DPME, Statistics SA, National Youth Development Agency on its Annual Performance Plans, with Deputy Ministers

Meeting report

Briefing by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation on its Annual Performance Plans for 2017/18

Mr Tshediso Matona, Acting Director General, Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), informed the Committee that the vision of the DPME was to facilitate, influence and support effective planning, monitoring and evaluation of government programmes for service delivery and socio-economic transformation as outlined in the National Development Plan (NDP). He also said that to support the revised strategic plan 2017 to 2020 and APP 2017/18, the DPME engaged in a strategy and organizational review exercise to align its delivery strategy to its mandate. This process resulted in the development of a limited number of strategic objectives and associated departmental outputs and the outcomes that the Department sought to achieve included policies, plans and budgets of government departments and entities aligned with NDP priorities and effective monitoring and evaluation of implementation of government policies and plans. The Department also aimed to achieve youth development mainstreamed across government and broader society mobilization and engaged in the advancement of the NDP/MTSF. He also said that this strategy and organizational review resulted in the increase of the department’s programmes from five to seven and posts from about 310 to 447.

The Department’s key strategic objectives included to:

• Facilitate and coordinate macro and transversal planning across government and coordinate planning functions in the Department
• Develop, facilitate, support and monitor the implementation of sector plans and intervention strategies
• Support the implementation of the MTSF by monitoring the capacity of state institutions to develop and implement plans
• Facilitate service delivery improvements through frontline and citizen-based monitoring and effective complaints resolution systems
• Coordinate and support the generation, collation, accessibility and timely use of quality evidence to support performance monitoring and evaluation across government
• Oversee youth development policy and its implementation

The Department’s key APP commitments for 2017/18 included coordinating macro-planning to ensure policy coherence and supporting the implementation of the NDP priorities through the MTSF, assessing and supporting the alignment of strategic and annual plans of national and provincial government departments with the NDP/MTSF and other priorities such as the Nine Point Plan. The Department also planned to assess and support the alignment of national budgets to the NDP/MTSF and other government priorities, expand on-the-ground monitoring through programmes such as the Frontline Delivery Monitoring visits and Presidential hotlines.

Mr Pieter Pretorius, CFO, DPME, said that the DPME’s total budget for the 2017/18 financial year was the sum of R923 million which included compensation, goods and services, capital, and transfers. He also said that the Department would save on compensation and capital expenditure due to delays in implementing the new organizational structure and delays by the Department of Public Works in sourcing additional office accommodation for the Department.

Discussion

Ms R Lesoma (ANC) expressed her satisfaction with the presentation which she said was very detailed with objectives being clearly stated.  She asked the Department what happened after they carried out their primary role of monitoring and evaluation and how frequently the Department assessed the DG’s and what were the tools used in these assessments. Did the Department have the capacity and resources to execute their core mandate as highlighted in the NDP? In terms of sustainability and continuity in one term government, what was the impact of DG’s and senior management on the delivery of the mandate of the government within the 5 year administration and if there was no identified impact, what could be done to achieve that? Did the Department rely on the information furnished by STATS SA in prioritizing or de-prioritizing its mandates such as issues affecting housing in the country? On the approved budget, which was almost double the Department’s budget, how much from this budget did the Department really need to fill the vacancies as highlighted in the Department’s organogram?

Mr S Motau (DA) asked for clarification on ‘coherent policy making’ which was one of the key strategic objectives for the Department and how the Department engaged in coherent policy making. How did the Department ensure that this was done across other departments? On the issue of allocation of funds per programme, he noted that the money allocated to sector planning was high when compared to frontline monitoring and wanted to know why this was the case. What was the Department’s function on maintaining a system of monitoring the performances of departments and Ministers on behalf of the President? Did the President discuss the performance of the Ministers with the Department and affected Ministers concerned before taking decisions with reference to the current reshuffle of Ministers in the country?

