Marion Edmunds
Fears that the country will lose the essential skills of its scientists, engineers and technicians is driving a government investigation into the brain-drain from the public sector.
And while the science and technology division of the Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Department has already launched a formal investigation into its skills losses, other government departments are clamouring for a broader investigation into the loss of skills in all areas in the public sector, and losses inflicted on the country by emigration in the 1990s.
According to Rob Adam, deputy director general of the department, a ministers’ meeting chaired by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki agreed that the department’s investigation should be regarded as a pilot study for a much broader look at the brain- drain next year.
The pilot study has been contracted out to Deloitte & Touche at a cost of R74 000. Preliminary results will be ready by the beginning of November. Questionnaires will be sent to engineers, scientists and technologists who have left the public sector, to find out how they are employed and whether they intend to emigrate. So far this year, 142 engineers and related technologists have emigrated; last year 319 emigrated and in 1994, 393 emigrated, according to the Central Statistical Service. Nobody has any data on how many of those were from the public sector. But the government is worried, and not just about the emigres.
“We hear horror stories of nuclear scientists who used to work for the government now running fish- and-chip shops or pool-cleaning services, and while they may be contributing to the economy, their experience and expertise in nuclear science has been lost to the country,” said Arno Webb of the science and technology division.
He added that the shift in the government’s priorities had led to the loss in the public sector of numerous skilled people in defence and scientific research.
“When we discussed this investigation in the ministers’ meeting, other departments said `hey, you guys are not the only ones’, and suggested this study should be broadened to include the whole public service,” said Adam.
Webb said there was a move to set up a system to maintain links with skilled people who had emigrated.
“Even if they have left the country, their skills do not have to be lost to the country,” he said. ” We could perhaps create a data base of South African experts abroad and these people could be brought in for research or for certain projects. Other countries have done this,” he said.
This investigation sits uncomfortably with the public sector’s drive to shed 300 000 employees over the next three years, to cut the wage bill. Part of the strategy is to offer voluntary retrenchment packages, which can only be granted if they are “in the interests of the state”. The voluntary package programme has been launched without any real assessment of its impact on the service’s capacity to deliver.
The director general of the public service, Dr Paseko Ncholo, said they were hoping, through this programme, to retain skilled people in the public service and shed the dead wood, partly by changing the culture of the public service, and partly by offering market-related salaries at the top-end of the service.
However, government officials and outside observers are sceptical, believing the government may be closing the stable door only after the horse has bolted. Sources in the Department of Finance say they are concerned that the voluntary packages will encourage skilled people to take what they can get and run.
Reconstruction and Development Programme monitor Gavin Lewis said this week: “They are in trouble because they are losing people at the provincial level and many of those people, whatever their past political allegiances, have got considerable technical experience … only a foolish white male in his 40s would not seize a voluntary package with both hands, because his career prospects in the service are grim.
“I know that in the area of housing, the capacity to deliver according to the housing programmes is being severely hampered by the loss of skilled people, to the extent it is actually going to cripple delivery in all but two of the provinces.”
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said last week that 905 of his staff had been granted permission to take early retirement, many of whom were senior public servants. In answer to a question by Democratic Party MP Ken Andrew in Parliament, Manuel said his department had lost a deputy director general, four directors, two deputy directors and three assistant directors.
The South African Revenue Service had lost a deputy director general, three chief directors, eight directors and 39 deputy directors. A number of computer personnel had also received packages, he said.