How should the ANC monitor Cadres in Government?

The monitoring and evaluation of government performance is a matter that has for a long time occupied the agenda of governments which are concerned about bringing about transparency and accountability. To this end, the World Bank has a division  (Independent Evaluation Group) dedicated to assisting government with putting in place proper monitoring and evaluation systems (M&E System). In the news recently is news that the ruling party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), the highest decision making body of the African National Congress (ANC) ruled that the organization ought to come up with a mechanism aimed at monitoring the cadres who have been deployed to serve in the government of President Zuma. The debate regarding how the ANC keeps track of the performance of its members who serve across all levels of government has been going on since the ANC came to power in 1994, however more recently, the debate has gathered momentum due largely to President Zuma’s strong focus on excellence in service delivery. Within weeks of taking office, President Zuma introduced a brand new ministerial department with the sole purpose of monitoring and evaluating the performance of all spheres of government, located in the office of the Presidency. The challenge with government monitoring and evaluating itself, is that there’s always be a question mark about the independence of such evaluations. For any government M&E System to be truly independent, it is my view that this must be carried out by an entity that has no vested interest either in government or the ruling party. However, in the absence of an independent entity the ANC must be applauded for wanting to explore an M&E System that presumably would be housed within the party structures at Luthuli House.

The Performance M&E System Concept 

The different ministerial departments of the government of President Zuma are officially organized into five main clusters: economic; social services; governance; justice as well as crime prevention and safety. In my opinion, the ANC should consider the creation of a structure that is populated by people who are experts in the fields related to these five government clusters. The role of this structure, which I shall call the monitoring and evaluation unit (MEU), would be firstly to ensure that government’s own M&E System as devised by the Ministry of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation is sound. More importantly the role of the MEU would be to continuously track the performance of the different government departments based on agreed performance measures. The success of the MEU depends on its powers and authority to have its recommendations and guidance implemented by government. One of the ways to secure this authority for the MEU would be for the recommendations of the MEU to be made binding by the NEC of the ANC, because this is the body whose says goes, both within the party and within government. Structurally, the MEU should report directly into the ANC Secretary General, Mr Gwede Mantashe with a dotted line to the NEC. The MEU’s own point of contact into government ought to be the accounting officers of each of the different ministerial departments, known as Director Generals.