Communications Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report

Meeting report

Communications Budget Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR)
The Committee Secretary read through the BRRR Observations and Recommendations. The Committee recommended that the Minister should:

(i) ensure that the Department and entities implement the recommendations of the Auditor-General;
(ii) speed up the process of filling critical vacancies within the two Departments;
(iii) ensure that Board Chairperson’s of entities speed up the process of filling critical vacancies in key leadership positions;
(iv) make available the shareholder compacts she signed with the entities to enable the Committee to track progress;
(v) prioritise the transformation of the Print Media;
(vi) to invite the Department of National Treasury to address the Committee on challenges of underfunding of the new Department of Communications;
(vii) that there was a need for audit of government properties as a lot of money was spent on renting offices. Other government departments must be brought in to assist the Department of Communications in acquiring its own building;
On ICASA the Committee recommends that the Minister should ensure that:
(i) Council provides a plan towards how the reduction of fruitless and wasteful expenditure will be accomplished;
(ii) Council provides a comprehensive report on consequence management for Councillors involved in the Neotel/Vodacom deal;
(iii) ICASA employs people living with disabilities; and
(iv) ICASA adheres to gender balance in terms of employment
On GCIS, the Committee recommends that the Minister should ensure that GCIS expedite filling the vacancy of the Accounting Officer post.
On FPB, the Committee recommends that the Minister should ensure that:
(i) Council provides a comprehensive plan on how they plan to curb the persistent fruitless and wasteful expenditure patterns; and
(ii) Council employs more people living with disabilities.
On BSA the Committee recommends that the Minister should ensure that:
(i) BSA share the details of its effective whistle-blowing policy with other entities of the Department;
(ii) BSA employs more people living with disabilities
(iii) BSA provides a comprehensive plan on how they plan to curb the increase in fruitless and wasteful expenditure patterns.
On MDDA the Committee recommends that the Minister should ensure that:
(i) MDDA makes available the Skills Audit report to the Committee;
(ii) MDDA provides a report on the compliance of government advertising in community media projects; and
(iii) MDDA develops a plan that will assist community media projects when applying for funding as well as resolving governance concerns at community media projects.

While the SABC has officially tabled it annual report, the Committee resolved on 13 October 2016 not to consider the report until there is stability in the Corporation. It should be further noted that the observations made in reference to the SABC are based on the Committee’s interaction with the Auditor-General of South Africa during its presentation on the audit outcomes of the Department and its entities.

Discussion
Ms P Van Damme (DA) asked about the revised committee programme for the final term of 2016 and whether the Committee would include the SABC in it.

The Chairperson said that during the previous week, interviews were held with witnesses and he still had to get a full briefing on the feedback from those interviews. According to information he had, 18 witnesses were interviewed including those from the SABC. Many more people have come forward requesting to be interviewed as witnesses. This had to be discussed with Legal Services but it was important to interview as many people as possible and then select those who will be called back to testify. It was interesting that now more people are coming forward.

He added that Legal Services was formulating a notice of inquiry into the SABC board’s fitness. He noted that another member of the SABC Board resigned on 21 October 2016 and now only three Board members remained. The deadline for notices of inquiry to be served was Friday 28 October 2016. The notice would also indicate when the inquiry was due to start.

Ms Van Damme said she understood now that the legal side was covered. She reminded the Chairperson that Parliament would go into a constituency period in the first week of December so the inquiry should be completed by then.

The Chairperson agreed that there should be no delays as South Africans needed to know the truth. The late circulation of the BRRR was problematic as generally reports to be adopted on Tuesdays were circulated by the prior Friday. The next time it should be done that way. He understood that the secretary was also involved with the interviewing of witnesses.

Mr R Tseli (ANC) thanked the secretariat for producing the report. He suggested the General Observations about the Department should follow the specific observations about each entity. He asked if there was a recommendation that addressed the use of consultants.

The Chairperson agreed that the order should be changed.

Mr Tseli asked if there was a recommendation to Brand South Africa on employing people with disabilities.

The Chairperson noted it was there.

Ms V Van Dyk (DA) noted that under 13.2 it stated that “the new Department of Communications (DOC) has not made use of consultants since its establishment” but in point six it stated that “the prolonged process of consultation has a negative impact…” She wanted clarity on these two points.

