PC Police: Western Cape Oversight Visit Report: consideration; Report on State Information Technology: consideration

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed all to the meeting and apologised for confusion as to the time of the meeting, which was due to a caucus meeting.

State Information Technology Agency (SITA) Report dated 29 October 2010
Mr M George (COPE) reminded Members that SITA had promised to send the Committee reports and asked whether they had been received.

The Chairperson replied that these had not been received. She had expected a summary at the end of the report setting out what she had requested of them.

Ms D Kohler-Barnard (DA) suggested that the date of finalisation of the minutes be added to the end of the minutes. It was almost six months later and no reports had been received. There should be a monitoring mechanism, where promises were made they should be noted.

Mr G Schneemann (ANC) suggested that the Committee Section continuously track where reports were requested and whether they had been received.

Ms Kohler-Barnard added that the Committee should be writing to that entity to request immediate reply.

Ms A van Wyk (ANC) said that over the years the Committee Section had been asked for a schedule of the reports that had been promised, and suggested that the schedule be sent out with Members’ papers for the week. Where reports were not received the Committee had to write and request that documentation.

Ms Kohler-Barnard said that any request for reports should stipulate a date by when this must be submitted.

Ms van Wyk felt it should be a simple matter via electronic diaries.

The Chairperson acknowledged that there was a challenge due to changing secretaries. Follow ups had been made to SAPS, but there had been changes in that organisation and in Parliament. Changing staff created serious challenges and impacted negatively on the work of the Committee. Members also had a summary of recommendations made and the Researcher had done that, it would be a problem if that Researcher were also changed.

The report was adopted with amendments.

Adoption of Minutes
The Committee approved the minutes dated 9 November 2010 with minor amendments.

Western Cape Oversight Visit Report
Ms Nadia Dollie, Senior Researcher, Parliamentary Research Unit, briefed the Committee on the structure and content of the report.

The Chairperson asked whether Members agreed with the manner in which the report was structured.

Ms van Wyk was happy but felt the section on Structure of the Report should be before the introduction.

Ms Kohler-Barnard complimented Nadia on a magnificent report. She would have preferred the individual report on each station immediately after that station, with specific concerns and recommendations relating to each station, but liked the general concerns and recommendations all in one batch at the end. A report of that size would benefit having an index for ease of reference.

The Chairperson expressed appreciation for the report and raised serious concern in that a secretary had accompanied the delegation on the oversight visit but was not sure what his role was in the preparation of the report.

Ms Kohler-Barnard suggested that reports referred to should be added to the back for reference.

Ms van Wyk suggested adding the date to the heading of each of the visits.

Members corrected all the grammatical errors and reworded some sentences.

The Chairperson stopped discussion at the end of the Bishop Lavis Station on page 9 due to time constraints. She requested Members to read the report again and prepare corrections for the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.