Department of Home Affairs Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report

Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the meeting and directed the Head Researcher, Mr Adam Salmon, and the Committee Secretary, Mr Eddie Mathonsi, to present the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report, which would then be made open for consideration by Members.

Department of Home Affairs Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR)
Mr Salmon presented the report, including all of the grammatical, language and technical changes that had been made.  Changes had been proposed by Members prior to the meeting and were presented for the sake of agreement.

The first of the major changes appeared on page 7 of the report and were related to how some of the points were structured. For the sake of coherence, points on the performance of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) had been arranged according to the strategic outcomes of the Government. There were twelve strategic outcomes, but only three of them related to the DHA.

Mr G McIntosh (COPE) suggested a point of punctuation, in the form a comma that needed to be added on the same page.

The Head Researcher continued with his report and urged members to interrupt him at any time if they wanted to make comments or contributions and then continued with his presentation.

Mr A Gaum (ANC) recommended, for the sake of conformity, that either ‘Department of Home Affairs’ or ‘DHA’ be used throughout the document.

The Head Researcher concurred and then continued on to page 8, saying that some Members had suggested a point be added on how the DHA was dealing with corruption and, even though there had been an increase in corruption, how it was becoming more stringent in the way it was dealing with these cases. He also mentioned that the Chairperson had asked him to make changes to page 9, making reference to the Auditor General (AG) and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA).

The Chairperson then clarified her recommendation, saying that all matters dealing with either the AG or SCOPA should be grouped together, respectively, for ease of reference.

The Head Researcher then carried on to page 11, making reference to the State of the Nation Address as well as the National Development Plan (NDP), duplications of which were both included in the minutes. He said that he had highlighted only the NDP priorities that were relevant to the DHA, and not all of them.

Mr Gaum and Ms N Mnisi (ANC) then both made grammatical contributions.

Mr Salmon referred to page 14, referencing points that related to a ministerial conference on civil registration and vital statistics that had been attended by the Minister of Home Affairs and other African ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) earlier in the year.  He showed that the priority of Parliament to facilitate international participation had been directly linked to the DHA, by making reference to recommendations made at the conference. One of these recommendations was that laws and policies were to be formulated that regulated the timely and compulsory registration of all vital events that were taking place in the country in order to guarantee equal access to all persons and systems. He said the DHA was already doing this, but was required to show that it was being done, not only for the benefit of the Republic, but as a regional initiative among African countries.

Mr Gaum made another grammatical contribution.

The Head Researcher said that a second ministerial conference had been held, which was also attended by the Minister, where plans of action with regard to cooperation had been discussed. Two sets of recommendations had been highlighted: Migration Management and Regional Migration Cooperation. The DHA was handling migration very successfully and because of this, it had been encouraged to share its methods with similar departments in the SADC region. In addition, countries in the region were urged to expedite ratification of the SADC Protocol on the Facilitation of the Movement of Persons. The Protocol related to the ideal that all countries in the region should have similar migration practices and should be practicing them, as well as addressing labour migration challenges as a region, and not as individual countries. Concerns were raised that this was a policy that was long outstanding.

Mr Gaum made further recommendations on the structure of page 8, suggesting an introductory sentence.

Mr Salmon continued on to page 18, explaining that the conclusion included a summing up of all the main points that had led to the recommendations made in the Report, and continued to read through the conclusion. Some of the main points mentioned were the progress of the Minister’s six targets of her performance agreement with the President, the improved security of the identity of citizens with the rollout of the new Smart Cards, the improvement of refugee management turnaround times, the increase in the number of youths receiving identity documents because of the DHA’s targeted visits to schools, and the overall improvement of services and turnaround times due to technological changes made at offices across the country.

Even though significant progress had been made during the 2012/13 fiscal year, the DHA had returned to receiving a qualified audit report. There had also been a decline in performance against predetermined strategic targets over the year due to under-expenditure during the first two financial quarters of each year. More consistent monitoring throughout the financial year would help in ensuring that over- or under-expenditure did not occur. The DHA had affirmed that its goal was a clean unqualified audit report in the 2014/15 financial year, and that this would require a redoubling of its efforts and expedient recruitment of internal auditing support and human resource recruitment capacity.  Underperformance of management targets related to inadequate governance and accountability, as well as poor human resource management, seemed to have been the main issues affecting the DHA, and this had been noted by the President.

Discussion
Mr McIntosh commented on the substantial attendance at the meeting and the fact that Mr M de Freitas (DA) was also in attendance. He thanked Mr Gaum for his commitment to elegant English, as he felt the style of the report had not been very eloquent, and emphasis therefore needed to be placed on grammar during the editing process. He asked the committee for clarity on what the term ‘priority post,’ mentioned on page 20 of the document, alluded to.

