The Council In the course of the financial year 2003-2004, the Executive Committee met 12 times while the Council met five times. It must be noted that, in January 2004, the minister of Training, Skills Development, Productivity and External Communications reconstituted the NPCC Council.
The composition of the Council and attendance of members were as follows:
*The Executive Director was not present at a special meeting when the report of the salaries commissioner was discussed.
At the first meeting of
the renewed Council, in February 2004, it was decided to maintain the same
Executive Committee membership, apart from the outgoing chairman, for another
year, after which the members representing Trade Unions will rotate.
NPCC structure
The NPCC is a non-hierarchical organisation with a flat structure and is organised along the following lines:
(i) Corporate Business Development (CBD)
(ii) Social Capital Development (SCD)
(iii) Education, Communication & Publications
(iv) E-Productivity
(v) Knowledge & Innovation Zone
(vi) International Business Consulting
(vii) Corporate Services
(viii) Monitoring & Evaluation
The chart illustrates
the structure of the organisation with cross-functional teams and the interface
among the various units.
The objectives of each of the units are as follows:
(i) Corporate Business Development To make the corporate sector (both public and private) more productive and competitive through in-plant intervention, benchmarking, the promotion of clustering, innovation, continuous improvement techniques.
(ii) Social Capital Development To build up the social capital of the country by empowering citizens through non-formal education to be active partners in community development. The final aim is to unleash the productive potential of ordinary citizens (in schools, the home, NGOs, youth clubs etc.) by means of Civic Action Teams (CATs) to identify, reduce and eliminate the muda that confront them in their immediate environment.
(iii) Education, Communication & Publications To sensitize on and to promote the concept of productivity through the dissemination of information and knowledge, the development of training programmes and communication tools, publication of magazines and other documentation.
(iv) E-Productivity To harness ICT to improve productivity, competitiveness, creativity and innovation. This unit will also service other divisions, namely for e-benchmarking, e-newsletter, the Espace Innovation which is promoting open source software and developing contents as a support to the Computer Proficiency Programme (CPP).
(v) Knowledge & Innovation Zone To build up and disseminate competitive intelligence through Research & Analysis; to provide access to information and knowledge so as to encourage innovation through hands-on application in the Innovation Zone, an idea generating & testing area.
(vi) International Business Consulting To build international networks and provide consultancy services internationally on demand.
(Vii) Corporate Services To provide administrative, financial and logistics support to the organization.
(viii) Monitoring & Evaluation
To put in place performance indicators so as to be able to provide a feedback
mechanism to the rest of the organization on the effectiveness of NPCC’s
delivery system and on the impact of our activities
The team
The total number of staff as at 30 June 2004, excluding the Executive Director, was 17 and consisted of two Office Attendants/Drivers, four support staffs and 12 operational/technical staff.
No recruitment has been effected during the financial year because of the confusion regarding length of contract of employees and the delay in implementing the report of the Salaries Commissioner. In fact, Council had decided that no fixed length of contract should be offered to any officer in view of the publication of the salaries commissioner’s report on the pay and grading structure and conditions of service of the employees of NPCC.
Mr Ravi Rughoonundun, technician, left in March 2004, after one year of service.
The NPCC managed to meet its target as regards projects with the help of eight University of Mauritius students who underwent training placement at the NPCC during 2003/2004 under the Student Work Experience Programme of the University of Mauritius. They were:
Capacity Building
The NPCC requires a well-trained and cross-functional team, composed of self-motivated and results-oriented individuals, bent on making Mauritius muda-free and committed to the vision of a Better Living for the Nation.
To strengthen the capability of its staff, the NPCC has sponsored training programmes, locally and abroad, as follows:
Mr R Jutliah attended a training on SME Cluster Development, Principles and Practices, organised by UNIDO-ILO, in Turin Italy on 19-30 April 2004.
