Budget Vote reports: Basic Education; Higher Education and Training; Social Development & Health

NCOP Health and Social Services

31 May 2022
Chairperson: Ms M Gillion (ANC, Western Cape) and Mr E Nchabeleng (ANC, Limpopo)
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Meeting Summary

Tabled Committee Reports

The Select Committees on Health and Social Services and Education and Technolgy, Sports, Arts and Culture met virtually to adopt Committee reports on the 2022/23 Annual Performance Plans and budgets for the Department of Basic Education, Department of Higher Education, Department of Health and Department of Social Development.

The Committees went through the recommendations of each of the reports and then proceeded to adopt them

Meeting report

Opening remarks
Chairperson Nchabeleng welcomed the Members of the Select Committees and then proceeded to announce that the purpose of the meeting was to adopt Committee Reports. The Chairperson welcomed Ms E Nkosi (ANC, Mpumalanga), a new Member of the Committees.

Chairperson Nchabeleng asked Members if they would like to add anything to the agenda for consideration. If none, the agenda should be adopted.

Members adopted the Committee meeting agenda for the day.

Apologies were noted and as there was a quorum, the meeting continued.  

Report of the Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture on Budget Vote 16: Basic Education
Chairperson Nchabeleng introduced the report and said it gives a brief summary of the presentation done by the Department, focusing mainly on the 2022/3 Annual Performance Plan and the 2020 medium term expenditure framework. The report also provides the Committee’s key deliberations and recommendations.

He asked Members if they had any comments on the report. 
Members decided to go through the recommendations and conclusion of the report only because they received the reports over a week ago and were familiar with the contents.  

Committee Recommendations
The Committee, having considered Budget Vote 16: Basic Education, together with the Annual Performance Plan of the Department of Basic Education, recommends the following:
-The Department should ensure that all provinces align their plans to the national priorities and capacity be provided to those that fall short.
-The Departments should ensure that the provinces report on the expenditure and progress related to the conditional grants and the Committee be provided with such information to enhance its oversight mandate.
In light of the infrastructure grants, the Committee recommends that the Department and Provinces assess whether the model of implementing agents is better and do a comparative analysis of whether its value for money, cost effective and delivery is on time. This is based on the fact that infrastructure development and replacement of non-viable infrastructure is happening at a slow pace and some Provinces like the Eastern Cape return part of the grant due to slow expenditure back to the National Treasury while the number of inappropriate schools remains high.
-The Department should speed up the readiness for e-learning as the COVID pandemic showed that some learners were left behind while their counterparts in the affluent schools were progressing with the curriculum. Even though the curriculum was adjusted but meant that learner development would suffer going forward.

The report was adopted.
Report of the Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture on Budget Vote 17: Higher Education and Training
The report was adopted.

Chairperson Nchabeleng handed the meeting over to Chairperson Gillion to present the reports of the Select Committee on Health and Social Services.

Chairperson Gillion also welcomed Ms Nkosi to the Committees. She wished Ms A Maleka (ANC, Mpumalanga) well, as she was moving to other committees, and thanked her for being a good Committee whip.

Chairperson Gillion recommended that Members move to the recommendations of the report as they had done with the other reports.

Report of the Select Committee on Health and Social Services on Budget Vote 18: the Annual Performance Plan of the Department of Health
Committee Recommendations
 The Committee recommends that the Minister of Health should consider the following:
-Mental health services: The Department should prioritise mental health services. Further, the Department should provide the Committee with an update on the review of the Mental Health Policy Framework (2013-2020) to ensure that mental health care services are optimally rendered and monitored.
-Severe malnutrition: The Department should consider a collaborative approach (working with the Department of Social Development and Department of Basic Education) to address severe malnutrition.
-Response to COVID-19: The Department should furnish the Committee with its plan to realise the 60% target for COVID-19 vaccination of young people aged 12 to 34 years.
-Community health workers: The Department should provide the Committee with a progress report on implementing the National Community Health Care Worker Policy to ensure the integration of community health workers.
-Improving the quality of health care: The Department should emphasise other vital programmes such as HIV, TB and cancer, to prevent a regression in their control and prevention, and present the catch-up plan to the Committee.
-Health infrastructure: The Department should furnish the Committee with an action plan to address infrastructure backlogs and existing gaps.
-Medico-legal claims: The Department should provide the Committee with a detailed report on the management of medico-legal claims and how it assists provincial departments in this regard.
-Primary health care: In view of the increased budget for primary health care, the Department should ensure that the programme is fully capacitated to ensure improved delivery of quality health care services.
-Conditional grants: The Department should submit a report to the Committee on conditional grant spending, particularly the NHI grant.
-Human Resources for Health: The Department should provide a progress report to the Committee on implementing the Human Resources for Health Strategy and Plan 2019-2024. In addition, the Department should ensure that vacancies are filled timeously. Further, the Department should provide a progress report on the training of nurses and the reopening of nursing colleges to the Committee.
- Health care services delivery: The Department should furnish the Committee with a detailed report on the issue of forced sterilisation.

Chairperson Gillion asked if any of the Members had comments or questions before the report was adopted.

There were no comments and the report was adopted.
Report of the Select Committee on Health and Social Services on Budget Vote 19, the Annual Performance Plans of the Department of Social Development and its entities for 2022/23
Committee Recommendations
Having considered the budget and the annual performance plans of the Department and its entities, the Committee makes the following recommendations:
-The Minister should ensure that the Department within the 2022/23 financial year fills the vacancies of critical positions, particularly that of the Director-General.
-The Minister should ensure that the Department within the 2022/23 financial year puts secure information communication and technology management (firewall) systems to protect it from cybercrime, which has proved to be a serious threat globally. In addition, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department and its entities should implement most of its services digitally.
-The Minister should ensure that there is a viable strategy to address the challenge of social work services in the country, that it is tabled in Parliament and implemented.
-The Minister should also ensure that SASSA implements or strengthens its human resource policies on vetting and academic clearance of its employees as measures to prevent fraud and corruption. The Minister should also engage with the Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies on the same matter for those employees who work within the social grants payment system.
-The Minister should also ensure that SASSA, within the 2022/23 financial year, finalises all the appeals on the SRD grant, including those dating back to August 2021.
-The Minister should ensure that the NDA Board is appointed within the 2022/23 financial year and that the position of the Chief Executive Officer is filled.
-The Minister should ensure that the NDA Board conducts and finalises the investigation on the allegations of fraud and corruption against the previous Chief Executive Officer within the 2022/23 financial year.

The report was adopted. 

Closing Remarks
Ms Nkosi thanked the Committee for welcoming her. She said she is willing to work with the Committees as a newly appointed Member.

Chairperson Gillion thanked Ms Nkosi for her kind words.

Chairperson Gillion proceeded to thank the support staff for their assistance in the meeting and all the Members that were present. She suggested that some of Members, who did not make contact with the secretary and the support staff in connection with the oversight trip to South Korea, should do so. Some issues need to be clarified with the secretary.

Meeting adjourned.



 

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