Briefing by Department on Medium Term Expenditure Framework

Documents handed out:
Department of Trade and Industry MTEF 2000 Presentation (See Appendix at end of minutes)

SUMMARY
The Department of Trade and Industry made a presentation on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). Concerns were raised about the non user-friendly nature of documentation and the over expenditure of the department.

The National Lottery is to be introduced on 2 March 2000 and the first draw would be a week later.

MINUTES
The Chairperson, Dr R Davies, said since the briefing by the Minister had not materialised, it was hoped that the Minister would be able to brief the Committee after the Seattle Ministerial WTO Conference. The National Lottery is well on course and is to be introduced on 2 March 2000, the first draw would be a week later.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) represented by Mr B Roberts, Chief Director: Corporate Services, Ms A Jooste, Deputy Director: Financial Management and Ms D Tiani, Assistant Accountant, made the presentation on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). Also present from DTI, via video-link with Pretoria, were other Deputy Directors in the department.

Mr B Roberts is currently Acting Director-General until 31 December 1999, by which time a new Director-General will have been appointed. Due to this situation, Mr Roberts said it is unsure that the MTEF figures will remain unchanged as it is possible that the new Director General might make organisational and budgetary changes.

A major change in DTI according to Mr Roberts has been the new programme structure, which has reduced the eleven DTI programmes into four programmes. (SEE Appendix 1 for presentation)

Discussion
Mr M Moosa (ANC, NCOP; Select Committee chairperson) said he had perused the MTEF document well before the meeting, but could only absorb 10% of the presentation and the document was not helpful in explaining matters. He went on to say that whilst an effort is made across government departments to make presentations user friendly, this document and the presentation was contrary to that.

Mr Roberts responded that these comments were taken very seriously, as this is not only a problem of DTI but government in general. The reason being that 80% of budgets are payments to other institutions to perform particular tasks for DTI and reports from these institutions are not user-friendly. Mr Roberts said that DTI is in the process of demystifying the acronyms to make documents more user-friendly. For this task a programme is in place and the tendering process has been initiated.

Mr Moosa said that the request for user-friendly documents should not be seen as a criticism but rather as something to build on. He went on to say that for Parliament to assist in policy shifts, parliamentarians would have to understand the programmes involved. Furthermore for MTEF to work "there should be a strong synergy between policy makers and managers of departments".

For clarity the Chairperson asked Mr Roberts to explain the `Taxi Scrapping Scheme’.

Mr Roberts said that after long debates pertaining to taxi drivers who operate outside the income tax scheme and furthermore the safety risks involved in the operation of taxis, the Taxi Scrapping Scheme was initiated. Cabinet had approved the scheme and an amount of just under R 800 million was allocated to finance the scheme. The scheme involves the intake of minibus taxis in return for money to taxi operators to deposit towards a new 18-seat bus, which is specifically manufactured for passenger transport.

Mr L Zita said that as DTI is suppose to be the "brains" in the improvement of the South African economy, it is difficult to understand why the DTI is having budget problems when it should be the forerunner in limiting expenditure to the allocated budget.

Mr Roberts said that the request for an additional R1.1 billion was largely to cater for the Taxi Scrapping Scheme. Without this scheme the figures do not appear to be as astronomical.

On the same issue Mr Hersch (DTI video link) said the issue of the DTI budget is fairly complicated. Reasons being that DTI has a number of programmes for which it is very difficult to make budget estimates. In its calculations it was difficult to estimate what the obligation of the state would be, therefore DTI had to budget on the basis of the best outcome. In the end there were big discrepancies in the initial budgeted amount and the actual expenses.

Mr L Zita (ANC) said that he is not convinced that the R800 million requested for the Taxi Scrapping Scheme is properly used, and expressed the belief that the money could have been used towards better resources.

Mr P Gomomo (ANC) pointed out that with regard to Khula and Ntsika, it would seem that a large amount of budgeted money is received from donors. He was concerned that this is a very uncertain state of affairs as the disadvantaged are dependent on these donors.

Ms C September (ANC) said that the documents do not really project what the DTI intends to do with the internal economy of South Africa. She said generally people want to know what developments there are in the area of job creation and even that is not projected in the documents, or if it is, it is not visible. A question was asked as to what are the planned developments following from the Job Summit.

On the issue of the Job Summit, Mr B Roberts said DTI has engaged with a number of institutions in the sector. The former Director General has been retained as a special advisor to the Minister, primarily to keep a close eye on these developments and drive this project. Mr Hersch added that recently a proposal was taken to NEDLAC and will be discussed in Parliament soon.

