Department of Communications & GCIS Quarter 1 & 2 Performance, with the Minister

Meeting report

Department of Communications: Mid-Term Performance Report

Mr Donald Liphoko, Acting Director General, Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS), said that because of the lack of funding within the Department, it was difficult for it to carry out all its functions and meet targets, and the Committee should keep this in mind.

The actual performance against targets, as at 30 September 2016, had shown the following achievements:

• Administration: 92%;
• Communications policy, research and development: 60%;
• Industry and capacity: 100%;
• Entity oversight: 80%;
• Overall performance: 84%.

Mr Liphoko said that the Department was housed within the GCIS and the officials continued to provide support to the GCIS. It had 90 funded posts, 72 of which were occupied, and 18 vacant. Females accounted for 40% of posts at the senior management service (SMS) level. The Departmental human resource management plan and Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) had been developed and approved by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). The Department had also developed its own Employment Equity Plan (EEP), which had been approved by the Department of Labour. An internal audit project had been submitted to the Audit and Risk Committees. All contracts, memorandums of understanding, legal instruments and litigation were being reviewed. 97.5% invoices had been paid within 30 days and 98.83% of requisitions had been converted into orders within 48 hours.

In terms of communications policy, research and development, the Audio Visual Act had been implemented and in the second quarter, the Green Paper had been finalised. The drafting of the White Paper had commenced and would be presented at the communication cluster. Also, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) Amendment Bill had been sent to Cabinet for approval. The Department had committed to implementing the community broadcasting support strategy. Consultations would be coordinated in the third quarter to enable the submission of the White Paper. The Department had been able to conduct research into community media support, and specific recommendations had been made through the Commission, dedicated to community media support.

Mr Liphoko said that in terms of industry and capacity development, reports on South African broadcasting had been compiled into biannual monitoring reports with two focus areas: skills development and funding. The Department had embarked on ten digital broadcasting awareness campaigns – three in each quarter -- with an overall total of 25 carried out during the reporting period. The Department had also committed to increasing consumer access to digital broadcasting, with 1one done in each quarter. The actual achievements had been:

• Registrations: 26 026
• Installations allocated: 19 738
• Installations completed: 17 066
• Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) accessories distributed to South African Post Office (SAPO) warehouses: 152
• Satellite Dishes: 1 440
• Set-Top-Boxes distributed to SAPO warehouses: 237 600

There had been a number of oversight reports submitted to the executive authority. The Department had also signed a number of shareholder compact and accountability instruments. The ICASA accountability instruments had not been signed due to ongoing consultations and negotiations with the councillors of ICASA. The Department would speed-up the finalisation of the instruments in the third quarter.

Mr Liphoko stated that the Department had had 38 planned targets for the 2016/17 mid-term, of which 32 targets had been achieved, resulting in an overall performance of 84%.

Mr Zweli Momeka, Chief Financial Officer, GCIS, said that in each area of financial planning, the Department had exceeded its projected expenditure, although the Department maintained their budget.

Goods and services had consumed 90% of the department’s budget because positions were offered to employees on a 12-month basis, and this meant that cars had to be rented, which was an ad hoc expense. The total budget amounted to R1.345 billion, which had been appropriated as follows:

• Transfers to GCIS and entities: R1. 270 billion;
• Compensation of employees: R59.2 million;
• Goods and services: R16 million
• Capital: R84 000

After disaggregating the funds earmarked for transfers and subsidies, the Department had an operational budget of R75.2 million, including compensation of employees. Interventions made for the constrained budget were:

• Some operations placed on hold until the adjusted budgets were in place;
• Filling of posts placed on hold;
• Engagement on non-financial activities promoted;
• Innovative ways to deliver on the mandate of the Department;
• Continued engagements with the National Treasury.

Department of Communications (DOC): Second Quarter Performance

Mr Dikeledi Thindisa, Chief Financial Officer, Department of Communications, said that the budget of the Department was R382 million. This was divided into three programmes. As at the end of September, the Department had spent 48% of the budget, 2% below of the norm. The entire budget was not linear expenditure, however. The budget that had been available as at the end of September had been R200 million. The projections showed that the budget continued to be under pressure.

There had been a saving of R6 million in staff compensation, and in terms of administration, the Department was just below 60% of its operational budget. In programme 2, content development took place, where the Department developed programmes and tasks and would be rallying up funding in the final quarter of the year.

