Committee Legacy Report

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Transport

27 November 2018
Chairperson: Ms D Magadzi (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

Documents handed out: Report of the Portfolio Committee on Transport on its activities undertaken during the 5th Parliament [awaited]

Ms Valerie Carelse, the Committee Content Advisor took the Committee through its draft legacy report. She said that the Committee did not have a set performance plan and that they were working from a draft. This was a point of concern raised in the report. Certain legislation had also not been implemented due to a delay in its tabling by the Department. 

Key areas for future work included the matters that were in the strategic plan of the Department which would be brought forward to the next Parliament, as well as the finalisation and passing of any outstanding legislation. Of particular importance was the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill that had been tabled in November 2018, which would need to be handled by the Sixth Parliament.

Going forward, the Department had set itself targets to which the sixth Parliament would have to adhere. Apart from outstanding legislation, they would have to continue monitoring the implementation of the national aviation transformation strategy, implementation of the new taxi recapitalisation programme, and progress on the White Paper on the National Transport Policy.

The Chairperson made most of the recommendations and suggestions, raising various points around areas such as the implementation and management of grants, the functionality of various individual business entities and the passing of new legislation.

Members agreed that amendments would be made to the legacy report before its finalisation, should any new issues arise before the end of the term.

Meeting report

Committee Legacy Report

Ms Valerie Carelse, Committee Content Advisor, took the Committee through the report.

She said that the Committee did not have a set performance plan and that they were working from a draft. This was a point of concern raised in the report. Certain legislation was also not implemented due to a delay in its tabling by the Department. 

Key areas for future work included the matters that were in the strategic plan of the Department which would be brought forward to the next Parliament, as well as the finalisation and passing of any outstanding legislation. Of particular importance was the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill that had been tabled in November 2018, which would need to be handled by the Sixth Parliament.

Going forward, the Department had set itself targets to which the sixth Parliament would have to adhere. In 2019/2020 the Department intended to bring the Merchant Shipping bill to Parliament, which was different from the Merchant Shipping Amendment bill that had been processed in the beginning of the term. There was also the Transport Appeal Tribunal Amendment bill. In addition, the Sixth Parliament should continue monitoring the implementation of the national aviation transformation strategy, implementation of the new taxi recapitalisation programme, and progress on the White Paper on the National Transport Policy. These were multi-year projects and were thus due to run over. 

Key challenges listed by the Committee included those caused by unplanned requests for assistance, delays with the implementation of legislation, the unfortunate passing of Committee Members, and the change of membership also affecting the institutional knowledge required from the start of the term.

Proposed recommendations were the ongoing monitoring of the progress made through the Ministers’ multi-year turnaround strategy of the Department, continued reporting by the Department on the quarterly reports, and continued monitoring to ensure that the Departmental entities implement the audit improvement plan. The conducting of regular oversight visits and, if possible, collaboration with other committees who share oversight to gather information on the implementation of projects, was also proposed in the recommendations. Obligations conferred on the Committee by legislation include the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Reports (BRRR) and reports on the annual performance plan (APP).

Discussion

As part of the recommendations made by the Committee, the Chairperson said that since the grants may seem practically impossible from time to time, she would suggest that when grants are received, they should be put to good use, in order to get value for money. She referred to an oversight done in 2015, which had found that money in the form of grants were not being used efficiently, and she suggested that this should not be the case. She suggested that when grants are given to various provinces, there should be some form of accountability report from time to time, so that it could be clear to the Sixth Parliament what the money was being used for.  

The Chairperson said that as another recommendation, when looking at the entities, there was a presidential review of entities, and this would be an important point to mention to the Sixth Parliament because they should assist the rest of Parliament with respect to the review of the entities, because looking at some of the current entities, all of them had similar objectives. He recommended that some of the business entities be housed in one big maritime institution so that one could maximise the utilization of resources, as compared to having many small entities who all had the same objectives.

With regard to the challenges facing the legislation formulated at the tail end of the Fifth Parliament, the Chairperson said that the enacting of these pieces of legislation, and the importance of making sure that they are enacted and that they comply with international regulations, should be highlighted as a point of importance by the next Parliament. The fact that the Committee had not been able to go abroad to perform tours of oversight due to a lack of funds, should also be highlighted.

Ms S Xego (ANC) added on to what had been mentioned by the Chairperson, and said that the oversight tour to Brazil that was supposed to have been done by the current Parliament, was as a result of the legacy report of the Fourth Parliament, and this should be highlighted.

Mr T Mpanza (ANC) said that a recommendation would be to review all programmes and consider whether they were still of benefit or not

Mr M Shelembe (NFP) addressed the issue of the number of entities. He said that millions of rands would be saved should the recommendation of the Chairperson be implemented.

Mr M Sibande (ANC) said that going forward, a recommendation would be that emphasis should be placed on ensuring that whenever a budget was developed, one had to stick to that budget and ensure that the budget report submitted was as clear, detailed and informative as possible.

There were no other matters discussed, and no further recommendations were made. All Members agreed with the report.

The meeting was adjourned.

Documents

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