Cape Town - Senior managers in the public service cost the
state R4.1bn and pocketed, on average, R811 235 a year while presiding over state
machinery that barely reached half the targets set, the DA said on Tuesday.
This emerged from the 2011/12 annual reports for national
government departments, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Kobus Marais said.
"An analysis of the available information on
performance targets in the various departmental annual reports shows that
national government departments spent, on average, 96.5% of their budgets, but
achieved only 52% of their targets.
"Senior managers were, however, rewarded well for this
mediocrity," he said in a statement.
The reports showed that R4.1bn was spent on the salaries of
4 279 permanent employees on senior management level (levels 13 to 16).
A further R378m was spent on salaries for 450 contract staff
in senior management, average salaries were R811 235 for permanent senior
managers and R1.314m for contracted staff in senior management positions (based
on averages provided by departments).
Some R41.13m was spent on performance bonuses for senior
managers.
Permanent senior managers in six departments earned an
average salary of more than R900 000 a year. These included public enterprise
(R935 700), public service and administration (R949 000), defence (R949 507),
justice and constitutional development (R1.101m), correctional services
(R1.109m), and sport and recreation (R1.6m).
In the two departments that spent the most on performance
bonuses for senior management - National Treasury with R14.3m and
environmental affairs with R5.5m - the Auditor General (AG) did not note the
percentages of targets met.
In the case of Treasury, the AG indicated that the 42% of
the targets relevant to programmes were not time bound or tied to a specific
deadline. For environmental affairs, the AG had "no material
findings" on the performance report.
"It is surprising that the department of basic education,
which achieved only 47% of their targets, had the third highest spending on
performance rewards for senior staff - R3.1m," Marais said.
Massive discrepancies between performance and outputs
achieved were also noted for various departments.
The higher education and training department reached only
29% of their targets, but paid R1.24m in senior management bonuses.
The water affairs department achieved 8% of their targets,
but paid R669 000 in performance bonuses to senior staff.
At the justice and constitutional development department,
R1.04m was paid in performance bonuses to senior managers in a department that
reached only 18% of its targets.
"We cannot continue to reward poor performance in the
public service."
A review of the remuneration policy and performance
management system in the public sector was critical, he said.