The four ingredients of delivery
Richard Moleofe | Friday April 4, 2014 11:53
A little over a year the president came back to announce the fourth “D” which stood for delivery. It is important to note that after the first year in office, he came to realise that his roadmap could not be so elaborate without the component of delivery. In short, the roadmap was incomplete without delivery. But what went wrong with almost all the major national projects failing to meet the mark of delivery under Khama’s leadership even as he preaches the gospel of delivery? I will deliberately desist from discussing the failure of major projects such as Morupule B, water shortage, Botswana Meat Commission and such others. These are grand strategic projects and in this case the finger points to the cabinet itself for all the failures at that level. The theories I am applying in my analysis will be appropriate to use in the assessment of any ministry or government department in their daily workings.
In my analysis I have noted four major components that are essential ingredients in the hot pot of delivery. For any institution or government to achieve a successful delivery of a product or services, I have come to realise that they will need input and investment of the following; 1. Finance, 2. Manpower, 3. Machinery (Equipment) and 4. Materials. Finance goes for what the entire project budget is and how far it can be stretched when taking into account the fact that in Botswana there are always cost overruns on almost every project. The second is the manpower needed to achieve the intended results. This will include permanent, temporary staff and those on contract as well as interns as they have now become part of government’s way of life in as far as issues of human resources are concerned. Next is machinery or equipment which is procured with the finance and used by the existing pool of human resource within the establishment. Last in the list is materials. This will vary from one establishment to another as it may be photocopying paper in one department and for another it may be brick and cement.
Materials in this broad sense can be described as all expendable items that the organisation uses in its daily existence. Using the army as a good example, government needs finance to recruit a soldier and equip him/her with uniforms and a weapon which will from time to time need expendable ammunition.
Having arrived at this stage, we need to have an overview of what exactly goes on within government in order to achieve the desired levels of productivity satisfactory to members of the public who are consumers of government products and services. There is a lot going on in government ministries and departments. But the monumental failure of Khama and his cabinet at the grand strategic level and particularly in the area of provision of power seems to have overshadowed all the good there is at other subordinate levels of government. Delivery is now taken seriously and it is always accounted for through evaluations. Evaluations have revealed that one of the impediments against delivery lies with the current procurement procedures which need to be re-engineered or overhauled.
The introduction of service level parameters in government offices have certainly improved delivery. Furthermore, the employment of Performance Indicator Coordinators has greatly improved delivery at all levels. These managers are responsible for the periodic review of such service level indicators as well as the assessment of the individual personnel and their performance. The division of labour here is very interesting because these indicators make everyone in the production chain accountable for their daily input and quarterly output. The current reporting system has really transformed service delivery in government and helps in holding people accountable for their actions or lack of in the line of production within government machinery. The system has made everyone accountable from the highest office to the man and woman in the tearoom.
The improved levels of productivity, which in this case are translated into service delivery, also account for the improvement of productivity in the private sector and as well as the informal sector. Men and women are able to access services within a shorter space of time therefore freeing them to return to their areas of employment to continue with work. This is a healthy atmosphere for a growing economy and the improvement of delivery will enhance the attraction of foreign investment into the country. For instance, one area of transformation in government has been with the department of immigration were services are accessed within a shorter period of time compared to earlier times. Customers are now able to start and finish the cycle of renewing their driver’s license within one day at the Department of Road Transport and Safety. However, the two cited departments still need to introspect deeper because of the existing flaws in their systems which remain an eyesore in what could generally be described as a sanitised environment of service delivery. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship still limits its daily services to the first 50 customers at Loapi House who come to renew their work and resident permits. People arrive there as early as 4:00am in order to make it into the cut.
Government needs to focus tightly on delivery as a key point in reporting. This will help in improving our culture and work ethic. There is no need for personnel to report periodically without paying attention to meeting deliverable parameters required in their line of production. This statement comes in light of the fact that some civil servants will only pursue meeting their performance standards even when they miss the mark on service delivery. A case in point is the delivery of tea in the boardroom just on time regardless of whether it interrupts service delivery to members of the public. In the landboards, tea makers emphasise on delivering tea at the set time in order for them to meet their performance marks. The board has to go on recess in order to have tea and this comes at a terrible expense to customers who have to wait for the tea break to conclude. In my next two installments, I will give attention to the landboards as this is one area that needs total transformation within the existing government setup; they are the worst performers in the area of delivery. The last will focus on our security forces, BPS and BDF and how they cope with delivery from their perspective.
*Richard Moleofe is a Political and Social Commentator