The Chairperson commented that she also felt it was important to include examples of these posts in the report.

Mr M Mnqasela (DA) suggested the word ‘Programme’ be added on Page 11, as opposed to just saying ‘Outreach,’ in order to ensure clarity.

Ms P Maduna-Petersen (ANC) asked what the posts were that the Chairperson had mentioned, besides that of Chief Financial Officer and Chief of Internal Auditing.

The Chairperson replied that the other posts were those of Provincial Managers.

Ms G Bothman (ANC) suggested that a deadline be established for the filling of priority posts, as she feared that the DHA may delay the process and not have completed the task by the end of the financial year.

The Chairperson concurred, and suggested that a deadline be put in place for these posts to be filled by the beginning of the first quarter of the following year.

Ms Bothman continued with suggestions that an outreach programme be formulated around the recording of undocumented migrants. She also suggested that other officials within entities that were governed by the Committee be held to a certain degree of accountability, as opposed to all the attention being placed on the Chief Financial Officers, which generally seemed to be the case.  In addition, she highlighted the need for a standard auditing framework that all entities had to adhere to, as she believed that this would reduce the non-compliance findings by the AG.

Ms Bothman than raised the issue of the 50 000 foreign skilled individuals that the DHA suggested be targeted for the following financial year. She believed that this figure was an unrealistic estimate, and not based on any statistics. She suggested that the Department of Labour, as well as the Department of Higher Education, should collaborate with one another in formulating a database on the skills required and the number of skilled individuals South Africa already had, and refer to this before proposing estimates on foreign labour.

Mr De Freitas agreed with Ms Bothman and said that the figure of 50 000 had been imposed on the DHA by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).    He also believed it was an estimate, due to the fact that it was a round number.   The DTI should specify what skills were included in this 50 000 figure, after taking local skills into consideration. Furthermore, the issue regarding priority posts should also be explained in more detail in the document.

Ms D Mathebe (ANC) said she was concerned that the DHA did not have the exact numbers of migrants and refugees residing in the Country.

The Chairperson replied that a high number of undocumented immigrants existed due to the fact that many of them crossed the border illegally, and that this made establishing the correct numbers a difficult task.

Ms Bothman reminded the Committee that it was to review the budget for that financial year, so the issue of infrastructure with regard to office accommodation should be considered, as the Department was lacking in that area.

The Head Researcher replied that the figure of 50 000 skilled workers was a number put in place by the President as one of the Minister’s strategic targets, and although this number was not open to being questioned, better collaboration between the departments mentioned, such as the Departments of Home Affairs, Trade and Industry, Higher Education and Labour, should be encouraged. He then made mention of the question of infrastructure, saying that the Government Printing Works had raised a similar issue.   It had been found that the root of the problem lay with the Department of Public Works, and departments had been advised to consult with National Treasury in order to seek alternative means of procuring new infrastructure if delays persisted.   On the issue of undocumented migrants, it had been suggested that the Department collaborate with security entities, such as the Justice Crime Prevention Safety and Security Cluster (JCPS), in order to help document the information of these individuals.

Ms Bothman further emphasised the issue of infrastructure, and how this could assist with the documenting of unregistered migrants. She suggested that the Department should identify key problem locations where there were many undocumented migrants, and establish a satellite office in that area -- and perhaps remove offices in areas that did not need much attention, in order to accommodate the budget.

The Head Researcher confirmed that he had added Ms Bothman’s suggestions to the amendments, stating that the need for priority offices should be evaluated on a regular basis.

Ms Maduna-Petersen voted to move the report, with amendments.

Ms Bothman seconded.

The Chairperson suggested that the draft of the minutes of previous meetings to be moved to the following week for consideration and adoption. This proposal was not opposed by any of the Members.

The Chairperson then asked Members whether they had finalised their applications for Identity Smart Cards, specifically Mr De Freitas, who had not been in attendance at the meeting held with the Government Printing Works. She informed the Committee that those who had not done so yet would have to consult with Mr Yusuf Solomons at the DHA office in Barrack Street.

Mr Mathonsi then offered to assist Members by consulting the office at Barrack Street on their behalf.

Mr De Freitas asked for clarity as to who would need to pay R140 for the Identity Smart Card.

Mr Mnqasela clarified that only 16-year-olds receiving their identity cards for the first time, and citizens regarded as indigents holding South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) cards, would be acquiring their cards for free. All other citizens, including Members of Parliament and Government Officials, were considered to have the means for paying and would, therefore, have to pay the full amount.

The Chairperson informed members that Identity Smart Cards were to be handed to Members by the Minister, and should therefore not collect their cards personally.

The meeting was adjourned.