From tomorrow, 2 July 2004 the Government's Programme of Action arising from the May Cabinet Lekgotla and the President's State of the Nation Address on, 21 May 2004 will be available on the Government website.
The publication of this information follows the statement by the President, during the debate on The Presidency Budget Vote on 23 June 2004 in which he indicated that Government would open a page on its web-site, www.gov.za, containing information on the government's programme of action.
"By checking on this page, the public will be able to follow progress with regard to the implementation of this programme of action. It will also be possible for the public to communicate its views about the programme directly to the government, through the Internet and other, more traditional ways and means", the President said.
"Further to improve the capacity of the Presidency to discharge its functions of oversight, coordination and evaluation, more work will be done to increase the effectiveness especially of the Policy Coordination and Advisory Service Unit, the PCAS, working together with the Cabinet Secretariat.
"To facilitate the work of the PCAS, the Ministries and Departments are working on business plans for each of the tasks they have to carry out. These business plans will include an indication of the resources allocated for the fulfilment of each of the tasks, as well as the necessary implementation timeframes.
"The government has also agreed that we should use the system of Cabinet Committees to monitor and coordinate the implementation of the programme of action. This will be done once every two months, bringing together Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Directors General who belong to the various clusters together to consider progress with regard to the tasks relating to each cluster. This will improve coordination to ensure that the programmes of the various Ministries and Departments are consistent with one another."
The Presidency, working with GCIS, intends to update the information on the implementation of the programme every two months after reports on progress have been submitted by Clusters to Cabinet.
In addition as particular timeframes are reached there will be public communication by relevant departments on the details of implementation of the programme concerned.
The web-page includes a facility for the public to comment on the programme as well as its implementation, and where applicable, to indicate the role that individual citizens and/or their organisations can play in realising the objectives set out in the programme.
This decision of government forms part of the efforts to realise transparent governance in actual practice, and constitutes an element of the people's contract for a better life.
Enquiries
Joel Netshitenzhe
Cell: 082 900 0083
Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)
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