Ms W Newhoudt-Druchen (ANC) asked what the gender ratio and disability ratio in the Department was and considering the importance of the Department, what could be done to strengthen it. On the presidential hotline, she asked about the effectiveness of the hotline and if complaints received on the hotline was followed up to ensure proper resolution. How would the Department assist the NYDA and unemployed graduates in ensuring that they were gainfully employed? She said that it was difficult to reconcile the presentation with what they saw at the constituencies. She asked the Department what it was doing to ensure that the targets of NDP 2030 were achieved and if the Department monitored the feeding policy in various schools across the country, as there were so many complaints about the implementation of this policy.

Ms Z Jongbloed (DA) asked for confirmation on the effectiveness of the presidential hotline in the last financial year and how many employees were employed to monitor the hotline. On the new organizational structure, would more people be employed or would it entail working with reduced number of employees? She asked how the youth programme being carried out by the Department differed from the functions of the NYDA. She noted that what they saw in their various constituencies were not what were reflected in the presentation and wanted the Department to convince the Committee on how it would implement its mandates.

Ms Van Der Walt (DA) suggested that the Department should also be monitored and evaluated considering the size of its budget. She asked the Department to confirm how the monitoring and evaluation being carried out by them were implemented and how this impacted the citizens of South Africa.

The Chairperson in her comments said that in terms of the NDP, government was expected to create eleven million jobs but there was no mention of the highest disruptor in creating these jobs which was the digital revolution. She noted that she was bothered because DPME should be leading the achievement of the NDP. She wondered if the Department was actually playing the role that it was meant to play and asked if it had the power and resources to execute the mandates that was expected from it. She also said that it was expected that the Department would have achieved at least 25% of its objectives.

In response to the issues raised by the Committee, Mr Matona said that the presentation was more on what the Department intended to achieve in future and not necessarily what it actually achieved.  He also stated that the Department, amongst its other functions, was a monitoring agent and thereafter made recommendations which it expected other departments to implement. He also said that while the Department was still work in progress with areas for improvement, it worked with many departments in developing appropriate policies for them.

With regards to the performance of Ministers, he said that the President relied on information provided by the Department in making his decisions. The Department was able to carry out this function by developing a draft agreement between the President and the Ministers on the performance of the Ministers based on the deliverables of each department. This agreement was executed by the Ministers and their performances were assessed based on that. He also said that the area that posed a challenge was the evaluation of DG’s because they had a shared mandate between their department and the Department of Public Service and Administration. However, there was a delay on the part of the Department of Public Service Commission in concluding and putting required policy in place for over 2 years which frustrated the Department’s assessment functions.

He said that with regards to employment creation, there were many external factors that affected the creation of jobs and the Department’s role in creating these jobs was also dependent on the performance of the economy.

He said that the Department did not intend to duplicate the core mandate of NYDA but believed that youth development should be the concern of all arms of government, as well as all departments, and therefore the DPME believed that youth empowerment should be one of its objectives as well. On the presidential hotline, he stated that there were 5 top issues that were usually reported and some of the issues were electricity, flood, water, etc. These calls were prioritised and they also followed up to ensure resolution of the issues raised.

The Chairperson said that she did not believe the assumptions the Department were making while drawing up their objectives and she was also convinced that the Department did not believe in the assumptions as well. She insisted that the Department seemed not to be up to speed with the reality the country currently faced. She was not convinced that the Department would be able to realise its key mandates, as the APP did not give convincing assumptions. She also said that the presentation was merely the key APP that were broad statements, not measurable, specific or time bound. She advised the Department to respond to the issues raised in writing and submit it to the Committee to enable the Committee to review and then make a decision.

Ms Lesoma informed the Committee that most of these issues raised by the Chairperson was raised by the Committee in an earlier meeting and suggested that it was imperative that the Committee meet with the Minister before the approval of the budget.

Mr Matona assured the Committee that the Department would capture all the issues and concerns raised by the Committee and would forward a written response pertaining to all the issues to them.

