Amalise Strategic Management

Running Head: Amalise Strategic Management Name University Course Tutor Date Gauteng Provincial Government is working to the best of its capability with utmost dedication and efficiency to serve the citizens of Gauteng. It demands high performance and competence accompanied by motivation geared with ambition from the various departments it constitutes, to be able to prioritize and fulfill the needs of Gauteng citizens and development of the Gauteng province. The Gauteng Provincial Treasury department handles all the financial matters pertaining to the Provincial Government.

It collects, manages and forms strategies to act as guidelines when planning on the usage of revenue contributed by the public. The treasury department works with diligence to ensure government priorities as outlined in a number of documents and key initiatives such as Gauteng Growth and Development Strategy (GDS), The Global City Region (GRC) strategic intent, the shared vision of creating a smart province and as reflected by the innovation programs such as the Blue IQ, Gauteng-online, Gautrain and the Batho Pele principles of delivering high-quality services to the citizens of Gauteng are achieved.

The treasury also works hand in hand with the provincial departments and municipalities to increase the capacity of financial management, achieve operational efficiency, promote accountability in government, provide strategic leadership and technical support in financial management and budgeting, develop and implement efficient internal systems and processes and provide guidance and leadership in the implementation of financial management reforms for both provincial and local government.

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To enhance effective and efficient allocation and utilization of funds geared towards fulfilling Gauteng Provincial Government priorities and improving the financial management system, the Provincial Treasury stipulated a statement of purpose to guide it. According to the Gauteng Provincial Treasury five-year strategic and performance plans for the period 2009-2014 second draft (5th September 2008) the goal of the treasury was, “to provide sound financial management leadership that maximizes service delivery through effective and efficient use of limited resources in the Gauteng Province” (p. 36). The vision of the treasury was, “to be the pioneer in financial management leadership and fiscal discipline within the public sector in South Africa thus enabling shared economic growth” (p. 37). The Gauteng Provincial Treasury's five-year strategic and performance plans for the period 2009-2014 second draft (5th September 2008) states the mission that the Gauteng treasury follows to implement their vision.

“We strive to be an innovative, pro-active and value-adding partner to our stakeholders, by researching and implementing best practice approaches to financial management, enhancing vertical and horizontal alignment in government, promoting and encouraging more informed understanding of the financial management framework, instilling accountability, sound analytical reporting, good enterprise governance and transparency as the norm, ensuring allocative efficiency and optimal utilization of resources facilitating strategic alternative funding solutions thereby supporting an environment of sustainable economic growth and social development” (p. 37). The Gauteng Provincial Treasury exhibits reliability and efficiency by performing duties given to them in accordance with the legislative mandate. It ensures the principles it has formed are aligned in accordance to the Batho Pele principles by enabling the provision of technical assistance and analysis, ensuring the spending agencies value the function of money and thus do not misuse the money or misinterpret the role the treasury plays when managing the government’s financial materials.

This is done through training programs such as CIBA and SAM. Also, the treasury should promote transparency by the publication of their annual reports and budgets through local newspapers, budget statements, and MTBPS. The treasury department also ensures the allocation of funds to every department is according to the provincial priorities which include building a competitive Gauteng GCR, implementing Gauteng social GDS, and building the capacity and organization of the state.

The Gauteng Provincial Treasury is an independent department that has a critical role to perform thus needs to be able to motivate the program levels it is working with, to be able to achieve the stipulated goals. The treasury department should be able to plan, organize, have good interpersonal skills, and be able to evaluate performance so as to run the duties outlined to it in the most competent and accurate manner (Rees & Porter, 2001).

The head of the treasury department was able to show good leadership skills by involving each department in decision making, when reviewing and updating the strategic plan for the period of 2009-2014, developing medium-term tactical plans, and outlining the methods to use when evaluating the performance of the department after every year. In the period of 2006-2009, the treasury did not fully accomplish some of the roles it played.

When formulating the strategic plan for the period of 2009-2014, it discussed ways of overcoming that shortfall by improving and adding value to maximize their performance so as to be able to raise the living standard of the Gauteng citizens, creating a parallel line between their corporate services function and their core strategies, using internal and external auditors to monitor and evaluate those sent to work in the municipalities to prevent the creation of too much dependency which may bring undesirable outcome, interns and the credibility of their data.

The results the auditors present should be discussed and the solutions given implemented to lay a competent foundation of performing duties in the most qualified way. The treasury department should form a partnership with the Chief Financial officer (CFO) and professional bodies to enable it to function in a reliable manner towards achieving the department’s vision. The treasury should work with the CFO working for Gauteng Provincial Treasury to be able to evaluate the performance of the department in reference to achieving the department’s vision.