Mr S Rasmeni (ANC) asked what the approach of DTI is to co-operative government, especially the relationship with provincial and local governments.
He also asked whether the DTI budget is complementing that of local and provincial governments.

Mr Hersch responded that DTI works very closely with the provinces, but does not have a policy of filtering money down to local and provincial governments.
The policy is to use money where it is most effective for job creation. DTI is said to look for the highest return when spending money.

The Chairperson concluded that there is a need to have a simple but substantive presentation for Members of Parliament unlike today when Members had not understood much that had been said.

Appendix
Department of Trade and Industry MTEF 2000 Presentation
17 November 1999

Chair, I would appreciate the opportunity to make some contextualising remarks before we begin with the presentation proper.

Some contextualising remarks
I have been appointed Acting D-G for the period 1 November to 31 December 1999. Clearly, given such a short time frame and with a new D-G having been named, I am acting in a caretaker capacity. I mention this because it does reflect our dilemma here today. That dilemma is that we cannot state with absolute conviction that the DTI’s MTEF budget which you have before you will not change quite substantially over the next year. The reason is that, early in his current term of office, Minister Erwin indicated that while he was proud of the progress which had been made in re-orienting the DTI in the first five years of democratic government, he wanted to:
i consolidate the gains,
ii sharpen the delivery of key services,
iii ensure that we have even greater co-ordination between DTI and its
related family of institutions, and
iv expand delivery in spheres in which we have not traditionally devoted a
great deal of energy.

The Minister has begun discussion with senior managers on how to achieve these goals. However, the process has been slowed down to allow Dr Alistair Ruiters, who will head the department from 1 January 2000, to enter discussions at the earliest possible moment. So, while it is too early to spell out precisely what those changes will be, we can say with certainty at this point that:
i there will be some significant shifts in emphasis,
ii there will be some new elements which will have budgetary
implications and
iii there will be changes in our organizational structure.

This brings me to the second broad contextual point. As the committee would have noticed, the budget has been reorganized into four programmes from the 10 of the current year. This was done by the previous Director-General to allow for the greatest degree of flexibility in the restructuring exercise. The Department of State Expenditure has accepted this as a reasonable approach given our circumstances. However, let me sound an early warning: this may mean that the programme structure may change once again, once the review of the department and any consequential restructuring has been completed. However, let me hasten to add that it is certainly the firm intention of the current and in-coming leadership of the department that, if the programme structure is to be changed, it be changed in such a way that leads to stability in the structure of our budget for a number of years.

The approach we will adopt today is the following:

Chair, I will introduce the broad outline of the budget, making fleeting reference to the detailed slides which we used in our departmental presentation to the Department of State Expenditure. I understand that these were circulated to members a week ago. One of my colleagues will show them on the overhead projected at the same time. I will be brief as we did make a full presentation to the committee on the work of the department on 1 September 1999 and much of that work is continued in the MTEF plan before you.

I will make the text of this presentation available to the Committee.

After the presentation, we will be happy to take questions. My colleagues here with me and at the other end of a video link at our offices in Pretoria, will respond to issues raised in the Programmes or Sub-programmes in which they work.

New programme structure & overall outcomes
As I have said before, we have four main programmes, being:

i Programme 1: Administration (which includes policy analysis and strategy development),

ii Programme 2: Trade, investment and entrepreneurial development and promotion,

iii Programme 3: Trade Policy & Global Repositioning

iv and Programme 4: Business Regulation and Consumer Services.

Despite the economy having being severely influenced by the slow down in Asia, growth was experienced in the exports of goods and services.

On page 6 there is an illustration of the budget of the DTI over the past few years. This excludes the column-2 payments to the CSIR and SABS. It shows a dramatic decline over the past few years from having started with roughly R3 billion in the 1995/96 fiscal year to an allocation of R2,064 billion for in the 1999/2000 fiscal year. This is primarily as a consequence of overall Government budget reallocation and the phasing out of GEIS. Despite this, new policies had to be developed which resulted in a reorganization of the budget. This can be seen in Appendix 2. Some of these areas include:

i improved coordination of industrial sector policies,
ii strategies and investment instruments,
iii increased direct and indirect support to SMMEs,
iv removing of trade barriers - this can be seen most obviously in the SADC and EU trade negotiations,
v empowering previously disadvantaged groups - the most clear example of this is the National Empowerment Fund,
vi a shift towards re-capitalisation,
vii creation of economic infrastructure
viii and focus on supply-side measures (eg Technology Human Resources for Industry Programme, Partnership in Industrial Innovation) rather than demand-side instruments.

