Revision of the National School of Government

Transcript:Revision of the National School of Government:
Revision of the National School of Government Funding Model: A presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration Prof. Richard M Levin Principal: National School of Government 14 June 2017 Purpose The purpose of this presentation to the Portfolio Committee is to: Provide a background to the current funding and business model of the National School of Government Reflect on the challenges that the National School of Government is facing with regard to the current funding model Propose and seek the support of this Portfolio Committee for a revised funding model 2 Key Message The National School of Government is legislatively mandated to provide training or facilitate the provision of training in the public service (Public Service Act). In fulfilling this mandate, it recovers costs for revenue generation to augment the Training Trading Account (TTA - Public Finance Management Act) for financial viability and institutional sustainability The current funding model is made up of partial funding appropriated by Parliament and income derived from cost recovery through training course fees, which is managed in the TTA. All costs associated with the design and development of learning material and implementation of training courses from the training fees are recovered The revision of the current funding model comes at a time of an array of influencing factors, such as government’s austerity measures, budget cuts imposed on the NSG and its impact on the funding model, and NSG’s ability to remain competitive within the training and development landscape International reports and benchmarked studies of funding models of schools of government indicate that the models vary from country to country. There is, therefore, no single model within national schools of government for funding allocation 3 BACKGROUND 4 Background “In the past, public sector training institutions did not compete with private sector training institutions….nowadays public service training institutions are managed more and more like private enterprises. They have to face market competition and compete on a more or less equal footing with private sector training providers.” (OECD report, 1997) ”Schools of government are uniquely positioned to play a central role in developing the necessary skills and competencies to meet government needs and priorities.” (OECD Survey Report, 2017) The NSG (then PALAMA) was “set up as a training institute equipped to run short-term courses” and “is constrained by its demand-led funding model” with its “reliance on buying in training capacity” (National Development Plan – 2030)