA is chronically under-resourced
– Not about more to do more
– About having resources to do basics
• Need a decisive turnaround strategy
Critical Capacity Requirements

People

Technology Infrastructure
 Personnel
• Approved establishment – 7,499 posts
– Developed in 1995 when effects of democracy could not be
measured
• 5,843 posts filled
• 370 vacancies funded
• 1,200 volunteers
– R40 per day
– Exploitation
– Not vetted
• 58 contract workers
• Business study – twice as many posts needed
 Infrastructure
• DHA offices typify
dark days of apartheid
– badly located
– dilapidated
– understaffed
– insecure
– under-equipped
– inadequate transport
 Technology
• Living in IT pre-history
• Systems and business processes manual and paper-
based
– No internal email, no network collaboration
• Offices and border posts not connected to mainframe
• PR and MCS need rewrite
• Network infrastructure needs upgrading
• Internal IT capacity inadequate – rely on consultants
• SITA service inadequate
 HANIS
• HANIS in crisis
• Chief Director IT, Director and Deputy Director HANIS resigned
• Dept at mercy of consortium and consultants
• Decisions unmade, postponed, wrongly made
• Progress
– Nearly 2 million records
– Duplicates detected
– Applications of illegals detected
• HANIS vision lost
• 3 critical challenges
– Live capture
– Conversion of paper records
– New ID card
 Key Interventions
People

GPW

Integr Gov

Service Delivery

Info Management

International Relations

Regions & Foreign Offices

Leadership & Management

Communication

Legal Services

Budgeting & Procurement

Corruption & Security

Civic Services

Technology Immigration Infrastructure

 Immigration Control
FOREIGN VISITORS TO SOUTH
AFRICA (1994-2002)

7000000
• Of 5,843 filled posts
6549916

6000000
6026086
6000538
5908024
– 979 for immigration
5898236

5000000
5186221
5170096 • Of 370 funded
vacancies
4684064

4000000
3896547

3000000
– 68 for immigration
offices
2000000

1000000

0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
 Immigration Control
• DHA present at 57 ports of entry
• Critical shortage of immigration officers
• IT systems inadequate
• MCS updated manually
• No telephones, faxes etc. at some border posts
• Glaring comparison to SARS at Beit Bridge
 Immigration Control
• Immigration branch is law enforcement agency
• Immigration capacity characterised by:
– No proper central command
– Inadequate training
– Inadequately equipped
– Immigration officers ranked below counterparts
• US Immigration biggest law enforcement agency in country
• Challenge – transforming Immigration Service into properly
organised, trained, equipped and staffed law enforcement
agency
– Draw on assistance of community in SA and counterparts abroad
 Management of Refugees

REFUGEE APPLICATIONS
• Five refugee reception centres
25000 – Understaffed, under-equipped, pressured
20000 20842 • IT system collapsed
APPLICATIONS

18976
• Refugees on streets while waiting for
NUMBER OF

15000 application
• Backlog in tens of thousands
10000
• Refugee system easy way to bypass
5000 5843 normal immigration controls
0
2000 2001 2002 2003
YEAR
 Management of Illegal Foreigners
ILLEGALS REPATRIATED
• Lindela
200000
180713 176351 181286 183861
180000 170317 – Severely
160000
157084 156123
135870
understaffed
140000
120000
– Immigration officers
NUMBER

100000 90692 process intake and

80000 accompany
60000
deportees
40000
20000
– No IT system
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
– Rife with corruption
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

• Number of immigration officers to trace and arrest pitiful

• In some districts only one Immigration Officer
• ‘Revolving Door’ syndrome
• One of DHA’s biggest challenges
 Civic Services
• Apartheid history led to many citizens not being
registered
• Had to allow for late registration of births and
amendments to Population Register
• Major ID and birth registration campaigns
• Necessary interventions to redress past wrongs
• Interventions created loopholes
• Major challenge – balance between realities of
apartheid legacy and integrity of citizenship
• Problem of fraudulent marriages
• Business processes totally outdated
 Corruption
• Two types of corruption – criminal and
convenience
• DHA prime target of syndicates and criminals –
provide an essential service
• Corrupting pressures will always be there
• Convenience corruption
– Get better service by ‘greasing our palms’
– Makes DHA officials easier prey for criminal
corruption
 Security
• NIA produced damning report on security in
DHA
• State of security in DHA is dismal – physical,
information, IT and personnel security
• Situation at Head Office improved
• Security in provinces very bad
• Has direct impact on corruption
 Service Delivery
• Home Affairs committed to Batho Pele
• Some shining examples of improved service delivery
• The reality:
– Chronic understaffing
– Poor office location
– Dingy offices
– No computers
– No transport
– No basic equipment and amenities
• Unable to meet requirements of Batho Pele
 Service Delivery
• Lack of resources not the only problem
• In Home Affairs the customer is always wrong!
– Attitude that client not entitled to services until they
prove they are
– Clients sent back and forth
• Problem of Head Office service delivery
– Slow
– Inefficient
– Bureaucratic
 Budgeting & Procurement

