Employees perception on improving service delivery at the Department of Public Works.

Abstract

The focus of the study was on the key challenges within the Department of Public Works which are preventing the department from delivering its services effectively. The challenges were observed as stemming from the lack of capacity and inadequate resources within the department, which is the key contributing factor in the poor service delivery within the department. Challenges also emanate from the non-existence of integrated management system, which makes it difficult to track the stages of services to be delivered. This results in huge delays in delivering the services to the clients. All these challenges have put the department under the spotlight as they have resulted in a lot of audit queries for the department as huge amounts of irregular expenditure and wasteful expenditure were being discovered. The objective of the study was to review the overall service delivered by the department in terms of capacity and resources. Another objective was to identify deficiencies in service delivery as well as gaps in business process which could be resulting in the department failing to deliver its services in an acceptable standard. Questionnaires were administered to officials and management of the department to test the objectives of the study. The recommendations from the study were that a highly skilled and competent workforce, work tools, systems and favourable institutional environment were critical in order to effectively implement the objectives for which they have been established. It also confirmed that an integrated tracking system is critical at the department and its absence is the reason for the major delays in procurement of services, in implementation of projects on time and in paying service providers on time. It is also very imperative that guidelines, policies and business processes for every section are well communicated to all staff to create synergy within the department.