Mass Participation Programme Conditional Grant: First Quarter 2010/11: submissions by five Provincial Sport and Recreation Departments

Meeting report

National Treasury presentation
In her brief presentation, Ms Julinda Gantana, Chief Director: National Treasury, showed the Committee graphs and tables detailing the allocations made to all provinces, amounts the provinces had spent so far, and yearly expenditure growths in provinces. Treasury indicated that from the total budget of R1 billion, the provinces had spent 21, 2%. The aggregate percentage of spending of funds received was standing at 57%. Reasons for this low expenditure emanated from the restructuring of programmes in certain government departments. Some federations of sport were not properly registered as business entities or non profit organisations and this led to procurement delays and challenges. Certain provinces signed business plans and programme implementation agreements very late. Most critically, performance outputs showed either low performance or no performance at all. For example, few athletes had been absorbed into formal structures, and some schools and communities had no access to local sporting facilities. These were the general problems encountered, and some of them were province-specific.

KwaZulu-Natal submission
Mr G Sangweni, Head of Department: KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sport and Recreation, said actual expenditure at 30 June 2010 was 40% of the first quarter budget allocation, and 15% of the total annual budget. Reasons for the under-expenditure were due to the training of 770 contract workers and 648 educators. A sum of R6m had been re-scheduled for the second quarter because of the closure of schools during the World Cup and some involvement of volunteers in it. The hub festivals were also re-scheduled for the third and fourth quarters because of the intensive World Cup Mass Mobilisation Programmes that were prioritised. On monthly reporting, School Sport Mass Participation Programme reports had been received from schools while Hub and Club reports had been received from the contract workers employed in the programme. The Department had not experienced challenges with the submission of reports. This was attributed to the scheduling of monthly finance committee meetings between the Finance Unit and the Mass Participation Programme Unit (MPP) to address grant compliance and spending issues. Regular checks from Finance and Supply Chain Management of projects against the operational and business plans were made in order to ensure fruitless and unauthorised expenditure was avoided. The Strategic Management Unit of the Department was tasked with the function of monitoring all MPP projects to ensure compliance with business plans.

Gauteng submission
Mr Abdullah Ismail, Chief Financial Officer: Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, said his Department had budgeted R67m for the MPP Grant. Under the grant there were four programmes, and these combined spent R9m of the total budget. Available funds amounted to R58m. These programmes were: Siyadlala, School Sport Mass Participation Programme (SSMPP) and Compensation. It was highlighted that monitoring of the programme was lacking. However, initiatives to address staff shortages was being looked at and submissions had been made to the Head of Department. Under-spending on this grant was caused by the inability to implement resolutions because of the FIFA World Cup. The Department also implemented the integrated Gauteng Provincial Government Holiday programme and most human resources personnel were deployed to this activity. Since this took place during June and July, the expenditure would reflect during the second quarter.

The challenges that were identified were: some stakeholders failed to submit their business plans timeously, there was a lack of staff in some units which impeded the implementation of certain programmes, events hosted at night posed risks for personnel and spectators especially in far out, unlit areas; delayed procurement processes hampered the delivery of services. Certain funds were not transferred to other departments or municipalities because the grant did not make provision for this, and those funds were used under Goods and Services.

North West submission
In her analysis of budget expenditure, Ms Louisa Mabe, Acting MEC: North West Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, said her Department had only spent R2m of the R34m allocation. The budget available was R31m. Budget expenditure was not on course. Two hundred and fifty people had not been appointed to fill vacancies. The delay in appointments was due to pending litigation. The delayed appointments and approval of rollover of funds had affected the procurement of equipment and attire and implementation of activities.
on the monitoring capacity in the Department, she indicated that the Management and Monitoring Information System was in place. The tool was effective and efficient in the monitoring and evaluation of projects. The Department had also decided on weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting to improve on early detection and interventions. A resolution on litigation, it was suggested, needed a political intervention. A recovery plan had been developed and approved. Submissions on tenders for training had been approved and the Department was awaiting the confirmation of a rollover budget. The Department had also established Monitoring and Evaluation, Policy and Research Units. A Reporting Procedure Manual was handy in monitoring activities. Internal audit systems and the report of the Auditor-General had assisted the Department in enhancing service delivery. She assured the Committee that the Department would do its best to fast-track and turn around the situation to deliver on the recovery plan for the Mass Participation Programme.

