Quality Council for Trades and Occupations & South African Qualifications Authority on their Budget & Annual Performance Plan 2015/16

Meeting report

South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Strategic plan 2015-19 and Annual Plan 2015/16: Briefings
Mr Vol Samuels, Chief Executive Officer, South African Qualifications Authority, indicated that the legislative mandate of the Authority (SAQA) is to ensure quality qualifications in South Africa, to ensure that South African qualifications meet appropriate criteria, as determined by the Minister, and are internationally comparable and of acceptable quality. The five year strategic main priorities include decisive and coherent leadership, staff development, public positioning and the implementation of the National Qualifications policies.

The focus areas are the recognition of prior learning, articulation, simplification (keeping within the standards of the legislative framework – ministerial guideline) and the National Qualifications Advisory Service, in order to ensure accountability and progress.

He went into more specifics on the focus area. The Ministerial guidelines would allow for fraud detection and prevention, overseeing quality in the system and monitoring and evaluation in the South African Qualifications Authority. The Minister had suggested the need for the fraud register, and had asked that the legal consequences must be clarified in this regard. It was important that qualifications be monitored.

Mr Mark Albertyn, Chief Financial Officer, South African Qualifications Authority, informed the Committee that there had been some increase in the government grant, but seen against the background of an overall slight decrease in recent years. The total revenue correlated with the total expenditure. However, there was a difference in line items because the staff increase in the institution has meant that more capital is being spent on human resources. The total revenue allocation for the 2015/16 financial year was R 102.3 million, a decrease from the R 126 million allocated during the 2014/15 financial year. SAQA received an additional R3 million in 2014/15 and R4,5 million in 2015/16 and R5,5 million in 2016/17 for Verifications function. For 2015/16 SAQA received a government grant of R 54 757 000, a slight decrease from the 2014/15 R 55 008 000 allocation. In 2015/16 budget, personnel costs comprise 70,0% of total cost.  (Personnel costs far exceed Admin + Capital costs).

Discussion
Ms S Mchunu (ANC) noted that the presentation on the strategic plan indicated that there was going to be a shortfall of R20 million, and wondered how SAQA could find the resources to close this shortfall gap?

Prof B Bozzoli (DA) asked how the SAQA would effectively fulfill the objectives as outlined, and whether it was confident that it had all the necessary support to ensure positive outcomes.

Ms M Nkadimeng (ANC) asked about the issue of succession in the governance in the entity, what plans are being put in place to ensure that a new generation for high level leadership is ushered into the entity.

Mr M Mbatha (EFF) asked if the entity had a relationship with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), as this would be important for the sharing of strategies, and closing necessary gaps that might exist within the entity.

Mr Samuel responded that people in South Africa did have a responsibility to find out if the programmes they enrolled in were in fact listed as quality qualifications, and, most importantly, if they were recognised. Because of this, it followed that the relationship between SAQA and the DHET was crucial for achieving positive outcomes. Quality assurance had to be planned and so inter-departmental correspondence may have to be pursued. There was a need to make more money available for the purposes of succession in the entity, and also for the coordination of the shortfall gaps in the budget. He agreed that the entity would only be able to realise all its goals if it had the resources to do so; currently it was limited.

Mr Albertyn added that SAQA tries to deal with many services in-house, but there are other services where outsourcing is necessary - such as in Information Technology. It also used social media to accelerate its objectives.

Mrs Shirley Lloyd, Director: Qualifications Control, Department of Higher Education and Training, stated that the Minister is aware of the projects of quality assurance in SAQA, but that the DHET itself was also in the process of trying to get and add in additional funding to those projects. These funds would not come from National Treasury, as the DHET was hoping that money would come from independent donors. Through partnerships, it may be possible to find efficient ways to positively achieve the goals of the DHET and SAQA.

Prof Bozzoli asked why an entity like SAQA was still subject to budget cuts although it was achieving its objectives.

Ms Mchunu asked how many fake qualifications were reported or investigated in the previous year.

Ms Nkadimeng asked why there was a need for the entity to improve its remuneration process.

Mr Samuel responded that the position between SAQA and other stakeholders was actually regulated, and said that the necessary document could be brought to the Committee. Contracts would be signed before the financial year, assessment of performance happened throughout the year with a final assessment in the fourth quarter, thus SAQA was well-placed to contract for the new financial year.

The Chairperson noted that decisive and coherent leadership was mentioned in the presentation. She asked how exactly this had been achieved, and wanted details of any success stories. She stressed the need for SAQA to strengthen its focus, pointing to the outcry by the public on fraudulent qualifications by various individuals, particularly prominent leaders. The priority of checking qualifications must be taken into serious consideration.