The Deputy Minister informed the Committee that the Department should be afforded an opportunity to clearly present its achieved targets which included frontline monitoring and evaluation, report on the presidential hotline etc. He agreed that the APP may not help the Committee in assessing the performance of the Department. He advised the Department to urgently address the issues raised by the Committee.

Ms Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration, said that the monitoring instruments were very critical to the functions of the Department and it was worrisome that the Department was taking too long in putting the instruments in place.

Briefing by the National Youth Development Agency on their Annual Performance Plan for the 2017/18 financial year

Mr Khathu Ramukumba, Chief Executive Officer, National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), informed the Committee that the policy objectives of NYDA included facilitating economic participation, partnering with other state organs, private sector and non-governmental organizations as well as initiating programmes directed at poverty alleviation, urban and rural development and combining crimes, substance abuse and social decay amongst youth. He also said that the National Youth Policy 2020’s aims and objectives included providing a general strategy to decision-makers on how to address youth development issues, focus on the development of young people in the country, promote coordination and mainstreaming of youth development across all key stakeholders in civil society.

With regards to the NYDA’s 2017/18 APP, he stated that the Department’s key performance areas were the following:

• Economic participation: this would enhance the participation of young people in the economy through targeted and integrated programmes.
• Education and skills development: this would promote, facilitate and provide training and development opportunities to young people to enhance their socio-economic wellbeing, with the objectives of facilitating education opportunities and community participation activism.
• Research and policy: This would create a body of knowledge and best practice in the youth development sectors and inform and influence policy development planning. The fundamental aim of this area was to ensure that policies and frameworks that drove youth development were developed, based on a body of knowledge and facts that were relevant to the developmental needs of the youth of South Africa.
• Governance: This would help in achieving efficient and effective utilization of resources through provision of functions governance, technology and systems, business operations systems, human capital and financial management systems that adhered to relevant legislative requirements for public funded entities.

In enhancing the participation of young people in the economy, the number of youth owned enterprise created through business development support services were 800 enterprises while the number of beneficiaries supported with key fundamentals of success offered by the NYDA was 18 000. Also the number of young people skilled to enter the job market was 64 500 while the number of youth supported to access higher education was 500.

On the budget allocation, the total allocation for economic participation in the 2017/18 budget was R68.7 million and the MTSF outcome would be decent employment through inclusive economic growth. On education, skills and development, the total sum of R74.6 million was allocated and the MTSF outcome would be quality basic education and decent employment through inclusive economic growth. The total budget allocation for the Department for 2017/18 was the sum of R476.7 million.

Discussion

The Chairperson thanked the Department for the presentation and requested that the Committee comment on the presentation or ask for clarification in respect of the presentation.

Ms W Newhoudt-Druchen asked why there was absence of NYDA offices in some provinces such as Western Province despite the rise in gang activities among the youth which seemed to be ignored by the NYDA. The Department seemed disconnected from the youth as youth in Kwazulu-Natal were not aware of the existence of NYDA nor its functions.

The Chairperson expressed her satisfaction with the detailed presentation but also said that the Department seemed to have merely scratched the surface of the burning issues facing the country which was digital innovation and entrepreneurship. She said that she could not overemphasise the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship to youth development in the country. Despite the importance of rural development, the Department should also be aware of huge migration of youth to the urban areas and that the Department should also develop a programme that would focus on youth in the urban areas as well. She said that urban centers were also important because that was where the population as well as the economy of the country were vested. She suggested that the Department should use STATS SA in their planning and execution of objectives.

In response, Mr Ramukumba informed the Committee that the Department noted the absence of offices in the Western Cape and this was as a result of the historical approach to the idea but the Department would work on ensuring that they had real presence in the province. The Department took notes of the concerns raised in the Committee and would address them.

The Chairperson also expressed her concern that the Board of the NYDA were yet to be confirmed and asked the Deputy Minister to assist in ensuring that this was done as it was obvious that it affected the performance of the Department.