Limpopo submission
Ms J Thoaele, Head of Department: Limpopo Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, mentioned that her Department had spent R12m against a budget of R43m MPP Grant during the first quarter. This represented 28,4% of the total budget. The grant had spent 3, 4% more against the norm of 25%. This was due to the liabilities carried over from the previous financial year. Reasons cited for under-spending in the 2009/10 financial year included the withholding of an amount of R3m which was intended to be transferred to the Northern Cape Province but which was released to the Limpopo Province late in March 2010; the late delivery of sport equipment by suppliers due to challenges at the harbour arising from 2010 World Cup activities. For the 2008/09 financial year, the Department under-spent by 24, 6%, and this was caused by continual resignations of coordinators from the programme, delay in the finalisation of the tender for construction of athletic titan tracks, and teacher unions disrupted the school enrichment programmes. The Recovery Plan by the Education Department resulted in suspending all school enrichment programmes. It was projected the budget would decrease to R43m in the 2010/11 financial year. The Division of Revenue Act framework for 2010/11 allowed provinces to appoint additional capacity for monitoring and evaluation of the conditional grant not lower than Level 13. Six percent of the allocation should be used for filling vacancies. The Department was also streamlining reporting and monitoring capabilities and assessing models and tools being developed by Sports Recreation South Africa (SRSA). These models provided a structure with the aim of synchronising reporting and monitoring capabilities within the head office for all three sub-programmes (MPP1, MPP2 and Legacy). Reports about these three programmes were submitted to SRSA and were quantitative reports which culminated in the submission of quarterly reports that were aligned to the business plan.

Mpumalanga submission
Mr Vusimuzi Shongwe, MEC: Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation, said the Department had spent only 15% of the total budget of R31m. Reasons for this 2010/11 under-expenditure were a result of certain programmes that could not be facilitated in the first quarter due to the World Cup and were moved to the second quarter, and the slow submission of invoices from service providers which led to delayed payments. To address these shortcomings, the Department would expend its energies on mass participation activities now the FIFA World Cup was over. Programmes that could not be implemented in the first quarter would be fast-tracked in the second quarter, and payment of service providers for services rendered would be fast-tracked.

Monitoring was done at municipal and regional level. Sport and Recreation officials, at municipal level, visited Hubs twice a week to monitor the work of Hub Coordinators and Cluster Coordinators. Regions facilitated monthly meetings with volunteers to discuss and evaluate implementation of the programme. Regional Heads were part of these meetings. At provincial level, monthly reporting meetings were convened with all officials to discuss reports including Conditional Grant reports, and unannounced Hub visits were conducted by the Director and Chief Director. There was continual monitoring by the Provincial Treasury. The National Department of Sport And Recreation visited provinces quarterly in order to evaluate and monitor the implementation of the Mass Participation Programme.

Discussion
KwaZulu-Natal
Mr C De Beer (ANC) asked why the Department was not experiencing many challenges with contract workers like the other provinces.

Mr Sangweni explained that when the programme was defined, the limit was set to thirty-five years. After 35, the workers had to exit the project. Problems were encountered after the workers exited. As a result, they had to be taken back, and now had been put on a one-year programme.

Mr M Makhubela (COPE) asked why the Department was not having challenges with the submission of reports. He asked the Department to explain what programme it had in place to train ex-players to make sure they become future administrators.

Mr Sangweni replied the Department had tightened Monitoring and Evaluation. The Monitoring and Evaluation Unit moved around the province to check on the programmes and establishment of hubs within municipalities. Moreover, Provincial Portfolio Committees were doing oversight in districts and municipalities, and it was reporting to the National Department on a continual basis.

On the issue of ex-players, there was a programme in place which the National Qualifications Authority recognised. The ex-players had been trained in theory so far and had received certificates for this. Now they were in Level 2. He added that hubs were working with federations and community clubs. The majority of the hubs were located in schools as communities did not have resources, hence the schools had these because they were seen to be safer than communities.

