Strategic Planning Workshop

Meeting report

STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
20 February 2001
STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP

Chair: Mr Gavin Woods (IFP)

Documents handed out:
SCOPA Business Plan for Year 2000

SUMMARY
This workshop was a strategic planning exercise in preparing a Committee Business Plan for 2001. Members were invited to criticise last year's Business Plan, giving input on improvements.

Issues that emerged were the Committee's dependency on the Attorney General (AG) and the principles of accountability in terms of where the Committee "fits in" in relation to other committees. Other issues were the role of oversight, the problem of resources and ways to improve the Committee's knowledge, capacity and skills. The Committee has a great volume of work and it is not able to cover all of it. Last year, this was due in part to the controversial and time-consuming arms deal.

MINUTES
Strategic Planning
An ANC Member commented that the 2000 Plan is "ambitious", particularly in its goal to "reduce dependency on the AG's Office". He said that SCOPA needs its relationship with the AG and suggested the Committee ask what resources are available to it. He also wondered if SCOPA Committee Members should not be restricted to that Committee, to avoid the scheduling conflicts that membership in other committees would entail. He suggested SCOPA look at its relationships with other Committees. He said the recent controversy over the arms deal indicated that the procedure for how committees report back to the plenary is an issue. Finally, he called the language of the 2000 Business Plan "harsh" and "overly-ambitious"; instead, he suggested the 2001 Plan be "realistic" and "clear on what our role is".

Another ANC Member agreed, saying the small work groups the Committee created last year had not worked, and that there was a problem of party representation since the ANC dominates in terms of numbers. He pointed out that the controversial arms deal had caused the Committee to abandon all its other work.

Another ANC Member said that last year the Committee had dealt with more reports than ever before. He added they need to look at planning in terms of time frames, saying last year had also been a very high pressure year for SCOPA. He suggested five reports a year were simply too many and that two would be more manageable.

The Chairperson suggested they focus on the Committee's dependency on the AG and the principles of accountability in terms of where the Committee "fits in" in relation to other committees. He also suggested they consider the role of oversight, the problem of resources and ways to improve the Committee's knowledge, capacity and skills.

The Chairperson continued that there had been very little oversight of the implementation of legislation; for example, they were trying to cover the implementation of the Public Finances Management Act (PFMA). He commented on the volume of work for the Committee, saying they prioritise committees but there are many miscellaneous reports they do not get to. In addition, the Committee has not had enough time to review parastatals or the South African Reserve Bank. He asked the Committee to think about how they could accomplish more, through resource allocation and an increase in capacity.

The Chairperson also noted that co-operation with Parliament is important and that the Speaker of the House, Dr Ginwala, has indicated her sensitivity to this issue. Finally, the Chairperson warned Committee Members to be aware of the rise in foreign corruption in the public sector.

[At this point, the Committee went into a detailed page-by-page review of its 2000 Business Plan that will not be covered here.]