No government services earmarked for immediate insourcing, minister says - IOL

The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) is weighing a phased approach to insourcing core government services while it is looking at issues linked to funding, capacity and the outcome of Parliament’s Insourcing Bill. 

This is the position of the government as articulated by Public Service and Administration Minister Mzamo Buthelezi when asked about the department’s stated phased and conditional in-sourcing of government services.

“The DPSA has not determined specific percentages of services that are suitable for immediate, phased or continued outsourcing. Any such determination would require consideration of the Department's operational requirements, available internal capacity and skills, service-delivery requirements, cost-effectiveness, sustainability and the availability of the necessary budget,” Buthelezi said.

He was responding to parliamentary questions from MK Party MP Japhta Sihle Malinga, who asked about a presentation DPSA made to the Public Service and Administration Portfolio Committee on the Insourcing Bill three months ago.

The department had been invited by the committee along with the National Treasury and the Presidency to make a presentation on the Private Member’s Bill introduced by EFF MP Omphile Maotwe last year.

The bill wants the state to insource everything from security, cleaning, gardening, maintenance, catering, auditing, ICT, transport, administration, and health-related services and compel all organs of state to employ workers to provide the regularly required services.

It also provides for the Minister of Public Service and Administration to develop an insourcing policy and accounting officers of organs of state will be expected to implement the policy and ensure personnel are adequately deployed and resources are in place to insource services.

However, the department had told Parliament that the bill appeared to oblige organs of state to employ workers from the private companies and required departments to redesign their models of managing outsourced services.

While it had noted that the blanket mandate proposed by the bill was currently unfeasible and estimated that it would add between R30 billion and R50 billion annually to the public service wage bill, it proposed the phased and conditional approach to in-sourcing.

In his response to parliamentary questions by Malinga, Buthelezi said the department’s proposed phased and conditional approach to insourcing was presented in the context of the assessment and consideration of the Insourcing Bill.

“It should therefore not be interpreted as an approved proposal for implementation within the DPSA.”

He stated that DPSA currently outsourced one category of government service, namely security services, which supplemented the permanent security personnel employed by the department.

“There are currently 14 security personnel engaged through the outsourced security services arrangement.”

Buthelezi said no additional services have been identified for immediate insourcing at this stage.

“A specific percentage for phased insourcing cannot be determined at this stage, as this would be dependent on the availability of funding and an assessment of the appropriate service-delivery model.”

Buthelezi also said a specific percentage for continued outsourcing cannot be determined at this stage, as this would similarly be subject to the availability of funding and an assessment of the most appropriate, cost-effective and sustainable service-delivery model.

Asked when his department hoped to finalise the proposed framework to progressively insource services, Buthelezi said the Insourcing Bill is currently under consideration through the parliamentary legislative process.

“The department is therefore not yet in a position to provide a definitive date for the finalisation of an insourcing framework.”

He added that the development of such a framework would depend, amongst other considerations, on the outcome of the legislative process and the applicable legislative and policy framework. 

“Once there is sufficient clarity on the legislative and policy position, the Department will consider the appropriate framework and implementation arrangements to support cost-effective, sustainable and efficient service delivery,” Buthelezi said.