Mrs S Mathaven attended a one-day workshop on Computer Security organised by Datamatics. The workshop was conducted by Mr Harish Chander of India Tech International in June 2004.
Mrs V Goorah, and S Mathaven attended the International Conference on Open and Online Learning organised by the virtual Centre for innovative Learning Technologies of the University of Mauritius from 8 – 12 December 2003.
Mr D Appalswamy, Mr D Louise and Ms O Narod, attended a one-hour conference on Developing a Learning Organization and Knowledge Management Competence organised by the Mauritius Employers’ Federation in August 2003. The resource person was Dr. Joseph Prokopenko, International Management Consultant.
NPCC staff also attended training programmes organised by the NPCC itself and which were targeted at different audiences as follows:-
Training on BenchmarkIndex
Resource person: Mr Fannie Bosch, Benchmarking South Africa
Workshop on Understanding Open Source
Resource persons: Mr Atul Chitnis, Execore, India & Mr Andy Kiloh, Direqlearn, South Africa.
Workshop on Customer Care and Excellence in the Public Sector
Resource person: Mr Richard Barton and Robert Mann, Business Improvement Advisory Services, Australia.
Workshop on Business Process Management
Resource person: Mr Richard Barton, Business Improvement Advisory Services, Australia.
Workshop on THE FIT, a benchmarking tool for the textile sector
Resource person: Ms Rupa Ganguli, International Trade Centre
Training in Ramsay Productivity Models System
Resource person: Dr M.R. Ramsay
Training on Hoshin Kanri, a strategic planning tool
Resource person: Mr Jayanth Murthy, Kaizen Institute
Presentation on ZEDOC, a knowledge management software
Resource person: Mr Cyril Chee
Kim Lee, GS Informatique
International Networking
International networking provides an excellent opportunity to learn, share and gain insights on the international front. Sharing of experiences also help to reaffirm whether the direction taken by the NPCC is correct.
The following missions were undertaken during the financial year:
The Executive Director was invited by the Department for International Development (DFID), London, to attend and present a paper at an international conference on the Integration of Trade and Poverty Reduction Strategies organised by DFID in partnership with the World Bank, UNDP, IMF and the European Commission, London 8th to 9th December 2003. The cost of the mission was borne by the organisers.
Mr H Ramburn, Project Manager of the Computer Proficiency Programme, attended the ICT for Development Forum, organised by GKP (Global Knowledge Partnership) in Geneva, from 8th to 12th December 2004. The cost of participation was funded by GKP.
Mr D Appalswamy headed a delegation of four students of Keats College and their facilitator to participate in the 6th International Convention on School Quality Control Circles in Lucknow, India from 16th to 19th December 2004.
Mr Ram Jutliah attended and participated in the Indian Ocean Workshop on Democratic Governance and Sustainable Development in Small Island States, on the invitation of CEFRAD (Centre for Rights and Development), Seychelles from 26th to 27th January 2004.
The Executive Director formed part of a delegation of businessmen, academics and decision makers to visit Helsinki in Finland so as to appreciate and evaluate the country’s ICT cluster. The visit was organised and financed by the Government of Finland.
The Executive Director participated in a meeting of National Productivity Organisations of the SADC region from 29th to 30th April 2004 and in a roundtable meeting of National Productivity Organisations and stakeholders of Southern and Eastern Africa from 3rd to 4th May 2004. The mission was funded by SADC.
Ms O Narod participated in the 5th Genius-Europe International Exhibition of Inventions, Works of fine and applied arts, from 1st to 4 May 2004 in Budapest, Hungary.
On the Invitation of ComMark Trust, the Executive Director attended and presented a paper at the Lesotho Productivity Forum and Exhibition, Sharpening the Competitive edge, from 14th to 15th May 2004 in Maseru, Lesotho. The aim of the conference was to facilitate the development of a market for service providers to support the garment industry in Lesotho and to develop a vocational education and training strategy for the Industry.