Mr B Mashile (ANC) enquired about the number of athletes that would be incorporated into the Olympics. Secondly, he asked the Department to explain why it was concentrating on contract workers if grants were still going to continue for a long time.

Mr Sangweni replied there was a Junior Sport Programme linked to school sports but federations managed these programmes. On contract workers and grants, his Department did not have enough budget to take on more people. If one was going to be a sports officer, one needed a special qualification. So it was better to use contract workers than having vacancies or having unqualified people. Later, after thorough training, the contract workers would be employed on a permanent basis. The Department was working on a programme of employing future sports officers.

Gauteng
Mr T Harris (DA) asked the Department to explain the story around the World Cup tickets.

Mr Ismail replied proper procedures were followed when the tickets were bought. One thousand and forty-five tickets were bought for the stakeholders, not the reported four thousand tickets.

Mr De Beer enquired about the number of schools in Gauteng.

Mr Ismail replied there were 2 557 public, private, primary and secondary schools.

Mr Mashile asked the Department to air its views on the issue of creating decent work and grants.

Mr Ismail explained his Department would like to share its experience with North West Province and help it out of its quagmire. The Gauteng Department was also taken to the CCMA just like the North West. The contract workers were demanding benefits. The outcome was that the workers were now contracted for a three-year period and they qualified for 37% benefits. On conditional grants, most expenditure on these grants went to salaries and stipends. Now that the workers were on a three-year contract, they were paid through the Personnel System which was not reflected as a Goods and Services item. Treasury presented on Goods and Services only and did not split the Community-Based Workers (CBW) as compensation. Hence there was that small difference.

Mr Makhubela asked how the Department was planning to sustain the idea of developing local talent in terms of players, coaches and administrators. Secondly how did it plan to address its challenges.

Mr Ismail replied that Gauteng partnered with tertiary institutes. These institutes were given an average of R200 000 each to offer as bursaries to sports talented people. That was how Legacy was sustained.
On challenges, a moratorium had been placed on the merger of certain departments to address restructuring. Hence the Department was unable to fill vacant posts for now. But the Human Resources Unit had been given the go-ahead to run advertisements for the filling of posts.

North West
Mr De Beer asked the Department to explain the under-spending and the World Cup tickets.

MEC Mabe explained her Department had a history of under-spending in the MPP Grant, but there was a recovery plan in place in order to reach out to the rural areas. She noted it was difficult to convince Treasury when the Department was not spending. Targets to appoint personnel had been set for May but this did not happen. The contracts were there but the Department was awaiting the outcome of the court case. Once that was resolved, money would be spent on re-training and absorption of people into the system. With regard to World Cup tickets, the Department utilised the Equitable Share in buying them, not the Grant. The Department bought Category 4 tickets. A detailed breakdown and report would be forwarded to the Committee.

Mr Makhubela asked how the programmes of the Department were going to develop local players, coaches, and administrators and how FIFA had influenced these programmes.

Ms Mabe replied that the FIFA influence was great. The Department, as a consequence, launched the FIFA Grassroots Development programme to train youngsters to become competitive players, and to up-skill referees and administrators. SAFA was part of this programme.

Mr T Harris (DA) enquired how long the litigation had been going for and how it was affecting the programmes of the Department.

MEC Mabe replied that whenever there was litigation, there was a standstill. She was of the opinion that a political intervention would help, but it was better that she thoroughly acquainted herself with the problem first so that the Department could extricate itself. She did not know when it began as she was new in the Department. But once litigation was over, interviews would happen and the process of advertising for personnel had taken place already.

The Chairperson wanted to find out how the Department was going to achieve its plans because there had not been any progress.

MEC Mabe replied she would ensure the Department was reaching the rural areas so long as she was still in power. Furthermore, twenty service points across the province had been established to ensure work was happening in all the hubs of the province.

The Chairperson suggested the Department write a letter to the CCMA for the outcome of the case as it was long overdue. The Department was supposed to get a response from the CCMA within 14 days. This would help to speed things up in terms of the labour processes. If that did not yield any results, the Department should take it up with the CCMA National Commissioner.

Limpopo
Mr Makhubela asked if as a politician he could at any time visit one of the programmes in the province.

