Portfolio Committee on Public Works Committee Programme; Committee Report on Limpopo Oversight Visit

Meeting report

Committee Programme
The Chairperson proceeded to confirm the dates for the Portfolio Committee on Public Works third term programme of 23 July - 21 September 2012:

Members agreed to the Department of Public Works briefing on its first quarter report of the 2012/13 financial year would take place on 1 August 2012.

Ms P Ngwenya-Mabila (ANC) asked to confirm what the agenda was for 7 and 21 August. She asked if the events for these days will be swapped with each other.

The Chairperson in response asked if the agendas could be swapped and Members agreed to this.

The agenda for the 14 August meeting was confirmed.

For the Western Cape oversight visit from 2 to 7 September 2012, the Chairperson asked the Committee which areas they had not visited.

Members agreed to Ms Ngwenya-Mabila’s comment that rural areas in the Western Cape should be visited and the Committee should not concentrate only on the city.

The Committee agreed to the agenda for 11 September.

The Chairperson noted that the 19 September meeting on the Budget Review Recommendation Report, was on the same day as the Peoples Assembly.

The Committee agreed to rearrange this.

Committee Report on Limpopo Oversight Visit
The Committee discussed the challenges of the Expanded Public Works programme (EPWP) in municipalities. A lot of municipalities did not have EPWP reports and many of them indicated that they did not understand the EPWP and it was a leaning curve for them.

The Chairperson said Parliament needed to take into consideration what was said on these oversight visits as most of the information given was not correct. Parliament must not allow officials to present them with reports that they were not sure of or if they were not the ones who drafted the report because the Committee was not given the correct information by the councillors. She also stated that from now onwards, managers should give the reports and not contractors.

The Committee discussed the report at length and agreed for the Committee Report to be amended further before adoption.

The meeting was adjourned.