• General complaint by managers that they never

get the funding they requested
• Key problem: Bottom-up budgeting
• Effective expenditure monitoring lacking
• BAS to be rolled out nationally
• Provisioning lacks capacity
 Funding
• Funding is the overriding challenge
– 2003/04 allocation – R1,9 billion
– MTEF baseline allocation – R2,1 billion rising to
R2,5 billion in Year 3
• DHA requested R3,3 billion rising to R3,8 billion
• Final allocation R2,3 billion in 2004/05,
increasing to R2,7 billion in 2005/06, and
decreasing to R2,4 billion in 2006/07
 Funding
• Staffing
– MTEC allowed for no increase in staffing above 300 in
allocation for 2004/05
– Additional 500 posts allowed for Years 2 & 3
• Received sympathetic hearing from Treasury
– But fiscal constraints
– Anxiety on DHA’s ability to absorb additional resources
• No hope for all the funding we need over next three
years although Cabinet has already agreed that the
transformation of the Immigration Branch in particular
should be prioritised over the MTEF
 Turnaround Strategy
• Critical challenges have been highlighted
• These issues not really new
• New DG confirms situation even worse than thought
• Senior management teambuilding devised turnaround
strategy
• Covers range of interventions
 Turnaround Strategy
• Personnel
– Implement proposed organisational structure
– Project to develop short to long-term personnel
recruitment and replenishment strategy
– Speed up filling of management posts – including 3
DDG posts
– Strengthen internal training capacity
– Develop esprit de corps
– Phase out volunteers end financial year
 Turnaround Strategy
• Infrastructure
– Audit of all offices re location, condition and equipment
– List of worst offices for emergency attention
– Master plan to replenish and extend vehicle fleet
• Technology
– IT Lekgotla held to develop overall strategy for fully-
computerised Department (IT Ingwe)
– ISMB established
– Project teams put in place
 Turnaround Strategy
• Back-end: Fully integrated biometric data base of all persons that
Department deals with, e.g. citizens, visitors, refugees and illegal
foreigners
• Will incorporate all Department’s systems: Population Register,
Movement Control System, Passport System, Refugee System,
Visa System & Illegals Database
• Has the potential of not only dramatically improving service
delivery, but will also notably increase security community’s
capacity to detect illegal foreigners and to combat fraudulent
acquisition of IDs, passports and other documents such as birth
and marriage certificates
• At front-end will be the Integrated Client Service Console at all
the Department’s service points
 Integrated Client Service Console

Document
Printer
Scanner
Work Station
And Digital Camera

Fingerprint Reader Card Reader

Barcode
Fingerprint Scanner Digital Signature Pad Reader
 Turnaround Strategy
• Electronic Document Management & Workflow System
– Will allow all service delivery processes to be managed on-line
– Will limit manual intervention in processes thus lowering possibility of fraud & corruption
– Will include a review of all service delivery processes
• Enterprise Resource Management
– Software to be acquired to improve electronic management of financial & human resources and assets
• Browser-based Systems
– Common front-end to be developed for all the Dept’s systems
– Will ensure integration with other e-govt initiatives
• Enterprise Systems
– Need to design and implement department-wide platforms & communications capabilities in accordance
with MSP
• IT Security
– Measures to be taken to ensure data integrity
• Information Management
– Address Dept’s info requirements in integrated & holistic way
– Will help to monitor turnaround times in key processes & facilitate decision-making
 Turnaround Strategy
• Policies & Procedures
– Standards to be developed on proper utilisation of IT infrastructure
• Service Management & Support
– Contract management & service level monitoring capacity to be developed
• Change Management
– Staff to be prepared & to be provided the skills they need to make the transition from the old to the new
 Turnaround Strategy
• Immigration Control
– Workshop held to plan total transformation of Immigration
Service - results incorporated into restructuring proposals
– Project team formed to define in more detail the personnel &
logistical requirements
• Refugees
– Interim database being developed
– Project to train Refugee Status Determination Officers
– Look for partners to assist with backlog
 Turnaround Strategy
• Illegal foreigners
– Will introduce ICSC at Lindela as one of ITingwe “quick wins”
– Intensifying discussions with counterparts in neighbouring
countries
• Fraudulent citizenship
– Have taken a number of decisions to deal with the fraudulent
acquisition of Home Affairs documents
– Includes review of the system of marriage officers & late
registration of births
– Also attending to delays in critical areas whilst business
process review is under way
 Turnaround Strategy
• Corruption
– Working with intelligence and enforcement community to tackle
corrupting syndicates
– Needs holistic approach - being led by NIA
– Re-design of IT and processes
– Improve morale and working conditions
– Educate and motivate DHA officials
– Deal with public attempting to bribe our officials and officials seeking
bribes
– Improve service delivery
– Chief Directorate to be established that will focus on both counter-
corruption and security
 Turnaround Strategy
• Security
– Revamping security capacity
– To appoint Security Manager
– Upgrade of Civitas in process
– Finalised MOU with NIA on vetting
– Project on MISS and information security
– Finalise security policy
 Turnaround Strategy
• Service Delivery
– National ‘customer is always right’ Campaign
– Institute national standard for signage, workflow,
queue management
– Establishment of 24-hour Client Services Centre
 Conclusion
• DHA been through difficult period
– Two DGs in relatively quick succession
– Tension between former DG and Minister
– Delay in appointing new DG
– Experienced managers left
– High turnover in all levels of Department
– Morale low
• The turnaround has begun!
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