Department of Community Safety & Western Cape Liquor Authority Annual Reports 2020/21

Meeting report

Department of Community and Safety & Western Cape Liquor Authority 2020/21 Annual Reports
The Chairperson explained that the Committee would receive briefings from the Department's Audit Committee and from AGSA. The briefings were not open to the public or aired on the YouTube platform.

In the second half of the meeting, the Committee discussion on the briefings was made public.

Department of Community and Safety
The Chairperson asked if Members had questions on Section C: Governance and Section E: Audit Report and Financial Information of the Annual Report of the Department. 

Members did not raise any questions.

The Chairperson said the Annual Report is only being engaged on now because the Committee was told that the Department was not yet ready to present its Annual Report last year. What was the delay?

Adv Yashina Pillay, Head of Department, Department of Community Safety, replied that during the audit there was a finding by the Auditor-General about the process followed in awarding the contract for Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) outsourcing. The Department did not agree with the findings, and it was referred to National Treasury by agreement of both the Department and the Auditor General, to ask Treasury to consider the matter where there was no consensus. National Treasury referred the matter to the Provincial Treasury for the Central Procurement Advisory Committee (CPAC) to indicate if there was compliance with requirements. Prior to putting out the advertisement, the Department had extensively consulted with Provincial Treasury and Legal Services and followed the advice of the Provincial Treasury. When the matter was before CPAC, it considered all the evidence and documentation and confirmed that the Department had complied with requirements. The information was then sent to AGSA together with the CPAC minutes and that was considered. The Auditor-General ruled in the Department’s favour. Due to this lengthy dispute, the Department was unable to finalize its Annual Report and therefore the delays in tabling it to the Western Cape legislature.

Western Cape Liquor Authority
The Chairperson noted that on page one of the Annual Report, it states that there was an overall under-expenditure of R19.7 million; what had been the cause of this?

Mr Sandiso Gcwabe, Chief Financial Officer: Western Cape Liquor Authority, replied that the reason for the underspending was due to additional financial resources that came in much later during the financial year. The Liquor Authority usually struggles to obtain resources as part of the main budget, but it would continue to engage its stakeholders and partners to provide funding where there is a shortfall during the financial year. It was then able to secure R9.1 million from the Department for one of its strategic priorities which was for additional enforcement capacity. It took a few months for the approval of the resources, which was rolled over to the new financial year for implementation.

The Chairperson asked if members of the public that had any questions or comments on the Annual Reports.

There were no questions or comments from public present or from Committee members.

The Chairperson declared the meeting adjourned.