5.1 In terms of the Department's mandate the Committee was concerned that matters relating to that needed to be clarified in terms of what is meant by the Department's role as an implementing department that would also be responsible for monitoring and evaluation amidst other key functions. 5.2 In terms of the location of the Ministry, the Committee noted that the role of the Department for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities in relation to other Departments should be clarified in terms of the authority vested in this Department when monitoring the policies and programmes of other Departments in relation to women, children and persons with disabilities. 5.3 The current allocation of a mere R156 million for programmes related to women, children and persons with disabilities is of great concern as this will not enable the Department to effectively implement its mandate at the scale that was envisaged. 5.4 The Committee noted with concern the allocation to the Department which decreases over the MTEF period with particular reference to incremental increase to human resource compensation at the expense of budgetary cuts to programme implementation. 5.5 The Department's lack of knowledge concerning the Commission for Gender Equality's programmes, role and budgetary allocation. 5.6 The handover report of the programmes previously located in the Presidency and the audited financial statements have as yet not been provided to the Committee. As such it is difficult for the Committee to ascertain whether there were any debts inherited by the department from the former Offices. The same would apply to the financial matters pertaining to the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE). 5.7 The Committee observed that the Department allocated substantive funds to develop strategic and annual reports. 5.8 The Committee observed that though the Department will not be able to effectively implement its mandate due to financial constraints, it has chosen to fund catalytic projects which are already implemented by other departments. 5.9 The outcome indicators and related outputs for the related programmes are still too broad and require more specificity to ensure that an objective can be measured effectively in order to determine whether an impact has been made.