Mr Samuel responded that people must understand the qualifications for which they intended to register, and this was their own responsibility. From SAQA's viewpoint, it would focus more on ensuring that verification of qualifications already undertaken was done; employers would be able to go to records and verify those qualifications. He repeated that entities had to work together but management appreciated the comments made and would deliberate and reflect on the Committee's remarks on priorities thoroughly.

Mr Albertyn concluded that the R20 million shortfall should be recovered. The following week was the end of the financial year, and at that stage a full examination of budget and spending would be made, to establish what exactly the shortfall would be.

Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) Strategic plan 2015 - 2019 and Annual Performance Plan 2015/16: Briefing
Mrs Peliwe Lolwana, Chairperson of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, indicated that the current Council's term was about to end and in the following week the Council would dissolve and a new one would be inaugurated.

Mrs Joyce Mashabela, Chief Executive Officer, Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, mentioned that the work of the Council (or QCTO) had to do with ensuring that occupational qualifications and standards were monitored, as mandated by the Skills Development Act. The work of the QCTO is in line with the vision of the National Development Plan, encompassing social and economic development issues. The QCTO is establishing its certification system, under which all trade certificates would in future be issued by the entity, meaning that all certificates issued would look the same and bear the familiar and consistent red seal that the stakeholders preferred. Certain occupational qualifications had been recommended to SAQA as priorities. These would include some form of qualification that would ensure that meaningful on-the-job training was taking place, and qualifications that supported social and economic development needs, such as community health workers. There had been a lot of investment done towards Information Technology, to steer the work of the entity on-line. In 2014, 2 500 certificates with the red seal were distributed, and this had increased in the current year. 

Mrs Madilanga Khondone, Chief Financial Officer, QCTO, informed the Committee that there had been a slight increase in the government grant allocation to the entity. The management of the budget had been subject to internal oversight, to ensure that there was no deviation from agreed budget allocations and  plans. The budget report noted that there was a slight increase in allocations, and the budget was being tightly monitored. In 2015/15, QCTO received a R 21 848 000 from the government grant for the 2015/16 financial year, R 213 138 000 for 2016/17 and R 24 420 000 for the 2017/18 financial year. The SETA Grant allocated R 40 000 000 to QCTO for the 2015/16 financial year, R 70 252 000 for 2016/17 and R 97 922 000 for the 2017/18 financial year. In total, the QCTO MTEF budget allocation for all the programmes amounted to R 61 848 000 for the 2015/16 financial year.

Discussion
Ms Nkadimeng asked about the change in the entity's target system, and why this had been decided upon.

Prof Bozzoli asked why, with 32 staff, the targets were only to assess 2 500 qualifications and only 50 reviews a year. These seemed to indicate that the processes were slow. She wondered if QCTO had any plans to make this faster and more efficient. She also wanted more detail on the use of funding from the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA), asking if this was legally permissible, and whether the agreement had been adhered to by all parties involved.

Mrs Mashabela responded that the first strategic plan drawn up by the newly formed Council had been " terrible" and difficult to execute, and therefore, when changing it, more emphasis was placed on the relevance to society, which was more prominent in this plan. When that altered, the targets also had to be altered, to keep them in line with the National Development Plan, for example. The  SETA funding was used to establish the monitoring and evaluating unit, and this had brought benefit to the entity, and the  collaboration between the entities had been pleasing.

Mrs Khondone alluded to the fact that there were contract employees in the Council. This was not included in the strategic plan, but it was important to note, as, over time, there would be more employees recruited to the entity.

Mr Maliviwe Lumka, Chief Director: Seta Coordination, DHET, commented that the accreditation of certification must be the sole function of the QCTO, and said that work around quality assurance should not be given to the SETA anymore.

The Chairperson noted that the Board's term expired on 31 March and asked if a new board had been selected and if the current board had drafted its report.

Mr Lumka responded that the Minister of Higher Education and Training had appointed the new Board in the previous week.

Draft second term programme
The Chairperson tabled a draft programme for the second term, for consideration by Members.

Prof Bozzoli asked for the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal to be asked to address the Committee on certain deficiencies that had been identified earlier.

The Chairperson asked the Committee Secretary to try to fit in a presentation, agreeing with Prof Bozzoli that it had been requested earlier, and said it should be done as soon as possible. She indicated, after Prof Bozzoli had suggested some possible dates, that this should be arranged for 3 June.

Ms Mchunu suggested that only one entity should brief the Committee during this meeting, so that there would be a specific focus.

Mr Mbatha suggested that another alternative might be 24 June.

Members agreed that both University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and another entity be asked to brief the Committee on this date.

The Chairperson asked Members to take note of the capacity building training, as none had had this before.

Minutes of meeting 18 March
The Minutes were adopted, subject to Mr Mbatha's apology being noted.

The meeting was adjourned.