Committee Reports on Dinaledi Schools Grant, Community Library Services Grant, Ilima/Letsema Project Grant, NHI Grant & Financial and Fiscal Commission review of local government fiscal framework

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed Members and read out the agenda for the meeting, which included the consideration of several outstanding reports and minutes.
The Chairperson then tendered an apology on behalf of Mr M Makhubela (COPE; Limpopo) and Mr D Bloem (COPE; Free State), saying that they would arrive late.
The Chairperson indicated that the Committee would go through the documents page by page.
Third and Fourth Quarter expenditure report on the Dinaledi Schools Grant for 2012/13 financial year
The Chairperson tabled the report for consideration and invited input from Members.
Mr C De Beer (ANC; Northern Cape) referred to recommendation 7.1 on page 5 and suggested that he was interested in the Department of Basic Education’s evaluation report.

Ms T Memela (ANC; KZN) moved the report and Mr C De Beer (Northern Cape, ANC) seconded. The report was adopted.

Third and Fourth Quarter expenditure report on the Community Library Services Grant for provinces for 2012/13 financial year
The Chairperson tabled the report for consideration and invited input from Members.
Mr De Beer referred to the community library service grant expenditure table on page 2, and wanted clarity on the figures in the last column.

The Chairperson replied that the figures reflected the amount presented to the Committee and the figures were correct.

Mr B Mashile (Mpumalanga, ANC) referred to findings on page 7 to 8, 3.8 and 3.8, and commented that he was not aware of the two findings of “there are huge costs variations in the libraries built in Limpopo, ranging from R367 000 to R5 million and this implies such structures are of varying standards” and “some of the completed libraries in Limpopo were projects carried over from the 2011/12 financial year”.

Mr B Mashile (ANC; Mpumalanga) moved for the adoption of the report and Mr De Beer seconded this. The report was adopted.

Third and Fourth Quarter Expenditure report on the Ilima/Letsema project grant for 2012/13 financial year
The Chairperson tabled the report for consideration and invited comments from Members.
Mr Mashile referred to the table on page 4and suggested that the general principle of tables was to align figures on the right side not the left side. In addition, he referred to page 10, recommendation 4.6, and suggested that the wording “unauthorised roll-overs” needed to be replaced.
With changes to the report, Mr D Joseph (DA; Western Cape) proposed that the report be adopted and Mr De Beer seconded this motion.
The report was adopted with amendments.

Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) Review of Local Government Fiscal framework
The Chairperson commented that the report was very short and straight forward.

Mr Mashile referred to observation 4.2 and suggested that the wording “there is a need for further study on how rural municipalities can be made viable” was broad and needed to be narrowed down. He suggested that the word “financial” should be added to this sentence.

Mr Joseph pointed out that there was no date on the draft report.

The Chairperson suggested that the word “financial” should go under recommendation 5.2 on page 4.

With changes to the report, Mr A Lees (DA; KZN) moved for the adoption of the report and Ms T Memela (ANC; KZN) seconded this.
The report was adopted with amendments.

Committee Report on National Health Insurance Grant (NHI)
The Chairperson tabled the report for consideration and invited comments from Members.
Mr Mashile referred to page 2 and suggested that there was no need to repeat alignment of figures

With changes to the report, Mr Joseph moved for the adoption of the report and Ms Memela seconded this.
The report was adopted with amendments.

Outstanding Committee Minutes
Minutes dated 4 June 2013
The Chairperson tabled the document for consideration and invited comments from Members.

Ms Memela referred to page 1 of the draft minutes, and asked why she was recorded as absent when she had sent an apology.

Mr Mashile wanted clarity as to how the Committee deal with the situation where an apology had been sent, but the Member appeared absent.

Mr Lees commented that the minutes captured what happened in the meeting. Any apology arriving after the meeting would not be captured in the minutes of the meeting that was just held.
He then moved that the minutes be approved and Ms Memela seconded this. The minutes were adopted.

In concluding, the Chairperson said that now that the reports and minutes were adopted, the Committee should have a debate in the House. He noted that most provinces continued to under spend. The Committee needed to invite those provinces and have a debate because some of the Committee’s work influenced the budgetary process.

Mr Mashile emphasised that the Committee should create time for the debate.

Mr Bloem suggested that the Committee should prioritise the reports that need to be debated.

Ms Memela emphasised that members need to do their constituency work.

The meeting was adjourned