Manuel praises dedicated finance staff

- Anton Ferreira - The Times

Attention has focused in recent months on how much longer finance minister Trevor Manuel will stay in his job — but equally important to South Africa’s economic stability are the public servants who do the nuts-and-bolts work of the Treasury.

Manuel said as much himself this week, calling the men and women in the Department of Finance an invaluable resource that the country should do all it could to preserve.

Briefing parliament’s finance portfolio committee on the global financial crisis, Manuel said: “If you’re looking for policy continuity, forget about the individuals who are elected as political office bearers. The strength of the policy is in the competence of the public servants.”

Manuel lavished praise on his staff, led by director-general Lesetja Kganyago, for the hard work they put in to draw up the national budget, and took a dig at unnamed cabinet colleagues whose departments were less committed.

“When I say to my colleagues that we table the budget in February — the fact that I know the date, I say the date is February 11 — there aren’t that many of my colleagues who have that relationship, either with their professionals or with parliament, to be able to (set a date) so far in advance,” said Manuel.

Some ministers, he said, expressed surprise that he did not have to change his plans “every two months”.

“The reason we don’t is that we have this intensive budget process that goes on for days and weeks... if anyone were to peek at the e-mail exchanges, what time they come through: 2:30am one day, 3:45am the next,” he said.

Manuel also stressed that the people who worked for him were not “yes-men”, who feared losing their jobs if they dared to offer an opposing view.

“We fight and we disagree and each one will have his own PowerPoint projection and so on... and sometimes the temperature is very, very high in the room,” he said.

“But it’s an important facility that we have because I firmly believe that if we don’t get thinking, competent professionals as public servants, who can say: ‘Minister, with respect, I disagree with what you’re asking me to do.’ if you don’t get public servants like that, we can’t work.”

His comments echoed recent criticism by public service watchdog, the Public Service Commission, which said the process of appointing heads of department in some parts of government was too politicised. The commission said that too often heads of department believed their continued tenure depended on keeping on the right side of their minister or MEC.

Manuel said Treasury wonks were not in government service for the money, which was less than what they could get in the private sector.

“We are greatly privileged to have this, because it’s not about what people can get out of it. It’s about putting heads together to produce a product. We know they could go to the private sector and command salaries that would be many times what they’re earning in the public sector.

“They’re here because of a desire to make a contribution and because they have the space to think and to contribute. We should not mess it up.”

Speculation about Manuel’s future has been rife since the ANC’s Polokwane conference a year ago, when the Zuma camp, backed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party, took control.

Communists and trade unionists have become increasingly vocal in criticising Manuel, particularly over inflation targeting and his belief in budget surpluses.

Finance portfolio committee member Kobus Marais, of the Democratic Alliance, said he backed Manuel’s view of the Treasury staff. “My personal experience has been that the Treasury Department, and the South African Revenue Service and, to a large extent, Stats SA, have been incredibly competent,” he said.

“Manuel is giving them the political backing for what they believe in, and they are giving him the technical know-how, so it’s really a team effort.”

Marais said it was unclear what would happen to the department if Manuel were to be replaced by a minister who shared the views of Cosatu and the SACP. “I do believe that what is happening, in terms of our economic policy, has got a lot to do with the director-general and his staff. There’s no doubt about that.”

Marais said the Treasury was the most important government department, drafting medium-and long-term goals that were fundamental to the country’s economic health.

He added that if the new leadership were to alienate Finance Department officials, “competent people would be grabbed by the private sector”.

They would be replaced by staff chosen for their political loyalties, and the Treasury would sink into the kind of incompetence that paralysed other departments, said Marais.