All our programmes are in line with the requirements spelled out as discussed in the State President’s Speech on 25 June 1999. This is shown in greater detail Appendix 3. Some of the more high profile of these are:

i support for a sustainable economy by extending equitable benefits to all our people through for example our SMME-focus and the Export Marketing and Investment Assistance scheme,

ii addressing the remaining impediments to investment and job creation,

iii the promotion of public-private partnerships through the Partnership in Industrial Innovation programme, for example

iv the restructuring of State assets - including the Spatial Development Initiatives, the Industrial Development Zones and other cross border initiatives,

v the development of Small, medium and micro-enterprises and

vi striving for equitable benefits to all our citizens, for example through the Competition Commission / Tribunal and the National Consumer Affairs Office.

In Appendix 4, we have shown key differences between our Budget request and the Department of State Expenditure’s proposals. These items will be addressed when discussing the various programmes and I will summarise this at the end of this presentation. So much for general comments. Let me now deal with the four programmes.

Programme 1: Administration
Please see Appendix 5.

The most important feature is the fundamental restructuring of all five directorates reporting to the Chief-director Corporate Services. Particular features of this are:

i the emphasis on bringing human resource practices in line with the new Public Service Regulations,

ii the implementation of the new Public Finance Management Act and, consequently, much more involvement of parastatals,

iii the creation of a more effective support structure for the Director-general, Minister and Deputy Minister

iv the improvement and strengthening of the Internal Auditing Section. In this area recently a toll-free fraud hot-line was established which illustrates the DTI’s commitment to the rooting-out of corruption.

v the improvement of information systems and technology, particularly in relationship to e-commerce and the automation of the DTI’s business processes, and

vi the complete re-conceptualization of the communication, public relations and marketing functions.

We have also shifted the policy analysis and strategy functions to work far more directly with the Minister, Deputy Minister and Director-General.

Programme 2: Trade, investment, entrepreneurial development and promotion

This programme consists of the following sub-programmes which reflect the major themes in the DTI’s core mandate:

i Investment Support
ii Industry Development and Promotion
iii Technology Enhancement in Industry
iv Entrepreneurial Development and Promotion
v Trade Facilitation

The main functions are captured in Appendix 6.

The first sub-programme is Investment Support. Please refer to Appendix 7. This programme covers the Manufacturing Development Programme, Environmental Support Programme, Competitiveness Fund and National Empowerment Fund.

The bulk of the budget of this sub-programme is taken-up by the Manufacturing Development Programmes which focus directly on:

i raising fixed investment in manufacturing,
ii restructuring domestic manufacturing towards international competitiveness,
iii facilitating a higher degree of labour absorption
iv and encouraging small- and medium-sized manufacturing through its SMMDP.

In this regard claims supporting the creation of 16 040 local jobs and 2 188 foreign jobs have been approved for the year to August 1999 with an associated investment of R939 million locally. R50,5 million has been disbursed in this regard. The total amount for the MDP programmes are roughly R510 million for the first MTEF year. This is being budgeted for based on a certain percentage of anticipated claims. This in turn, is a function of the growth in the economy of the previous year. Other statistics on the deliverables and outputs of the different schemes can be found in Appendix 7.

Currently our approach to the Tax Holiday Scheme is under review and it is anticipated that new schemes may flow from this review to recruit investment in other ways. The anticipated new programmes coming from this review, will undoubtedly require funding over and above the requests in this MTEF budget.

The other component contributing to the budget of this sub-programme, is the Environmental Support Programme. The Department has requested R100 million in addition to its baseline allocation for this project. It will endeavour to foster compliance with new national environmental regulations especially by SMMEs. Compliance will increase SA’s global competitive advantage as entry into foreign markets will, increasingly, depend on exports meeting tougher environmental standards. It is worth noting that recently South Africa was listed as one of the 20 primary countries responsible for contributing to global warming. The DTI has allocated R30 million for the establishment of the Emission Test Facility in support of the motor industry from this year’s budget. The draft policy and implementation guidelines for the Environmental Support Fund currently accommodate certification in terms of the international standard ISO14001. The detail for this is reflected Appendix 8. The Committee may wish to note that despite our request for R100 million the Department of State Expenditure has recommended that we receive nothing over the entire MTEF period.

