The Treasury, the Presidency and the Department of Public Service and Administration do not adhere to the good governance principles they encourage other departments to follow, says Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Collins Chabane.

His department is charged with creating uniform policies and performance standards in the public service and with monitoring compliance with these.

The flouting of governance rules was discovered during a recent pilot monitoring exercise conducted by Mr Chabane’s department.

He said this week the Presidency, Treasury and public service department did not always pay service providers on time, yet were instructing other departments to settle invoices within 30 days.

The government has in the past been criticised for the late payment of bills, which had led to the closure of small businesses.

"The Treasury and ourselves (the Presidency) need to set an example, so that others can learn from us," Mr Chabane said.

The pilot monitoring found that the three departments were struggling with financial controls and internal efficiency. A task as simple as sending out a memo "sometimes takes a long time", he said.

The departments also battled with human resources management. The Department of Public Service and Administration is one of the lead departments in creating standard human resources practices for the state.

Mr Chabane said the government was also developing a performance management assessment tool to evaluate departments’ performance. Academics were assisting to create the tool to measure such performance in the implementation of the government’s five priority areas, and Cabinet ministers’ 12 outcomes targets . The five priorities are health, education, job creation, rural development and fighting crime and corruption.

A proposed system would be taken to the Cabinet , and Mr Chabane hoped it would be implemented in the next financial year.

The departments said last night they would respond after they had been briefed on the project.