Action Learning Pilot Programme Project Khaedu Nelspruit Home Affairs Office - preliminary findings Project Khaedu Nelspruit Home Affairs Office - preliminary findings 10 February 2005

Khaedu Home Affairs 2 Agenda  Executive summary  Current situation  Complications preventing action  Suggested solutions -Macro-level process and organisation -Micro-level process and organisation -Budget and organisation -People

Khaedu Home Affairs 3 Executive Summary (1)  Customers unhappy with long wait times and lack of certainty / responses on when documents will be ready  Staff unhappy with facilities and career progression  Wide variation in volumes of work by time of day, day of week, time of month and year, but largely predictable  Low levels of actual efficiency as the organisation and processes lack scale and clear job definitions -No effective separation of customer service -Processing efficiencies are low (data capture, quality checking, work-flow tracking) Situation  Very hierarchical structure with significant management and supervisory overheads and no evidence of teaming  No evidence of managing by the numbers, largely ad hoc fire-fighting  Identified process improvement are not prioritised but would ease wait times significantly  Overall delegation of authority / responsibility seems low at the provincial and sub-region levels Complications

Khaedu Home Affairs 4 Executive Summary (2) 1.At a province level, reorganise into 2 separate structures -Points of service dedicated to helping citizens fill out forms correctly and access documents quickly -Central processing unit with responsibility for capturing data, resolving any quality issues with the points of service and ensuring only good applications go to Pretoria -A small call centre with an 0800 number to provide general query and “where is my…?” support to citizens 2.Prioritise the implementation of Quick fixes in service delivery e.g. cashier elimination, immediate printing of abridged documents at the counter, signage, form redesign (i.e. eliminate separate writing of acknowledgements) 3.Relocate management to the work area and begin to manage workload by the numbers e.g. move administrative staff into the service area when you know you are facing a peak load – cross-train and team 4.At a national level: -Efficiently delegate authority / responsibility for HR and budgets -Radically overhaul procurement -Reengineer the very long processing and printing time for key documents (targets should be 2 weeks, not 2 months) -Investigate urgently the use of SMS messaging to alert citizens to the availability of documents for pick up (approx 26c per message if done in bulk buy) -18 million cell phones in South Africa – most people know somebody close by sho has one

Khaedu Home Affairs 5 Customers of the Nelspruit Home Affairs regional office are unhappy at the long waiting times and times to respond… Very unhappy Unhappy / OK OK Happy / OK Very happy Source: PSW Report back

Khaedu Home Affairs 6 …with complaints regarding lack of staff, conditions and lost applications “Not enough staff, only 3 people to serve us; I’ve been here 4 hours.” “The queues go on forever, even outside on a very hot day.” “They have lost my application twice and they never tell you until you arrive to get your ID.” “Staff are grumpy and it takes too long.” Source: PSW Report back

Khaedu Home Affairs 7 Home Affairs staff are particularly unhappy with the lack of career progression, facilities and training, while overall management performance is relatively positive… Very unhappy Unhappy / OK OK Happy / OK Very happy Source: PSW Report back

Khaedu Home Affairs 8 …again staffing was a major theme alongside facilities, career and training issues “We are hopelessly understaffed; I don’t even have time to go to lunch.” “We are stuck here all day; there is no job satisfaction when we are so understaffed.” “The computer systems and furniture are all broken and the toilets are always in a mess.” “There is no security – the public can come straight through to the offices.” “I have been stuck at this grade for 6 years with no proper training.”

Khaedu Home Affairs 9 e.g. only 1 old printer to print 3500 abridged documents per month (probability of technical failure high)

Khaedu Home Affairs 10 The current organisation appears silo’d and hierarchical… Regional representative Head of Office: Nelspruit Administration Head of Section Supervisor Administration Personnel / other (4) Cleaning (1) Finance / Accounts (3) Permitting Head of Section Supervisor Permitting Clerical (x3) Immigration Head of Section Civic Affairs Section Head Supervisor Immigration Supervisor Immigration Section 2 Deportation etc (4) Section 1 Operations (4) +2 interns 11 other reporting offices and ports Secretary

Khaedu Home Affairs 11 …including in Civic Affairs Head of Office: Nelspruit Civic Affairs Section Head Civil Affairs Supervisor Amend- ments Unit Head Counter staff (2) Births and amend- ments to addresses Unit Head Marriages & Deaths Unit Head ID Documents Unit Head Passport Unit Head Cashier (1) Finger prints Clerk 13 total staff in civic affairs

Khaedu Home Affairs 12 The queuing process is lengthy e.g. ID Document application average 1-4 hours Enquiries and forms Collect Counte r clerk Cashier Fingerprints Queue for collection Queue for acknowledgement Queue for cashier Queue for fingerprints Fill out forms External “assistance” to fill out forms

Khaedu Home Affairs 13 The queuing process is lengthy e.g. ID Document application average 1-4 hours

Khaedu Home Affairs 14 Budget for the office seems both inadequate (e.g. maintenance of office equipment) and does not make allowance for either inflation or likely wage increases *40 PCs, copiers and printers Likely public sector pay rise 11% gap

Khaedu Home Affairs 15 Long and unreliable timelines to receive responses from Head Office significantly impact service delivery particularly if errors / issues only detected in Pretoria Wait for Pretoria to respond Pick up documents 2-4 months average Receive and check application Load application Ship to Pretoria Longer cases 1-6 weeks 10 mins24 hrs12 hrs Wait for Pretoria to respond Pick up documents 2-6 months average Receive and check application Load application Ship to Pretoria Longer cases 1-6 weeks 10 mins24 hrs12 hrs E.g. passport application E.g. ID replacement Error / loss / issue in Pretoria – start at beginning

Khaedu Home Affairs 16 Volumes of work vary considerably across sections by month e.g. ID’s, CBI-9 etc 34% Avg

Khaedu Home Affairs 17 …and births and passports

Khaedu Home Affairs 18 The macro organisation and process design offers no scale or specialisation opportunities e.g. Civic Affairs, with a lot of single points of potential failure Head of Office: Nelspruit Civil Affairs Section Head Civil Affairs Supervisor Management Cashier (1) Acknowledge- ments (2) Collections (1) Passports ID’s Marriages and Deaths Births and Amendments Other amendments Fingerprints Customer service queries / errors Capture and processing Quality control / fraud protection x2x1

Khaedu Home Affairs 19 As an example, in passports, 2 staff process an average of 30 applications per day while handling all ad hoc customer queries, applications for temporary or emergency documents But normative standard for data and image capture is half estimated time i.e. 7 minutes vs 15 mins. Difference is a function of ad hoc workload

Khaedu Home Affairs 20 A suggested alternate structure for Civic Affairs DDG Civic Affairs Regional Manager MP Processing Manager Service Delivery Manager Administration Manager 5-6 ‘Regional Managers’ Call Centre (6) Processing Centre (20) 20 Service Points and satellites (60) HR (2) Finance / Accounts (2) Procurement (1) Logistics (1) Total potential staff in MP =