Department’s 2005/06 Annual Report: briefings

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
24 October 2006
DEPARTMENT’S 2005/06 ANNUAL REPORT: BRIEFINGS

Chairperson: Mr D Bloem (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Minister’s Statement, Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services Briefing on the Annual Report of the DCS, 24 October 2006
Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Annual Report: 2005/06: Part1 & Part2

SUMMARY
The Minister and Department of Correctional Services briefed the Committee on the department’s 2006 Annual Report. The Committee acknowledged the progress made by the department in addressing some of the most problematic issues over the past twelve months. The Committee however expressed concern that audit qualifications have been given to the department for the last 5 years and requested clearly stated timeframes for project implementation from the department. The department would have to continue proving quarterly progress reports to the Committee.

MINUTES

Minister’s statement

The Minister of Correctional Services, Mr N Balfour, apologised for the absence of the National Commissioner, Mr L Mti, who was at a conference abroad. On his return the National Commissioner would answer the Committee’s questions.

Mr Balfour stated that the role of the Portfolio Committee is to oversee that service delivery is strengthened and that the capacities of government are enhanced to ensure more effective and efficient delivery. He stated that he strived to leave the department with a legacy of accountability on how taxpayers’ money is being used. The Minister declared that taxpayers’ concerns are the department’s concerns too. Due to these concerns Mr Balfour noted that he wants a ‘step change’ in dealing with issues of correction. The question of efficiency has to be the cornerstone at the national and district level and systems have to be put in place to show improvements. The Minister noted a number of concerns, namely the need to clarify the issue of private prisons, fleet management and delays in disciplinary cases, long suspension of offices who receive remuneration, management of leave and the many issues that are beyond the department’s control. The Minister went on to say that he was happy to micro-manage to detect the early warning signs and stated that he was in favour of the idea of publishing quarterly progress reports. 

Department of Correctional Services (DCS) presentation

Mr M Ncame (Director General: Compliance and Management Support) presented the department’s Annual Report for 2005/06. His presentation included issues around performance highlights, programme performance, programme security, programme corrections, programme care, programme development, programme social reintegration, programme facilities, the progress on compliance, the progress in issues which have been qualified previously, the report of the Auditor General, and the initiatives to address compliance issues in the period October 2006 to June 2007. Mr Ncame emphasised the implementation of the White Paper on Corrections, anticorruption efforts and overhauling of the Human Resource Development strategy. He noted that there have been improvements on budget performance, the relationship with the labour unions while twenty-six policies have been finalised and are currently being aligned with the White Paper on Corrections and the strategy on HIV/AIDS had been implemented. The department has seen a decrease in escapes (34%) and have installed Biometric access control equipment in 66 correctional centres. They were expected to reduce the number of assaults by 10% but were not able to do so due to the problem of not setting the agenda objectives adequately and the data collection system was not effective.

The department noted some other areas of improvement namely security, corrections, education and the progress on compliance but noted that social reintegration and care needed serious attention as most of the psychologists and social workers are resigning or leaving to work abroad. Mr Ncame noted that in terms of the White Paper on Corrections centres of excellence have been established, new budget programmes aligned to policy framework have been developed whist the Audit and review of policies is done to ensure alignment. To do this, the officials in the department are going to need to be trained about auditing and they are going to need technical assistance to correctly evaluate whether they are going to use other departments or the private sector. Mr Ncame stated that the department has problems setting indicators, alignment of planning and reporting systems; therefore they need to improve on this. It is important to train officials on what to measure and how to measure the impact and objectives of the organisation. He closed his presentation by stating that these problems are currently being attended to.

The Acting Commissioner, Ms J Shreiner, emphasised the complexities and challenges namely the issues of trying to repair and maintain prisons whilst addressing the legacy inherited by the department. She noted that the system that is to deal with the above-mentioned need to be put in place. She stated that this would be hard as the department is large. The second complexity she discussed was the strategic direction shift; the capacity of the institution, training, and that policy development would need to be categorised as long or short-term issues. The Acting Commissioner also raised the challenge of trying to develop whilst simultaneously safeguarding the inmates, the public and the officials.

Discussion
Mr N Fihla (ANC) asked whether the department could identify which problems can be solved on a short-term and long-term basis. He also raised his concern about Accounting Officers missing Committee meetings.

Ms Shreiner responded that the identification of challenges is an ongoing process and that there is regular interaction with the Accounting Officers. If they could not attend meetings they tried ensuring that the deputy is present. She added that the Audit Steering Committee is meeting every two months to unblock problems. In September they identified critical areas where some problems need to be addressed with the aid of private-public partnerships.

Ms W Ngwenya (ANC) asked why the report does not show the reduction of unsentenced children and the target plan of building new prisons. She pointed out that the only differences she could see from previous reports were the photos, suggesting that the department needs to change the report and show developments and not just the challenges they faced.

Ms J Sishuba (Chief Deputy Commissioner: Care and Development) acknowledged that unsentenced children were not included in the report. Awaiting-trial children should be removed from prisons and taken into care facilities until they are sentenced.  She noted that social workers are resigning and the department is currently working on how to attract and recruit social workers and other specialist workers.

Ms Shreiner stated that issues regarding children were not included, but noted that the department will ensue that the information is provided to the Committee.

Mr L Tolo (ANC) raised concern about the recruitment of over 2000 officials for a seven-day establishment. Could the department provide statistical reports on the nine provinces with regard to recruitment? He further asked about the implications of Affirmative Action and Gender equality and asked why white women were largely absent from management positions. He requested that the department provide a black and white account of recruitment per province.

