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The Merafong City municipality, together with Executive Business Solutions (EBS), transformed a manual paper-based system into a fully automated electronic performance management system.

Achieving efficiency with performance management

 Post the 2009 elections, the government department of monitoring and evaluation was elevated to the presidential office, highlighting the importance of performance evaluation within the South African public sector. Motivated by this, the Merafong City municipality, together with Executive Business Solutions (EBS), transformed an outdated and ineffective manual paper-based system into a fully automated electronic performance management system.

Based on the South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA) framework and the national standards, the paper-based system was ineffective in tracking performance information and employee performance, on short notice in real-time. “The compilation of paper-based portfolios of evidence was a tedious and time-consuming exercise. Performance information could not be verified accurately against the actual data, which contributed to a weak control environment pertaining to reporting and the integrity of data,“ states Albie Nieuwoudt, executive director of Development and Planning at Meraong.

Performance jitters

Merafong required EBS to implement an integrated ePMS (electronic performance management system) solution throughout Merafong’s municipal offices, Niewoudt explains. This needed to include the building of scorecards for the first three levels of the organisation. The solution had to ensure alignment of indicators of the different levels to ensure integration with government processes.

This necessitated the re-engineering of some scorecards to ensure that indicators comply with the ‘smart’ (simple, measurable, attainable, reliable and timeous) principles. A further requirement was the development and implementation of a change management.

The main challenge facing EBS in implementing the ePMS was the alignment of the scorecards from the organisational to sectional levels, and the development of indicators that could be linked to the relevant data sources. Niewoudt explains that many of the original indicators were not aligned with the five-year strategy of the municipality, and were once-off initiatives rather that performance targets aligned to the five-year strategy. Some of the data sources were not electronically available to interface with the system. The manual capturing of data compromises the control environment, and therefore it is endeavoured to electronically integrate reporting with data sources.

Driving performance

Heading up this implementation, Danny Maieane, public sector director at EBS, used QPR ScoreCard technology to build the ePMS solution. QPR ScoreCard is a collaborative management software solution for implementing balanced scorecard and strategic performance management frameworks. QPR does not only facilitate the measurement of performance indicators, but also supports the implementation of management processes that support the effective evaluation and utilisation of performance information. Maieane explains that QPR pulls information from existing systems and produces a graphical representation of the information, making reporting easy.

“QPR is split into modules; for the Merafong implementation, the ScoreCard and ProcessGuide modules were implemented. These modules can assist in identifing process ineffectiveness instead of blaming failures on employee incompetency. The system provides a platform to measure both people performance and organisational performance. This optimises organisational performance and allows people to work efficiently and effectively,” says Maieane.

Outperforming

Notable successes at this stage include an organisational performance plan that is fully integrated with the department and sectional performance plans. This is aligned with the IDP and the Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan.

The scorecards that have been reengineered ensure that KPIs are measurable and linked to credible data sources, notes Nieuwoudt. Upon data capturing of the performance evidence, the performance on the specific indicator and key performance area is reflected immediately for the section, the department and the organisation as a whole. This acts as an early warning system to detect variances on planned performance and to implement improvement plans where applicable.

The next phase of the current project entails the mapping of the processes linked to the KPI – the cascading of initiatives, such as policies, into action plans with clearly defined responsibilities and time-frames. The early warning system through the intranet or e-mail has not yet been activated, but on implementation, will create an enabling environment to ensure tracking of performance on each indicator and on every level of the municipality.

C O N T A C T

Danny Maieane
Public Sector Director: EBS
Tel: +27 11 545 7660
Fax: +27 11 312 1506
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.ebsza.com