Reports on Communication Department Budget (Votes 7 And 27): adoption

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Communications and Digital Technologies

23 June 2004
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Meeting report

COMMUNICATIONS AD HOC COMMITTEE
23 June 2004
REPORTS ON COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT BUDGET (VOTES 7 AND 27): ADOPTION

Chairperson:

Mr M Lekgoro (ANC)

Relevant documents:

Information Services (Research) Reports on Budget Vote 7 and 27
Budget Vote 27 presentation

SUMMARY
The budget reports of the Department of Communications and the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) were discussed. The Committee expressed reservations about their content and decided that it could not sign the reports as they currently stood. It was suggested that simpler, shorter reports needed to be produced and that the Committee would then look at these. This would possibly only be when the Committee reconvened after the recess.

MINUTES
The Chairperson asked for comments on the two reports on the budgets of the Department of Communications and of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).

Mr R Pieterse (ANC) was dissatisfied with various areas in the report. Comments were not reflective of the hearing submissions. He felt the Department’s stated vision only captured their dated vision. As there was not enough time to go through each correction, he suggested that acceptance be postponed. He concluded that the report "did not make sense".

Ms S Vos (IFP) did not had the same problem and felt that an enormous amount of work had been done. The report made sense to her, but she did not have notes or figures with her to compare.

Ms D Smuts (DA) said the report was a solid piece of work but she did see some problems. For example, issues relating to Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) had been included under the heading ‘National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA)’. This section cited that Telkom’s "excessive charges" was the view of all Members. She felt Members would have had a problem signing that they agreed with all the conclusions and analysis.

Mr Lekgoro agreed about the vision statement issue, and said that the key performance areas also did not reflect those highlighted by the Department. He had looked at the figures and had no problems with these. He agreed that it was "quite a piece of work". Some issues were mixed up with regard to the Department and the NEMISA budget allocation.

Ms Smuts said it was a very ambitious document and she questioned whether it needed to be so. Mr Lekgoro agreed about the difficulty of separating what Members had said (for example about the Telkom charges) with Committee decisions. If all agreed, he suggested that the Committee wait for a simpler, shorter structured report to be discussed when it first reconvened. The Committee agreed.

Mr Lekgoro said that Parliament might convene the Committee again before the recess, and if it did so, he urged Members to attend.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

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