Department of Foreign Affairs Budget: briefing

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International Relations

31 May 2004
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Meeting report

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AD HOC COMMITTEE
31 May 2004
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS BUDGET: BRIEFING

Chairperson:
Mr K Asmal (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Department of Foreign Affairs presentation
Department of Foreign Affairs; Budget Vote 3

SUMMARY
A delegation from the Department of Foreign Affairs presented a breakdown of the preceding year's budget and of the proposed budget for the next 12 months, in preparation for the budget vote.

MINUTES
Members of both sub-Committees of the National Assembly Ad Hoc Committee and NCOP Select Committee were present. Mr Asmal asked the Committee to look at thematic issues instead of details. He noted that the Department had made 31 visits to Parliament in the previous year, which he felt was a waste of their time. He proposed that the Committee should in future be briefed by civil society organisations, in addition to the Department, and perhaps make use of a breakaway session to become acquainted with the "bigger picture".

Department presentation
Dr A Ntsaluba, Director-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and his colleagues presented the priorities of the forthcoming year and the financial and human resources issues.

Discussion
Ms L Jacobus (ANC), referring to the "registry" of moveable assets and Dr Ntsaluba's mention of redundant properties, said that the number of cups, tables etc should also be detailed in such a registry. She asked when it would be complete and available. She also asked for a breakdown of the numbers of funded and unfunded vacancies.

Mr Apleni (Department) said that the current register of moveable assets - a cash accounting system - was inadequate because it did not give the value of the items listed. The Department was moving to a new system which would be fully operational by October 2005.

Dr Ntsaluba, responding to the request for a breakdown, promised to provide a detailed vacancies breakdown within 24 hours, but said that interviews for 26 senior positions had taken place, including three for Asia directors and a chief director for Europe.

Dr R Davies (ANC) noted that in 2001, there were three multilateral missions, but now there were only two - which had closed? He also enquired into South African representation at the World Trade Organisation.

Dr Ntsaluba responded that the Vienna mission, which was previously multilateral, was now more bilateral. The European Union (EU) was prioritised in terms of missions because of the Trade and Development Co-operation Agreement with the EU. The EU Unit at head office would also have to be better capacitated. He offered to send the Committees the Department's thoughts on the sequencing of setting up missions around the world.

Mr D Gibson (DA) asked about the cost of installing a system compliant with the Public Finance Management Act and what training would be provided. He also expressed interest in the learnership programme - the number of learners, their remuneration and study sponsorship. He noted an increase of 8.6% allocated to international transfers. This was above the inflation rate - was this because of a greater number of international transfers or because fees had increased?

Mr Apleni said that the cost for the system would be R8m in total - phase one would cost R5m and phase two R3m. This asset registry was part of the Master System Plan and would have to be discussed with the Treasury. The challenge was to develop a system that could cope with the different currencies. Another colleague added that there were 80 learners drawn from the unemployed youth who had some skills in finance and ICT. Learnerships were advertised in newspapers and the criteria for recruitment and selection were the same as for other positions at the Department. Guidelines for payment were taken from the Department of Labour, according to the National Qualifications Framework Levels. For entry-level positions, remuneration was around R2 500. The Department had applied to have the learnership accredited by the South African Qualifications Authority.

Dr Ntsaluba said that international transfers had increased because the AU had increased its dues for countries that could afford to subsidise poorer ones.

Dr Davies asked if South Africa won the bid to host the Pan-African Parliament, how long it would take for the body to be operational, if the Department was prepared, and if the expense was accommodated in the budget. He also asked for examples of expenditure of the African Renaissance Fund (ARF).

Dr Ntsaluba said that the ARF aimed to advance socio-economic development, peace and stability. Its predecessor (in existence before 1994), had concerned itself mostly with loans and grants. Some of these had now been repaid and most would accrue to the ARF, although some would be allocated to the Department, to support the peace process in various African countries. Burundian elections would be supported financially, as would the Democratic Republic of Congo peace process. It remained to be seen how far the total budget of R133m (for the ARF) would stretch.

Mr Labuschagne suggested it was top-heavy and expensive organisation. He noted many political appointees as heads of missions; and asked whether the Department would "continue to be a dumping ground for politicians who could not do their job". He also proposed that properties should be purchased rather than leased.

Dr Ntsabulu responded that the nature of the work of the Department necessitated this type of structure. Directors and chief directors were heads of missions and therefore operated at a high level. For instance, the Ambassador/High Commissioner in London oversaw about 60 locally recruited people and about 20 people from the Department of Trade and Industry. The Department was not top-heavy - it was in fact under-capacitated at top level at head office. As South Africa had 80 missions, this affected the figures.