Local
Regional
Mr. N. Treebhoohun, Executive Director of the NPCC, and Mr. Y. Sooklall, NPCC Executive Committee Member, sit on the board of PAPA (Pan African Productivity Association) as vice-president and member respectively.
International
NPCC is a member of :
Financial Report
The challenge for 2003/2004 was to move forward the Promotion of Innovation agenda and to follow up on the recommendations made during the Journée de Réflexion on Harnessing innovation to make Mauritius more competitive. In fact, when the NPCC started operations, one of the major problems was found to be resistance to change and innovation was identified as a driver for productivity.
The Innovators Mauritius Award, whose launching was originally scheduled for September 2003, was postponed to April 2004 and the Award Nite was finally held in September 2004.
Existing programmes related to CATs, Clustering, Benchmarking and Kaizen, were expanded and consolidated.
For the Level I assessment for the textile sector under the Textile Emergency Support Team (TEST), 50 enterprises were assessed using the RAPMODS technique as at 30 June 2004. For TEST level II, the NPCC had intervened in 9 factories to improve productivity using Kaizen techniques.
Another six interventions were effected on demand for the manufacturing sector – textile and non-textile - and 13 interventions were effected in the public sector in connection with the Muda-Free Publc Service project.
As has been the case in previous years, whenever external consultants are hired, a cost recovery approach is adopted. Otherwise, services are generally provided free of charge.
BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30 JUNE 2004
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Income
For the financial year under review, an amount of Rs 22.8M was voted as government grant compared to Rs 18.5M for 2003/2004. However, an amount of only Rs 21 M was requested and released as a few projects such as the Innovation Summit & the Innovators Mauritius Award Nite were postponed to the following financial year. The Ministry of Training, Skills Development, Productivity and External Communications, released the grant on demand usually on a quarterly basis. The NPCC also generated income amounting to Rs 7.3M from activities during the year. A surplus of Rs 6.2M has been recorded.
The NPCC benefited from the assistance of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation for consolidating the Benchmarking Unit. The International Trade Centre also delegated one consultant to present a performance-benchmarking tool, THE FiT, to assist garment manufacturers to assess their competitiveness vis-à-vis local and international competitors.
Expenditure
Total Expenditure for financial
year 2003/2004 amounted to Rs 22M (excluding depreciation) compared to Rs18.2M
for the previous financial year. Only 2% of expenditure was capital. The
bulk of expenditure consisted of staff and projects costs, 38% and 37% respectively.
23% of expenditure was administrative. The table below shows the details
of expenditure together with percentage increases and share in total Expenditure.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF AUDIT TO THE CHAIRPERSON
OF THE NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY & COMPETITIVENESS COUNCIL
I have audited the accompanying balance sheet of the National Productivity & Competitiveness Council as of 30 June 2004, and the related income and expenditure account for the year then ended. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Council’s management. My responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on my audit.
I conducted my audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. Those Standards require that I plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by the management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. I believe that my audit provides a reasonable basis for my opinion.
AUDIT OPINION
In my opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the National Productivity & Competitiveness Council as of 30 June 2004 and of its surplus of income for the year then ended and comply with the Statutory Bodies (Accounts and Audit) Act1972.
24 September 2004
INCOME & EXPENDITURE STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2004
NOTES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2004
The annual rates are:
Furniture Fixtures & Fittings 10%
Office Equipment 15%
Computer Equipment 25%
Motor Vehicles 10%
3. FIXED ASSETS
4. DEBTORS & ADVANCES
5. LONG TERM LIABILITIES
Long term
liabilities represent employee car loan due to government.
6. GENERAL FUND
Capital fund represents deferred capital grant received from government.
7. INCOME
Income derived is from training & consultancy services.
8. GOVERNMENT GRANT
The amount of Rs 461,898.20 has been credited to the capital grant account and will be amortised over the useful life of the assets purchased.
9. OPERATING
EXPENDITURE