The second sub-programme is called Industry development and promotion. This is covered by Appendix 9. It has as its aim to plan, arrange and promote industrial development and places its emphasis on developing policies for key-industries. Perhaps of most significance in the MTEF period is the envisaged taxi scrapping allowance of which Cabinet was informed in August 1999. The taxi scrapping allowance seeks to stabilise the taxi industry by consolidating the efforts of government and the taxi industry over the last four years. In other words it attempts to formalise and democratise the industry itself. This has culminated in the formation of the officially recognised representative body SATACO. Although by no means perfect, SATACO represents the greater majority of the taxi industry participants throughout the country and is obliged in terms of its MOU with Government to operate on the basis of inclusivity and has co-operated closely with Government to develop this strategy. Not funding this important project adequately and timeously may cause problems for Government. There may be the danger that all 120 000 taxi owners may want to scrap their vehicles at once - not allowing Government the opportunity for a smooth recapitalisation. The major factors contributing to the development of this programme include the violence associated with the industry and the absence of safety for commuters.

The focus of the Motor Industry Development Programme is aimed at a phased lowering of the level of protection for local manufacturers whilst improving the competitiveness of our motor industry in international markets. It is anticipated that the recapitalisation project will result in an expansion of internationally competitive local manufacture of vehicles, thereby creating local jobs. The scheme will also have a significant impact on volumes in the domestic market. The amount requested for this purpose is R790-m. More than half of this amount is a consequence of the VAT-implication that the Departments of State Expenditure and Finance have advised the DTI to include. For more detailed information on the phase-in, please see Appendix 9. The amount of R790 million emerged from interdepartmental discussions. The Department of State Expenditure has allocated R200-m for this item.

Other key focus areas of this sub-programme include the investigation of customs tariffs and measures against unfair competition in this area. A key shift in emphasis of the programme is from the formulation of policies to the implementation of strategies for key industries in each sector. This has resulted in an initiative to develop some 42 different strategies. See Appendix 9 for more details. Outputs of the Board of Tariffs and Trade can also be found in Appendix 9.

No additional funding has been requested for the Spatial Development Initiatives at this stage. If all the projects currently under consideration come to fruition some 95 000 jobs will be created. This initiative is focussing on inward investment, export-oriented growth and strategically leveraging private sector investment. [Appendix 10].

The support programme for industrial standards and environmental management in industry requires additional funding for the CSIR for National Measuring Standards which was supported by the Department of State Expenditure. Please refer to Appendix 11 for further details. This is aimed at supporting the establishment of a chemical metrology facility at the National Metrology Laboratory which seeks to prepare primary reference materials locally. This will have a significant impact on reducing costs to industry which has always had to obtain much of its chemical measurement capability from overseas. Included will also be viscosity measurements for the petroleum and paint industries and to prepare and to certify matrix sensitive reference materials for the mining industry. Other important areas include the development of free-field calibration for acoustics necessary to develop shock testing capabilities which are important to the mining industry. An additional amount of R17 million has been requested for the first MTEF year to be followed with R19 million the next year as the projects are phased in. Currently the DTI is funding only 65% of the requirements of the National Metrology Laboratory and South African National Accreditation System. Because the metrology equipment of South Africa is outdated, not granting the request may leave these institutions at risk as well as having obvious consequences on the relevant industries depending on these institutions.

As this element of the programme is endeavouring to ensure compliance of SA industries with internationally accepted environmental standards, the focus of the budget in this MTEF period will be the development of an Eco-labelling Licencing and Advisory System. The funding will be transferred to the CSIR for the purpose of creating the system which will increase access for licensed products, to international markets as they will be manufactured according to Cleaner Production Standards. The system will be supported by legislation and will, in line with international best practice, be based on the environmental scientific approach of Life Cycle Analysis. This is closely linked to the Environmental Support Programme for which an amount of R10m has been set-aside this year as part of the starting-up cost for the Environmental Support Fund which I mentioned earlier. No provision for this has been made by the Department of State Expenditure. The establishment of Eco-labelling and the Environmental Support Fund will require such a legalised and licensed system to be developed within the MTEF-period.

An additional request for R7 million was supported by the Department of State Expenditure in respect of the Contribution to the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) for promoting standards which focus on economic growth and job creation. Over the MTEF period, the programme is aiming to produce a sustainable production study policy. Also included in this period is development of an environmental management programme.

The third Sub-programme: Technology Enhancement in Industry focuses on the promotion of industrial development by enhancing technology in SAn industry through:

i facilitating technology transfer
ii and by supporting innovation in industry.

I will be summarising the details covered in Appendix 12.

In taking forward the aims of this sub-programme, several initiatives have been developed, many of which have been successfully implemented, for example Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme, Support Programme for Industrial Innovation