Mr Asmal interjected to criticise Mr Labuschagne for subjecting civil servants to "politically loaded" questions. It was the President's prerogative to place retired politicians in foreign missions. Mr Asmal said that South Africa was in accordance with other governments in making political appointments. Mr Gibson in turn criticised Mr Asmal for "making political judgements" (of questions), which, he said, would put the Committee "in trouble". When he next spoke, Mr Labuschagne apologised.

Dr Ntsabula agreed that property should be bought and said that the Department proposed this to Treasury. The Treasury had responded that an analysis of the financing methods would be undertaken this year. The feasibility and advantages of using foreign, versus South African, financial institutions would be investigated, as well as public and private partnerships. The present delegation in Brussels needed to move from the premises they were renting because of the delegation's increased number and because the mission was likely to be in Brussels for some time. In January and February, teams from the Department and public works had visited Brussels. He hoped that the Department would soon be given an option to buy. He noted that the results of the Department's assessment would be factored into the indicative budget of 2005/06.

Mr Gibson asked about language training - if he were to be appointed to Berlin, for instance, how proficient in German would he be expected to be? He also asked the costs of the Haitian bicentennial celebrations and what provision the Department had made for receiving ousted Haitian President Aristide.

A female colleague said that a head of mission was trained differently to other mission officials. Before officials were posted, they would take a limited language course. Language courses were subject to time and money constraints. Ideally new heads would attend a six-week course in Pretoria upon appointment. A new system had been introduced, in which members of the Department would be able to study through UNISA and should be proficient in a language (usually French or Spanish) within their first two years.

Dr Ntsabula said that the total budget for the Haitian celebrations was R10 million, but this was for the South African police, Defence Force and the Department. Which department was to pay had not yet been finalised. However, as Aristide was a guest, the Department would have to be involved. No departments had budgeted for this eventuality as it was unanticipated, and the Department would have to approach the Treasury. If Mr Gibson was posted to Berlin, he would have a brief orientation in Pretoria and would be given extra tuition in Berlin.

Mr Asmal remarked that the Treasury insisted on Department's specifying "deliverables" but doubted whether the Department's activities would lend itself easily to this approach. He also asked whether the current priorities could realistically be met.

Dr Ntsaluba said that the Department had met its previous priorities but agreed that the Department battled with the Treasury concept of "deliverables". He was not sure that the Department could meet its targets for 2007 for representation in Africa. Improving the Department's external impact correlated with its human resource capacity and budget.

Mr Apleni added that the Department would look at output targets, actual outputs and other indicators and develop performance agreements. There would be business plans and monitoring twice a year.

Dr Davies noted that the DTI was engaged in a similar process and that the Committee would have to engage with the reports on the evaluation process.

Mr L Greyling (ID) asked what major foreign relations conferences would be held in South Africa, and when; whether employees were trained in negotiating; and what processes there were for civil society participation in NEPAD.

Dr Ntsaluba said that an Asia-Africa Sub-Regional Organisation Conference (AASROC) meeting and a mid-term review meeting of Non-aligned Nations would be held back-to-back in mid-August. South Africa would host a conference on Palestine in June and July with UN funds.

In the Department, there were two training methods - foreign affairs training and human resources training. Both focused on negotiating. In the Foreign Services Institute, negotiating skills were on the curriculum. He admitted that the organisation was weak in identifying areas of development.

The Department had transferred funds to the NEPAD Secretariat to be used according to the NEPAD business plan. Within the Department too, there was a NEPAD Directorate that looked at civil society engagement. He was hoping that the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) would fund that.

Mr Labuschange apologised for his previous question and asked how long the brief orientation for heads of missions was, and whether the R20 million allocated to marketing overlapped with the budget of the Government Communication and Information Service (GCIS).

Heads of missions were given six weeks initial training before being posted. Sometimes there was not enough time for this training and then alternate arrangement would be made to train them in the host country. Marketing was undertaken in conjunction with the GCIS and the International Marketing Council (IMC).

A Member asked how the Department ensured that advertisements for learnerships reached rural people.

A female Department official said that one of the first principles of Department advertising was accessibility and the Sunday Times and City Press was used. That there were trainees from Venda and Limpopo was evidence that the advertisements were accessible. She acknowledged that the Department needed to do further analysis of its accessibility.

Mr Asmal asking the Members to let him know what they wanted to discuss at the meetings of 14 and 21 June.

The meeting was adjourned.

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