JZ’s measured accountability….

I came across the following piece this morning. If Jacob Zuma delivers on just this one thing, accountability, as detailed in the report below, then we will see real delivery. This surely has to be something really exciting for us as taxpayers.

Cape Town – Ministers will have to sign performance contracts with President Jacob Zuma, Collins Chabane, minister of performance, monitoring and evaluation, said on Wednesday.Chabane, speaking after Zuma’s budget speech in the National Assembly, said the contract would outline the required performance of ministers and will indicate “the measurements of success”.

“On a quarterly basis all ministers will report back on the basis of a straightforward one-page report card.

“The president will provide feedback and guidance with the view to assist in removing the identified obstacles to ensure improved performance and delivery.”

Chabane said ministers would also sign delivery agreements with their officials.

“We are confident that this endeavour will help government reward good performance and detect bad performance as early as possible to ensure that corrective measures are implemented.”

Performance management system

He said his department’s initial focus in monitoring and evaluation would be to develop a performance management system for the seven priorities of basic education, health, safety, rural development, housing, job creation strategies and public sector capacity.

He said a draft green paper on the enhanced monitoring and evaluation and performance management system would be ready by September 2009.

The presidency was establishing a service delivery unit, whose task would be to ensure that non-delivery and blockages are turned around, Chabane said.

“This will help government continuously improve its service delivery capacity while promoting accountability on the part of those charged with the responsibility to deliver.”

This is truly a great step, an easy step to monitor and ultimately one that can deliver true measurement and accountability.

I certainly look forward to seeing when it will be implemented and how the measurement criteria are set out. Equally I cannot wait to see the first round of performance evaluations in order to see if the government sticks to the commitment.