The challenges which the Department faced were as follows:

• When preparing the budget, discussions had taken place at National Treasury, considering the priorities of the country. The goods and services budget had not been protected in the past at the same rate that goods and services had been increased by inflation. The budget for this had been reduced. The levies paid attracted a fixed rate, as per the contracts.
• The rate at which the building rentals had affected the budget was lower than the real rate at which the rentals had been increasing.
• Cleaning services were outsourced and protected by the sectoral determination issued by the Minister, and underpayment was not a possibility.
• The budget showed that the main expenditure was on the labour. The budget protected only superficially against inflation. There was also an ageing infrastructure. The Department was not in a position to communicate effectively to South Africans.

Discussion

Ms V Van Dyk (DA) inquired into the report in the media and why the report was not done. How many consultations were done? There was a vacancy rate of 18 people but there was an overspending on salaries, and the achievement of the 72 people were 84%. was it necessary for this work to be done with those 18 people? It was mentioned that a big chunk of the budget in goods and services were spent on travelling. What was the amount allocated for actual operational and travelling? The entities oversight only had 48% of the budget, so why not spend more on the oversight? It was unclear about the external audit fees – was this people you consult with? was there no such function within the department? was it a result of the vacancies?

Mr W Madishe (COPE) emphasized that the budget should be reconsidered. Outsourcing was extremely expensive and falls within the realm of unnecessary expenditure. What needs to be looked at was the employment of people directly into the department.  Mr Madisha struggled to determine the necessity of the Department in itself. The Committee had complained before about how things were done.

Ms W Nieuwoudt-Druchem (ANC) requested her answers to be emailed. She humbly requested from the committee to receive email documents and the last email documents were not received and therefore, she could not prepare herself property. You talk about an electronic newsletter and can members receive this? On your YouTube channel, can you implement a subtitle function for deaf persons? I am very active on Facebook but do not receive much from GCIS. Do GCIS work with National Disaster Response and what type of communication was given to deaf persons?

The Chairperson stated that the GCIS should respond to Ms Nieuwoudt-Druchem as she would depart early from the meeting. Mr Liphoko replied that newsletters were sent to the offices and then sent out to members.

The Department was unaware of the subtitle feature and Mr Liphoko stated that a list of all the GCIS Facebook pages will be provided to members. When there was a national disaster, we develop a communication strategy with the Response, and GCIS with Cogta, works with municipal government to attend to a disaster. On our Twitter feeds, tips were given to persons who were caught in Flash floods and we inform citizens on travel routes during disasters and in anticipation of them. When an intervention was taken, a report was compiled and once it was signed off it can be requested from the Minister.

A member commended the GCIS and the DOC for the achievement of their targets. The issue of the budget must be priotitised. With programme 2, there were some of your annual targets, it was not clear. What do you mean when you say you have achieved 100%? What were the level at which most vacant posts are?

Ms N Matshoba (ANC) inquired into the amount of contract workers that were permanently employed within the GCIS. 

The Chairperson considered the Department to be doing fairly well in terms of the National Development Plan targets. He said that when one talked about YouTube or other social media platforms, one was talking to the literate sector, which was not the case in South Africa for everyone. How did these people receive information? He encouraged the Department to strengthen its communications in particular areas for those who were unable to read and write. Planning ahead for transport instead of hiring cars, which was very expensive, you would the Department money. Why had there been no planning ahead?  Financing in this Department was an issue which should be escalated to the Minister of Finance.

Mr Liphoko replied that the IT infrastructure that connected the government to citizens was the same system that supported video conferencing. All programmes were housed on this system and the system had been developed in-house. Regarding the issue raised by Mr Madishe on the necessity for the Department, he said it had reached out to South Africans to determine what information had had an effect and what people have learnt. This was then fed back into the government system for improvement purposes. Due to budget constraints, this had been cut down from three programmes per year, to two programmes per year.  The Department was mandated to find the data, analyse the data and inform government of what interventions were necessary. To raise further funds, the DOC had conducted research for the GCIS at a much lower rate than outsourcing. The 100% target achievement meant that the GCIS had made a commitment that this was an important service, and any other Department that required the assistance of the GCIS, it would do all it could to assist. Public awareness was an ongoing activity based on the government calendar. The Department would be improving its communications in poorer areas.

Mr Thindisa responded to Ms Van Dyk that when the DTT project had been started, there were no funds. The Department had therefore sought funds through contracts. One of the things the Minister required was for the Departments provide oversight. To ensure this, there was constant engagement between the Minister and the board.

Mr Momeka said that the Department could plan only once it had its money. If the Department could not guarantee its funds, then the planning was also affected. This affected travel and accommodation. Most of the core functions were not properly funded. Programme 2, 3 and 4 were the ones not running on proper funding. When looking at the entity’s oversight structure, it was operating on a skeleton staff. As a result, the cost of running this entity was as an administration.

The meeting was adjourned.