WCG DoTP APP 2023/2024

governance is practiced and how data and evidence are leveraged for decision-making across provincial government departments. Within Programme 5, we optimise our service delivery to departments by identifying and clarifying the relevant touchpoints between the business units in the programme and ensuring that the client departments receive a seamless service as far as possible. We also collaborate across departments (with the Transformed Governance workgroup and related projects as a specific example) and participate in the trainee accountant programme offered by the Provincial Treasury. These interventions provide additional resources whilst at the same time contributing to the learning and development of staff members. Demand for legal services is expected to remain high, and pressure on available resources is not expected to show any decline in the 2023/24 financial year. Collaboration between the various, specialised units in Legal Services has not been ideal in the past and the full value proposition of the programme will only be realised once services and resources have been properly and fully integrated, which will be a strategic focus area for the programme during the 2023/24 financial year. As much as the programme renders legal services internally as far as practically possible, which safeguards the Western Cape Government against the exorbitant costs of outsourcing legal work to private practitioners, the unit is reliant on the appointment of advocates to represent the Department of the Premier (and all other provincial departments) in litigation matters that are instituted against the department. The scope and cost of litigation are difficult to predict, which means that the budget for external legal costs may come under pressure, depending on the number of matters initiated against the department. The Provincial Treasury conducted an expenditure review of the Broadband programme. All actions of the review have been implemented other than the annual cost review, where a benchmarking review was performed by SITA in 2022. The expenditure review is also informing the development of the next Broadband phase. With Broadband 2.0 the aim is for the WCG to serve as an anchor tenant which will allow the Broadband 2. 0 service provider to leverage off the WCG’s aggregated demand to achieve economies of scale and to connect designated WCG sites which can then use the new Broadband internet resources and connectivity. The further aim is to ensure that all citizens in the metro and rural areas of the Western Cape have internet coverage. The system will also provide for nomadic connectivity services (eg for mobile clinics, WCG eCentres, road camps, etc). More broadly, there is a growing demand for data and evidence on key government interventions. This necessitated a more responsive way of generating evidence using a Rapid Evaluation (RE) methodology. The value of REs has been incorporated as part of the broader Responsive Evidence Services (RES) offered across provincial government departments. Since 2020 and in line with our innovation for impact initiative, the Provincial Data Office completed twelve REs aligned to strategic priorities and key interventions. 6.1.6. Evaluation Findings

For the period 2022/23 the department conducted three evaluations.

• The Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) methodology that was identified by the executive as a strategic priority was evaluated. The main purpose of this RE was to evaluate the use and benefits of the PDIA methodology for addressing complex problems in government.

45

DOTP ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN FOR 2023/2024