Ms Thoaele replied Mr Makhubela was welcome to visit any of the 57 hubs and he would find work happening.

Mr De Beer wanted explanation on the R3m issue for Northern Cape, and why the Department experienced continual resignations.

Responding to the R3m question, Ms Gantana told the Committee the National Department had an answer for the issue because it was part of a decision reached by the provinces. But she was aware that the National Department had transferred money to Limpopo.

Ms Thoaele said the resignations were disturbing but the Department understood people were looking for greener pastures. The stipends were not attractive. In the absence of nothing, people changed their minds and came back to join the Department. The issue was being given full attention.

Mr Harris enquired why the Department had spent 109% - more than it had received. From where did it get that money?

Ms Gantana explained the Department had made a submission for a rollover which had been approved. That was how they got the money.

Mr Mashile asked the Department to explain how it planned to sustain the 2010 Legacy in terms of maintaining the new stadium and developing local talent.

Ms Thoaele said the challenges were so big now that the Department feared the stadium was going to be a white elephant. However, that was not going to be allowed. A programme was in place to address that and to develop youngsters in many sports codes to make sure it groomed and produced locally based players. Lastly, she explained that some of the second and third quarter projects had been implemented in the first quarter. The Department had to train a lot of teachers as the programme absorbed many of them. The Department had been proactive because it foresaw it was not going to be able to implement such programmes in the third and fourth quarter.

Mpumalanga Presentation
In order to save time, Ms Mjwara was asked to respond to generic questions that were asked of the other provinces. On the influence of FIFA on the programmes of the Department, she said the Department had signed three MOUs with three countries. The first one was with Chile for athlete identification and free coaching of referees. The second one with Germany focused on training educators on school sports programmes. The third one with Portugal put emphasis on elite sport and the establishment of an academy for all sports codes.

Regarding World Cup tickets, 350 tickets were bought and distributed to stakeholders according to Executive Committee decisions. Fast tracking payments to service providers was a big challenge to the Department. Officials within the Finance Unit had been dispatched to talk with the service providers about submitting invoices when work was completed and other necessary documentation. In the second quarter there had been a remarkable improvement on the side of the service providers in submitting documentation for payments, and the Department was planning to capitalise on this. Responding to the half expenditure in the first quarter – an issue that deviated from the norm - she stated that in terms of the business plan of the Department for the first quarter, certain tournaments scheduled for the first quarter were postponed to the second quarter because of the 2010 World Cup. That, undoubtedly, had had an impact on first quarter expenditure. So those funds were going to be rolled over to the second quarter.

Response from the National Department of Sport and Recreation
Ms Thokozile (Kelly) Mkhonto, Acting Chief Director: Mass Participation Programme, SRSA, commented on some of the questions and issues Members had raised.

First, she explained that improvements to the implementation of grants started a year after they were introduced. Provinces used to get R1m but later it got increased to what it was now. For example, KwaZulu-Natal received R90m. Problems arose around monitoring at national and provincial level. Provinces were told to use 6% of the allocation for the management of conditional grants, to hire people for monitoring. When the programme started, volunteers were used. Later on, stipends of R1 200 were introduced so as to give people an opportunity to be trained on sports matters. It was agreed people should be employed for only a year. The reason advanced was to have more people employed. But the contracts now had been increased to three years. The issue of stipends was being discussed together with terms of reference in order to give people decent work. Payments would be aligned to the DPSA structure.

About the business plans from provinces, the plans had not been good at first. Time was spent with provinces to workshop them on how to forward good business plans. Provinces were asked to include outcomes and outputs in their business plans. The situation was now improving and there were proper business plan systems in place.

Vocalising the views of her Department on the R3m Limpopo-Northern Cape deal, she explained Limpopo was battling with expenditure. The Northern Cape appeared better equipped in that regard and had proper plans in place. Hence the transfer of funds from Northern Cape to Limpopo. An assurance was made that those funds would be used efficiently and repaid.

On whether grants would be terminated or not, she said the Department was coming up with an exit strategy. The grants would not be terminated but would be directly handled by the provinces themselves. If provinces did not have proper systems in place, that would be a terrible disaster in the management of grants. These challenges were being fine-tuned with the provinces.


The meeting was adjourned.