The Chairperson asked for clarity on Medical Aid expenditure, the Pay Masters General Account, and Home Loan guarantees.

Mr V Peterson (Chief Deputy Commissioner: Corporate Services) responded that the medical aid of the department used to be a closed scheme fully funded by the department; it had not options and was a one-size fits all scheme. Now it has changed to a member contribution scheme, where members contribute one third or two thirds respectively.  

Mr P Gillingham (Chief Financial Officer) noted the shortcomings between finance and human resources and stated that they are looking into the issues of debt recovery from people who have taken pay advances and the issue of member deaths by examining and learning from how other departments have recovered their debts. Asset management is a three-system process in the department; the problem is that these are not compatible. The DCS has looked at the Department of Justice system to learn from them and hope to start implementation on 1 May 2007.

Mr S Mahote (ANC) asked whether the department takes the previous report into account when it compiles the new report. Some issues are not clearly reported, for example databases. He also asked why timeframes for implementation were not specified.

Mr Gillingham responded that the department had identified audit qualifications as a serious issue and would ensure that they would not be repeated in the next audit report.

Ms L Mabe (ANC) noted that the presentation did not report on how the taxpayers’ money was used by the department.

Ms Shreiner responded that in September they identified areas where they will not be using money on critical issues, but she noted that the department had asked for permission to do so. They tried to ensure that the department addressed problems earlier in the year, especially delivery on tenders. She agreed that the presentation did not provide detail on how allocations were used but stated that the information was in the report.

Mr Gillingham supported Ms Shreiner by reiterating that the financial statements are included in the report.

Ms Mabe stated that she was not satisfied with the response.

Mr Gillingham informed her that the rollover funds were used to purchase vehicles and machinery like x-ray scanners and that the money they did not use was returned to the National Revenue Fund.

Ms Shreiner said future presentations would include how the department uses its funds.

Mr C Haak (National Treasury) noted that the money surrendered to the Treasury was R600 million. This did not affect the annual report that was being presented.

Mr M Phala (ANC) raised his concerns about overcrowding in the prisons and asked why there had been a roll over of building allocations and whether the department is using inmates to upgrade and maintain the buildings.

Mr T Motseki (Deputy Commissioner: Correction) responded that a lot of work is being done by using the department’s own resources, staff and inmates for example. The staff supervises the inmates whilst they do projects like painting and building.

Ms Ngwenya stated that she is worried about the lack of management especially when performance bonuses are given. She wanted to know how much was paid out as performance bonuses and if there is a lack of managerial capacity.

Mr Peterson responded that they have assessment systems in place to reward good performers. Compared to other departments, they gave 2% performance bonuses as compared to 25%. Only four out of 169 senior managers received performance bonuses. He noted that the department is also identifying poor performers and holding them accountable and taking severe action on those who are not performing.

Ms Mabe asked why payrolls have not been certified. She also raised the question about payment for suspended officers.

The Deputy Commissioner: Financial Management Accounting, Ms N Mareka, responded that action plans have been put in place to deal with delays in distributing payrolls and fast tracking the deployment of loss control officers in al regions to investigate losses.

Mr Peterson responded that it was the department’s responsibility to ensure pensioners are still alive and that dependents are genuinely dependants. They are currently working on getting medical staff and integrated corporate systems; they have introduced “My HR”, and have put up advertisements to update their database to confirm the existence of members.

Mr S Mahote (ANC) asked why there were so many vacancies in the department.

Mr Peterson responded that the department is unable to attract doctors, nurses, and social workers. When the department did away with overtime, the DCS became unattractive; therefore initiatives to attract these workers have been put in place. However, the department is doing so in such a manner that it will not be at the expense of other departments. They have introduced headhunting mechanisms to attract scarce skills.

Mr Tolo asked how the money received from AIDS relief was used and how officials are being trained especially in management.

Ms Sishuba responded that the money has been used to fund four projects; training material accounted for about R180 000, R2 million was spent on the HIV and syphilis survey, R760 000 was used on training nurses and offenders were also trained in HIV/AIDS peer education. Reports on these projects were prepared for the Department of Health and Treasury.

Mr Peterson stated that the first 400 junior and middle rank managers were certified yesterday. One of the modules they were taught was financial management for non-financial managers. Executive leadership training programmes and other training programmes on compliance management and other training may be used to solve the management problem, but examinations need to be written to show efficiency and make the process more effective.

Mr Tolo asked the department to provide a list of prisons to be renovated in 2006/07.

Mr Motseki stated that this list is not provided in this report, but that the lists of prisons renovated last year were provided in this report.

Mr Bloem emphasised that the department needs to provide timeframes to enable the Committee to follow up on progress.

Mr Motseki responded that he would not speculate on timeframes and would revert to the Committee about the time it would take to build new prisons.

Mr Bloem said the answer was insufficient and stated that the Committee cannot plan another meeting to deal with timeframes. He said that the Members already know what the problems are and requested that the problems be addressed.

Mr Motseki said there are guidelines in the facilities report on what steps need to be taken. The department was not asking for another meeting. He noted that they would provide the necessary document.

Ms Shreiner noted that they have been tasked to create action plans with clear timeframes. She stated that this is a learning process; the department has capacity problems but they are trying to employ people with the right qualifications, who are properly screened and re-vetted. She also made a commitment to send back action plans for key concerns of the Auditor General and a list of entry level recruits with race, age, gender and upgrading clearly categorised. She said next year’s report will include all the aspects the Committee, especially the use of funds.

The Committee accepted the need to work together to ensure that the department delivers service efficiently.

The meeting was adjourned.