Portfolio Committee on Economic Development outstanding work

Meeting report

 

The meeting commenced 17 minutes late.

The Chairperson said the training expected that was to be scheduled for Members was not approved due to the sittings during the week. A response was awaited regarding a postponement of the training.

Mr S Marais (DA) informed the Committee of his re-assignment to the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Dr M Cardo (DA) would replace him. He thanked Committee Members for their support and asked the Chairperson for permission to depart early as he had another meeting scheduled for 10:00am.  

Committee 5 year Strategic Plan
Mr Masihlela, Committee Content Advisor, gave insight on the Committee’s strategic plan for the next five years. The Committee had developed its own five priorities as increasing oversight functions (actual site visits), specifically monitor the outcomes of priorities identified within the departments and agencies especially outcomes 4 and 5 which address issues of economic development and employment, issues of national state interventions in the economy as it relates to infrastructure implementation (an additional R23 Billion had been provided to create industrialists) and also overseeing social contracts, basic efficiency of the department in carrying out its functions in the form of audit outcomes and effectiveness, getting value for money being spent by the Department and, three pieces of legislations to be tabled by the Department and its agencies, namely the Competition Act, the ETA Act, and the Amendment of Infrastructure Development Act.

10 specific strategic objectives were initiated by the priorities; quarterly and yearly activities were birthed and budgets allocated for each activity. The overall objectives are meant to highlight organisational efficiencies stating examples such as deciding if ETA has the capacity to deliver on its mandate, proper audit outcomes, asking questions if ITAC activities are properly financed and meeting targets, and also specifically visiting companies that were issued rebates by ITAC to witness the impacts. Strategic plans and annual plans may be changed as new priorities emerge. Programmes had been identified in areas of capacity building of Members since some Members are quite new and such trainings will be in aspects of financial monitoring, training on audit outcome analysis, and more.

The Chairperson thanked the Content Advisor for the short, concise overview.

Mr P Atkinson (DA) expressed his satisfaction with the current stance and claimed it created a structure to work on for the next five years.

Adoption of Minutes

Minutes of 10 March 2015 and 17 March 2015
Minutes of Committee meetings held on 10 March 2015 and 17 March 2015 were adopted.

Minutes of 21st April 2015

Adopted with typographical amendment

Minutes of 28th April 2015

Minutes of Committee meeting held on 28 April 2015 were adopted subject to Mr Cele was “designated” as the acting chairperson being changed to Mr Cele was “elected” as the acting chairperson.
Members requested that the relevant unit of ITAC’s Chief Economist be inserted appropriately.

Minutes of 6th May 2015

The Chairperson suggested the name of Mr Lekota be deleted, as he is no longer a member of the Committee. Several grammatical errors were noted and members requested corrections be made.

The minutes were not adopted.

Minutes of 2nd June 2015 

It was noted that Ms Mabuza was not the chairperson of the second quarter as reflected in the report. The Chairperson suggested that details of issues raised should be reflected in the minutes rather than merely highlighting them.

The minutes were adopted with amendments.

Minutes of 9th June 2015

Minutes of Committee meeting held on 9 June 2015 were adopted subject to amendment of minor grammatical errors.

The Chairperson advised members to take time out during the recess to bond with their families and come out fresh and vibrant in the next quarter.

The meeting was adjourned.