. It was difficult for the Committee to assess the performance indicators/targets of the Department, as contained in the Annual Strategic Plan of the Department, as the Committee was not part of the process of determining these performance indicators/targets. The Committee needs to sit down with the Department and the Office of the Auditor-General to agree on the criteria for deciding the annual performance indicators/targets and to assess if performance indicators/targets for the current year were justified and relevant. Two days, in January 2013, will be set aside to deal with these issues and to discuss how best to work towards the determination of realistic performance indicators/targets for the Department; . The Committee will convene a workshop, at the beginning of next year, of relevant Portfolio Committees (Human Settlements and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs), with the Department of Water Affairs and the Department of Environmental Affairs, together with other relevant stakeholders and government Departments, like Departments of Human Settlements, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Treasury, to discuss cross-cutting issues in water and environmental governance and service delivery; . With reference to Goal 7 of the MDG relating to water services issues, performance indicators/targets are only made applicable to access to water infrastructure, whereas functionality of such infrastructure does not form part of the performance indicators/targets. Therefore, specific performance indicators on the functionality of water infrastructure should be developed for South Africa, for all levels of government. Furthermore, functionality of infrastructure must be reflected in the Department's strategic plan and reflected as part of the performance indicators/targets; . The Department and the Department of Local Government have established a structure to process cross-cutting issues relating to water services and provisioning. The Committee proposes issues of functionality of water infrastructure should be included within the mandate of this structure; . The Committee strongly recommends that the Department urgently embark on the drafting of a national water services strategy; . The Department should create a facility/database to assess and monitor incidents of vandalism and destruction of water infrastructure and record the losses in each instance, and annually report to the Committee in this regard; . The Committee expects a detailed plan on all procurement challenges faced by the Department. as well as the strategies to be followed by the Department to resolve these problems; . A detailed report should be provided to the Committee on the way in which the WRC undertakes research on relevant, current and critical water issues facing South Africa, and how the WRC intends to measure the effectiveness of its research outcomes, including the establishment of relevant performance indicators/targets; . The Department and TCTA must engage with the Committee on a possible appropriate infrastructure provisioning mechanism for the Department, including future funding models for the TCTA, and whether TCTA should have some capital assets on its books; . A list of pending disciplinary cases involving senior staff needs to be provided to the Committee, along with recently completed disciplinary cases; and . The Department in its reporting of oversight of entities next year should also include water boards and water user associations.