It should also liaise with other CFO’s to gain more knowledge and tactics for performing the role it has defined to fulfill the department’s vision. Strategies of communicating with other departments in the Provincial Treasury must be improved, to enable a full understanding of the duties they perform. For the treasury department to set a good trend of performing the roles given, to enable the Gauteng Provincial Government to achieve the goals it promised the citizens of Gauteng, unqualified municipalities should be fired.

This means that the treasury should review its strategy of staffing to ensure that it has a quality staff in the right quantity. It should design KSAOs (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics of the organization) that it will use when staffing, to employ qualified and competent people who will work to the maximum of their capability to improve the overall performance of the treasury department. This will place the department in a better position to perform its duties according to the preference and priority of the Gauteng citizens.

The head of the department in the Gauteng Provincial Treasury should have an ambition that drives him, so as to plan and organize the various departments under his disposal and the duties to be carried out by each department in an efficient way. He should have a power of influence and inspiration so as to win the trust of the subordinate leaders by leading the department in an appropriate manner that will accomplish their vision. The HOD should also be innovative and possess the qualities of being able to implement and develop the ideas that have come up and those that existed.

This will enable excellent performance and smooth running of the treasury department and thus demolish the foundation of the risks that the Gauteng treasury department faced (Caroselli, 2000). By adopting the right staffing strategies the Gauteng treasury will have competent and qualified staff members that will be able to understand any policy or strategy formed for them to implement as they perform their duties, this will prevent the problem of under and over staffing, lack of motivation and good guidance to the staff and poor management in the departments (Rees & Porter, 2001).

For instance, due to poor strategies of staffing the Gauteng treasury was unable to implement the strategy given to it by the Gauteng provincial government (GPG). The HOD should evaluate the performance of the department on a regular basis to be able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of every member and delegate duties to them in a fair manner and according to their skill, capacity, and competence. This will also help to raise any problem like lack of resources and technology and thus be in a position to provide them.

The same system of organization and running of duties will be maintained eliminating the chances of confusion cropping up during the performance period. This will curb the problem of the lack of integration of financial systems (Caroselli, 2000). As the Gauteng treasury department continues to expand, appropriate measures should be carried out to also expand the working space and enable comfort to prevail to the staff as they are working.

This will increase the overall output and efficiency of each staff member. The HOD should set up a reliable information and technology management system to prevent loss of data that will give the treasury a history of their performance which is very important when evaluating the performance of the department. This will also prevent the loss of any current information or data being worked on thus maintaining the efficiency of the department because time will not be wasted repeating the same thing again.

A backup measure that is reliable and easy to operate and manage should be devised (Rees & Porter, 2001). Administrative skills and policies have been implemented into each department, enabling good relationships to prevail in the treasury department thus contributing to the overall efficiency of performance in the department. This can be portrayed by the good relationship between the HOD and the employees, national treasury, implementation of NCOP, with the investors and human resource services among others.

The Provincial Treasury must take care to prevent the functioning of the treasury to run under the influence of the politicians as this will make them rule biased decisions that favor only one party instead of working to satisfy the desires of the citizens of Gauteng. The treasury department should avoid over-reliance on politicians to act as their guarantors in case of the financial crisis but instead should work closely with the DED and GEP. Contracts formed must be fulfilled according to the terms agreed on this can be guided by the implementation of SLA with ABSA.

This will ensure trust between the treasury departments and the organization or person they are drawing a contract with is maintained. The HOD should ensure the municipalities are thoroughly audited to ensure the funds allocated to them are put into their correct use and thus eliminate mismanagement of funds. Before initiating any planning methodologies, appropriate and sufficient research should be done to help the accurate and adequate allocation of funds to every department in the treasury (Rees & Porter, 2001).

Implementation of good leadership skills will enable the Provincial Treasury to meet its objectives which include; being recognized as the leading Provincial Treasury in South Africa, ensuring good governance of all financial matters in the province, promoting integration and alignment of planning processes within the Province, exploring, implementing and managing strategic financing solutions, ensuring the effective and efficient management of Gauteng Provincial Treasury and to be a preferred employer, attracting and retaining high performing individuals (Caroselli, 2000).

The strategic management of the Provincial Treasury department should implement good management and leadership skills in the period of 2009-2014, to enable the department to go by their goal, vision, mission, and objectives and uplift the performance of the Gauteng Provincial Government. This will make the Gauteng citizens trust that the Gauteng Provincial Government will act on their needs and will re-elect it back to power.

Reference List

1. Caroselli, M. (2000). Leadership Skill for Managers. New York: Mc Graw Hill Professional.
2. Five-year Strategic Plan and Performance Plan (Second draft). (5th September 2008).
3. Gauteng: Gauteng Provincial Treasury. Rees, D. W. and Porter, C. (2001).
4. The Skills of Management. 5th Ed. Bedford Row, London: Cengage Learning EMEA.

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