Mr Mbo Maleka, Committee Content Advisor, explained that these two points were not related. Point five referred to the use of actual consultants and point six referred to Programme 2 of the Department where the consultation process prior to reaching Parliament was seen as a hindrance to proceeding with legislation.

Ms N Tolashe (ANC) was concerned that the Department was underfunded and also about its vacancy rate.  She wanted the Department to provide an organogram but felt this was beyond its current capability. On 13.2 no timeframes were given but it should indicate that “by 2016/17 financial year it should be achieved”. On the FPB in 13.4 it should indicate that the FPB did not employ people with disabilities.  It should also be included in the general observations of the Department as there was a trend amongst entities that disabled people were not being employed.

The Chairperson said according to his understanding, Mr Tseli was saying that observations should not be specific when they are general. Under 11.1 the 2014 recommendation were given but there were no timeframes attached to them and therefore a lack of implementation occurred. He felt that the Committee needed to attach timeframes to its recommendations.

Mr M Kalako (ANC) suggested that before the tabling of its next annual report, the Department should present a BRRR progress report to the Committee.

Mr M Gungubele (ANC) said it would be better to give the Department the recommendations and tell it to come back within a month to present an implementation plan. Once this had been done, the Department could report to the Committee.

The Chairperson added that the DOC quarterly reports could include this information.

Ms W Newhoudt-Druchem (ANC) suggested two technical amendments.

The Chairperson noted that this was the reason why it was so important to have the report circulated earlier.

Mr Tseli recommended that the report on the BRRR implementation should not be included in DOC’s quarterly report but should be a separate report on its own.

The Chairperson agreed. He asked Members if they wanted the changes to the BRRR effected first before adopting it.

Mr Gungubele said the changes were not material. He proposed the adoption of the report.

Ms Van Damme said the DA would reserve opinion on adoption as it wanted to read the changed report first.

Mr Maleka said that the Committee had until the following day, 26 October 2016, to adopt the report so it could meet the publishing deadline.

Ms Van Damme felt the BRRR process was pointless as it was to inform the Minister of Finance to take the recommendations of the Committee into consideration when tabling the budget.

Mr Kalako agreed that the BRRR always happened “after the fact”. It was difficult for the Committee to contribute as the Department of Communications was not given enough funds.

The Committee Secretary said the “after the fact”. concern was raised previously. The BRRR once tabled and published was sent to the Standing Committee on Appropriations and the Division of Revenue Bill once tabled will include those recommendations that were supported. The adoption of the Division of Revenue Bill took place on 16 November 2016.

The Chairperson asked if members agreed to the adoption of the BRRR. Once the report was amended it would be circulated to members.

Ms Van Damme repeated that the DA reserved its opinion.

The Committee adopted its BRRR with amendments.

Committee minutes: adoption
The Committee adopted the minutes of 16, 23, 30, 31 August; 6, 20 September, 5, 11, 12, 13 October 2016.

Substantive changes included:
Ms Van Damme asked that the minutes for 16 August 2016 reflect the fact that the Committee agreed that the one-day inquiry into the SABC was not sufficient. The recording of the meeting as well as the PMG minutes indicated this.

The Chairperson felt that at that meeting everyone had views about what was to happen in the meeting but it was not concretely decided on at that time.

Ms Van Damme said she also wanted the minutes to include the discussion on the vacancies at the SABC.

The Chairperson agreed that this had to be noted.

In the minutes of 23 August 2016, the Chairperson indicated that he wanted to include a comment made by the former COO of the SABC that Committee members were “not honourable”.

Ms Van Damme said in the minutes it reflected that if a member of the DA spoke it was referred to as the DA but if another member of the Committee spoke who belonged to another political party it was recorded as the Committee. She just wanted the Committee secretary to be mindful of that.

The Chairperson said everyone contributed as members of the Committee. He agreed that the insinuation should be removed in the minutes unless the members said “we as the DA”. The statement should reflect the name of the member and not “the DA”.

In the minutes of 6 September 2016, Ms V Van Dyk said she wanted the minutes to reflect that the DA would have liked the eight SABC journalists to come and present.

The Chairperson agreed that it should be included in the minutes.

He noted he had spoken to the committee secretary and asked not to have so many minutes to deal with in one meeting, but rather to limit them to two sets of minutes per meeting.

The Chairperson said members would be informed about the notice of the inquiry being served.

The meeting was adjourned.