A Chief Director of a national department spoke of the TAU PTA as their “mentor, guide and sounding board” and their “trusted advisor” providing “critical advisory services” and “helping build the capacity of departmental and inter-departmental institutions.”

“Excellent project management, regular meetings, and quality control.” - said a director of a national department when referring to a recent strategic inter-departmental project.

“The success of TAU is very much because it is not product driven but process driven under the leadership of capable TAs who understand the SA government context. They understand the chemistry of government and therefore there is an excellent ‘fit’.” - a senior departmental project manager.

“The three year strategic planning exercise facilitated by TAU was excellent and resulted in us preparing our own toolkit.” - said a chief director.

“We need more access to the TAU toolkits and KM products.” - said another client.

“We appreciate, enjoy and respect the mature, mutually beneficial, collaborative relationship with TAU.” - a stakeholder.

“I have appreciated TAU giving me an independent second pair of eyes on the ground.” - a director of a government agency.

“We appreciate TAU providing us with benchmarks of other government projects. They are a critical source of government best practice.” - said a director.

“TAU don’t interfere, they just make it possible to provide world class services to clients. They are a unique organisation in the SA context. I share their values. I will always go the extra mile. There is scope to experiment in a secure environment. TAU are differentiating themselves using their diagnostic tool and justification sheet, and other toolkits, but the gestalt process consulting truly sets them apart. I can make a difference on the ground with TAU and see real results and service delivery.” - a service provider.

“We were frustrated with TAU’s demand driven philosophy and the careful diagnostic approach but now we see the wisdom of this approach whereby other stakeholders are on board to ensure the success of the project – a slow-fast approach and not a fast-slow approach like we have experienced so often in the past when we did it the other way around.” - said a senior client representative.

“It has been a pleasure collaborating with TAU.” “They build on what you have, adding capacity through training and mentoring. They bring together M&E and capacity building. The demand driven approach is sound. We are happy with the cost recovery – excellent value for money.” - said a DDG.

“They are change agents in the system. We like the fact that they are from Treasury, part of government. They can give us information on other departments – best practice, successful projects, etc.” - a client.

“The learning network helped us implement our turnaround strategy much more effectively. We could use the methods the very next day out in the field.” – a senior provincial official.

“We have learnt so much watching and learning from the highly professional people of TAU. This has improved our skills. We have learnt much from the “dynamic enquiry” method we were taught. It has improved the methodology in the unit. We learn from other provinces in the learning network, e.g. M&E indicators. We appreciate the relationship support. We want more!” - a provincial official.

“The TAU PPM and SCM methodology have had an impact on our department and our unit. Our experience with the TAU project has helped us improve our relationship with National Treasury and the Public Finance branch. We were impressed that TAU were independent consultants despite being a part of Treasury. We watched them carefully. They passed the test. We learnt much from watching them operate. Their project management support and quality control of service providers with us as the clients helped ensure success. They really helped with complex multi stakeholder and cabinet cluster environments. We would like to be involved in a learning network. When we have budget we will want to contribute to cost recovery.” – a national client.

A DDG commented that any negative feedback about the TAU projects related to their Department’s own state of readiness or absorption capacity. “The failings were all on our side. We had no capacity and our leadership was weak,” they added.

“We have learnt more from TAU than we have contributed to TAU. We are now also using the Gestalt method we learnt from TAU with vastly improved success in our projects.” - said an international partner.