Deputy Minister Manamela stated that although the confirmation of the Board should be done by the President, he would see what could be done. The Deputy Minister also said that there was an urgent need for NYDA offices in all provinces especially the Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal considering the sizes of these provinces. He said that although there was a skeletal presence in Kwazulu-Natal, there was need for more offices. One of the biggest challenges faced by the Department was the assumption that they could undertake all expectations such as combating gang activities in the country. He noted that this issue could not be combated by the Department alone.

Briefing by the Statistics South Africa on their Annual Performance Plans for 2017/18 financial year

Mr Pali Lehohla, Statistician-General, Statistics South Africa (STATS SA) said that the use of the statistics provided by the Department was basically for planning (baseline information for NDP), monitoring and evaluation (measuring development and impact), policy development (rationale for better policies) and decision-making (decision-making in government, business and public). Its work programme was strategic context and intent, measuring the economy and also measuring society. He said that STATS SA was a capable organization that could respond to changing external environments such as growing policy agendas, changing user demand, rapid advancement in technology, new data ecosystem, integrative power of location-based data and most importantly data explosion.

The Department was able to achieve 85% of its targets as reflected in the 4th quarter preliminary report and some of these targets were community surveys, GDP, integrative planning tools, new building, digital work place, reweighting CPI and legislative reform which was still in progress. He stated that in measuring the economy, they had 246 statistical reports which covered manufacturing, employment, GDP, prices, mining, finances, forestry, etc. On measuring society, the Department also produced 67 statistical reports and this measures included health, poverty, marriages, education, population, crime, causes of death, etc.

The risks faced by STATS SA included the inability to fill critical vacancies, quality of basic statistics were weakened over time (as reason of response rates, timelines) and discontinuance of certain statistical products. All these were as a result of the cost cutting measures that affected the Department as far back as 2008/09.

However, the STATS SA looked forward to secure financial position, undertake legislative reforms, get the basic statistics right, invest in modernization and innovation and embrace data revolution.

Discussion

Ms Lesoma noted that there was suggestions that the state organogram should be reviewed in other to save money and asked if this was done and suggestions on how it should be done. On the pressure points highlighted by the Department in its presentation, she asked if the Committee could deliberate on those issues and also discuss with National Treasury towards helping the Department. She said that the Committee should discuss the issue of cutting the budget and although budget cuts were not advocated against, there had to be rationale behind each cut.

Ms Van der Walt asked the Department how the recommendations on such issues like poverty eradication were implemented beside getting the statistics and recording them and how the Department ensured that its recommendations were implemented by other departments.

The Chairperson in her comments said that her major frustration was that there were some important areas that were affected by the budget cuts by National Treasury while saving costs despite the importance of the departments affected. The area of innovation was affected by this despite its importance in boosting a shrinking economy. She said that the Committee would put together a paper highlighting these cuts and their effects and present it to Parliament and also meet with National Treasury to discuss them. She asked the Department if they discussed the importance and role of statistics with the Director General and National Treasury since fiscal policies relied on statistics. She asked the role of statistics in Africa and noted that Africa should be viewed more as an opportunity than risk, and that South Africa should leverage on the size of the continent and its population in boosting its economy. The country should exploit regional integration and intra-African trade considering the size of the African market.

Deputy Minister Letsatsi-Duba applauded the Department on its efforts so far and said that in relation to planning by the government, the outputs of the Department which were evidence-based affected the policies made in the country and there should not be any compromise on their demands. She asked the Department if the sensitization they were currently carrying out also involved the Director-Generals, other policy makers and policy implementers.

In response to these comments, Mr Lehohla informed the Committee that the Department would meet with National Treasury in the coming weeks to discuss the cuts and their concerns about the budget. On the country’s regional integration and intra-African trade, he said that the success of the economy of South Africa was heavily dependent on its trade within the continent. He also said that the country merely needed to determine the market in the continent and supply them as the country had the industrial capacity to do so. He also said that as at date, the Department identified over 100 products that were consumed in the continent and also on demand.

In conclusion, the Chairperson urged the Committee Members to urgently review the reports for adoption.

The meeting was adjourned.