| Media release |
| Home Affairs Minister Mapisa-Nqakula Announces Turnaround Action Team |
Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula today announces the most significant step to date in her strategy to transform and improve her Department’s ability to serve the people and contribute to the economic growth of South Africa with the appointment of the Home Affairs Turnaround Action Team.
The team includes private and public sector experts from a number of fields, including IT, finance, business process re-engineering, and communications. To be directed from the office of the new Director General, Mavuso Msimang, the Turnaround Action Team has been tasked with creating a radically more efficient, customer and business friendly Home Affairs structure able to fight corruption effectively, deliver services on time, and serve the needs of the population and of the expanding economy.
The Turnaround Action Team includes
* a project group to coordinate major sections of the Turnaround Action Team headed by Kevin Wakeford, former CEO of Sacob and currently economic advisor to the Premier of the Eastern Cape,
* a task force from the National Treasury to assist with the establishment of sound financial processes,
* an IT panel including experts from the industry, the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the Department of Communications, and other private sector companies,
* a communications support and transformation element to ensure that improvements in Home Affairs impact positively on the public’s confidence in the Department, and
* the business re-engineering team including experts from AT Kearney and their local affiliate, Fever Tree Consulting.
The appointment of the Turnaround Action Team follows the deployment late last year by Minister Mapisa-Nqakula of a high-level intervention task team to assess in detail the evident weaknesses and shortcomings within Home Affairs. That team made a series of proposals on the practices and processes necessary to turn Home Affairs around, and following consultations with Cabinet and the relevant Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, the Minister promised to present an implementation plan before this year’s parliamentary debate on her annual budget.
Minister Mapisa-Nqakula is due to present her budget to Parliament next Wednesday, May 30th.
Initially deploying 27 full time staff to the Department, the AT Kearney/Fever Tree team will run two parallel processes over the first six months of the Turnaround Action Team project. The first will lead all activities aimed at identifying a new business model for Home Affairs capable of taking the Department from what it is today to what it needs to be.
This customer-based approach will analyse the needs of individual, business and institutional users of Home Affairs services, designing processes able to ensure that they can expect timeous and efficient access to identity documents, work, residence, and study permits, adjudication of applications for refugee status, or – in the case of banks and other credit institutions – identity document verification, to name just some of the Department’s core services.
The second, parallel process during the first six months to be led by the AT Kearney/Fever Tree team will involve rapid implementation of the new business processes in certain selected Home Affairs areas, including
· security and corruption busting,
· the issuing of permits as a crucial support intervention for the economy,
· a review of all agreements with external service providers to establish whether the Department is getting value for money,
· further extension of the ID document Track and Trace system announced yesterday,
· and a full assessment of risks facing all Home Affairs business units.
The Turnaround Action Team’s second phase during 2008 will see the agreed new business models for the Department taken to every level and every official.
“There will be tangible changes in Home Affairs by the end of this year which all who use the Department’s services will be able to experience,” said Minister Mapisa-Nqakula. “And by the end of next year Home Affairs will aim to deliver customer-friendly and efficient services to all of its clients in the manner they are entitled to expect.”
The AT Kearney/Fever Tree consortium is the only business process re-engineering company represented in South Africa with concrete experience of implementing a comprehensive turnaround strategy within a state agency, as well as an international track record in the specialised field of Home Affairs. Over the past several years, the company has played a central role in the transformation of the South African Revenue Service, as well as assisting the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand and the United States in re-engineering core elements of their Departments of Home Affairs or the Interior.
“Government has taken the decision to invest substantial resources in the complete transformation of Home Affairs,” said Minister Mapisa-Nqakula. “We are determined that this very important organ of the state should be efficient, customer-friendly, and corruption-free because it is responsible for empowering our people from their first to their last days with the correct documentation, and for supporting growth and development by enabling skilled people, tourists, and investors to contribute to our economy.”
Further Information:
Mike Ramagoma
082 463 5216
Cleo Mosana
Home Affairs Spokesperson
082 902 8796
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Released by Chief Directorate: Communication
Enquiries: Siobhan McCarthy (Head of Communication)- Siobhan.McCarthy@dha.gov.za 082 8866 708 | 22/05/2007 |
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