Public Works Budget Review and Recommendations Report

Public Works and Infrastructure

23 October 2014
Chairperson: Mr B. Martins (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Chairperson led Members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works through a page-by-page review of the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR). The only major issues related to the suggestion to substitute “eliminate corruption” for “address corruption,” and the timeframe for the presentation of financial reports. Members reached agreement on the recommendations, the terminology used and grammatical corrections. The recommendations were adopted.

Meeting report

The Chairperson led the deliberations on the BRRR, and Members provided their input during the process. All Members of the Committee attended the meeting.

Mr M Filtane (UDM) asked if the phrase in the BRRR draft “address corruption” could be replaced with “eliminate corruption.”

Ms P Adams (ANC) said that the phrase had been taken from the President’s address.

Chairperson said that what was essential was the execution of the mandate to deal with corruption, rather than the wording.

Mr Filtane replied that he would not really have expected the President to speak in an “implementation” type of language. The Committee hence had the mandate to speak to the implementation of eliminating corruption.

Ms Adams then gave a reference from where the speech of the President had been taken. If there were to be changes, they should be independent of the phrase taken from the President’s speech.

Mr K Sithole (IFP) said he was in agreement with Ms Adams.

Mr S Masango (DA) said that he agreed with Mr Sithole, saying that the Committee had to concentrate more on the recommendations.

Mr F Adams (ANC) asked if the Committee could look into the recommendation since they had a sitting at 14:00pm.

Chairperson replied that the Committee had to go through the BRRR and own it. He recommended that the Committee deal with substantive issues.

Recommendations
Ms Adams referred to the recommendation that requested the Chief Financial Officer to present to the Committee comprehensive and accurate financial statements on a monthly basis. She requested that the time frame be changed to a quarterly basis.

Mr Filtane said that he agreed with financial reports being presented on a monthly basis. The Auditor General’s report had indicated serious transgressions by the Department, so it was necessary to keep monitoring the Department’s activities closely.
The Chairperson said that although the intention was correct, Members had to look into the practicality of the recommendation, taking into account that the financial statements had to be verified as well. He said a quarterly basis would be appropriate.

Mr K Mubu (DA) said he agreed with the Chairperson. A monthly basis would be asking for too much. A quarterly basis would make sense.

Mr Masango asked the Committee to consider looking at the timeframes specified in some of the recommendations. Would the Committee be able to achieve the targets by these timeframes?

Mr Mubu asked if the Committee could ask the Department to supply the Committee with a report on what projects had been completed, and when.

The Chairperson replied that it was up to the Department to inform the Committee about its intended projects, and as Members of Parliament they could review the completed projects.

Mr Filtane asked if the Committee could include some of the good things the Department had done in the report.

The Chairperson replied that some of the acknowledgments were included in the draft.

Mr Filtane said that his proposal had been watered down.

The Chairperson replied that the Committee would acknowledge any good work done by the Department, but only if there was any.

Members adopted the BRRR with amendments.

The meeting was adjourned.
 

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