Committee Reports on Oversight; Department Budget; Policy on Incapacity Leave and Ill-Health Retirement Workshop

Public Service and Administration

10 May 2017
Chairperson: Dr M Khoza
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Meeting Summary

The Committee discussed incidences of Members receiving threats after oversight visits and requested the Chairperson petition the Speaker for protection and legal services to cater for such incidences. This was during consideration of a draft Committee oversight report. Members decided it was important to have a joint sitting with the Portfolio Committees on Health and Public Works to discuss some of the major challenges witnesses during oversight visits. The Committee adopted the report with amendments.

Members discussed the Committee being split in two to allow for the Department of Performance, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation to have its own Portfolio Committee – currently, the Committee was crosscutting and the workload was too great.

Draft Committee minutes dated 8 February 2017 and 22 February 2017 were adopted with minor grammatical amendments. Similarly, the Committee Report on the Policy on Incapacity Leave and Ill-Health Retirement (PILIR) was adopted without amendments.

Members opted not to adopt the Committee Report on the 2017/18 Budget of the entities as yet so that Members were afforded the opportunity to present the Report to their respective caucuses.

Meeting report

Member Apologies

The apologies were read as Mr M Booi (ANC), who was attending a Standing Committee on Public Accounts meeting, Ms Z Dlamini-Dubazana (ANC), who was attending an intelligence meeting, and Mr M Hlengwa (IFP).

The Chairperson opened the meeting by noting the work of parliamentarians, in exercising oversight, was often difficult because of threats of intimidation often received. Members would know they were doing a good job when people started becoming uncomfortable and were pressurised. Nevertheless, oversight work must be done without fear, favour or prejudice to ensure there were checks and balances on the work of the Executive.

The Chairperson relayed that she attended a strategic meeting of the Office of the Public Service Commission (PSC). The session was attended by all Commissioners and was very successful because it allowed her to see the kind of struggles the Commission faced as an entity. The reports from the PSC will be important in helping the Committee to see which departments were not implementing the National Development Plan and could be called to account therefore.

Ms D Van der Walt (DA) responded to opening remarks of the Chairperson saying that “birds of the same feathers flock together” applied because both she and the Chairperson were quoted in an article. No Member should be intimidated.

Consideration and Adoption of Draft Committee Minutes

The Committee adopted draft Committee minutes dated 8 February 2017 and 22 February 2017 with minor grammatical errors.

Mr Y Cassim (DA) wanted to know if written responses and documents the National Youth Development Agency was requested to provide to the Committee had been received. He requested that a follow-up be made with a 14 day deadline to ensure Members were well versed on the matters before the budget vote.

Draft Committee minutes dated 3 May 2017 were not considered as the Chairperson had not yet gone through it.

Consideration of Draft Committee Oversight Report

The Chairperson asked Members to remark on the oversight report. The most important aspect highlighted in the report was that the exercise of oversight was pertinent to ensure departments were kept accountable and that service delivery remained a priority.

Ms Z Jongbloed (DA) said that oversight visits were important - it was therefore a matter of concern that she and Mr M Dirks (ANC) were told they could not attend the visit because they were alternate Members and so there was no budget for them. She requested that this matter be taken up with the Chairperson of Committees because if Members were not allowed to go on oversight visits they could not constructively engage with the oversight report and make meaningful contribution toward it.

Mr S Motau (DA) said the Chairperson should request that the Department of Performance, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) have its own fully fledged Committee because its portfolio was cross-cutting and Members were unable to attend all meetings because of being full-time Members of other fulltime Committees. This affected progress.

Mr M Ntombela (ANC) remarked that the recent oversight visit showed a lack of coordination by the administration. When the Committee arrived in Mpumalanga, Members were informed that they were not expected. It was also important that provincial departments understand that SA was not a federal country where provinces conducted its own programmes which were different from what was done at national level.

Ms Van der Walt said the report showed what was wrong on the ground. Unannounced visits were leaked because it was evident that people were expecting the Committee. The visits to hospitals were very uncomfortable because the department staff took over the visit and made it impossible for Members to conduct oversight. There were more than 100 staff members at both hospitals, which begged the question - who was left attending to service delivery at the offices? The other disturbing observation was that many of the officials had never been to hospitals and were using the oversight as an opportunity to introduce themselves to hospital staff – this was completely unacceptable and in future oversight visits should not be hijacked by provincial department staff.

The Chairperson shared the same observations and was also concerned about how things transpired on the oversight visit. The oversight report was showed total disregard by provincial departments – this was worrying because of implications it had for the economy. The report also highlighted there were no disciplinary measures within departments for such violations.

Ms R Lesoma (ANC) said the Committee needed to engage with DPME to finalise who was responsible for appraisals of Directors-General and Heads of Department.

The Chairperson said there was a need for a joint meeting with the Portfolio Committees on Health and Public Works to discuss the major challenges witnessed on this oversight visit.

Ms Van der Walt said the major issue that must be dealt with, as a matter of urgency, with Public Works was the maintenance of dilapidated government-owned buildings which included hospitals in a very bad state. If she was a patient in need of medical attention, and had to be admitted at Knobel Hospital, she would much rather die at home.

The Chairperson agreed the state of affairs at Knobel Hospital was very worrying and must be dealt with as a matter of urgency. She and Mr Ntombela had TB symptoms after entering some of the areas within the hospital. The ventilation system at the hospital was non-existent and the Doctor who took the Committee on the tour informed it that many patients who visited family members ended up as patients themselves after visiting the hospital. The other worrying matter was that patients came to the hospital for treatment of minor illnesses but ended up contracting illnesses such as TB because of the state the hospital was in. The CEO at Knobel Hospital was appointed but had never set foot in the hospital although he had been receiving a salary for almost 18 months.

The Committee then addressed minor grammatical errors within the oversight report and made suggestions for amendment of certain sections of the report to avoid confusion.

The Draft Committee Oversight Report was adopted with amendments.

Draft Committee Report on the Policy of Incapacity Leave and Ill-Health Retirement (PILIR)

The Committee adopted the above report with no amendments.

Draft Committee Report on the 2017/18 Budget Votes of the Entities

The Committee decided to not adopt the draft report until it was discussed with their respective caucuses.

The meeting was adjourned.

Documents

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