Question NW3733 to the Minister of Finance
19 December 2018 - NW3733
Mokoena, Mr L to ask the Minister of Finance
(1)Whether, with reference to some of the departments in the Limpopo Provincial government that were placed under administration, any (a) officials from the (i) National Treasury and/or SA Revenue Service and/or (b) consultants appointed by the Minister of Finance were part of the team that worked in order to get the province out of administration; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (i) what is the name of each official and/or consultant, (ii) on what date was each official and/or consultant appointed, (iii) what position did each official and/or consultant occupy and (iv) what were the responsibilities of each official and/or consultant; (2) whether the Public Affairs Research Institute worked with the administrator and the National Treasury as part of the team that worked for the Government when the Limpopo provincial department of health was placed under administration; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
(1)(a)(i) The Minister of Finance appointed Dr Monde Tom, as the Accounting Officer for Provincial Treasury in terms of section 36(3) of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No. 01 of 1999). This Head official of Provincial Treasury [Accounting Officer] was also the lead coordinator [Chief Administrator] of the overall intervention team. In turn, Dr Tom, as the lead administrator, was supported by a team of treasury officials who were seconded to the Limpopo Provincial Treasury to lead line function programmes. These officials are, Mr Khaya Ntimbela [Sustainable Resource Management]; Mr Ndoda Biyela [Assets, Liability and Transversal SCM]; Mr Mbuyi Dondashe [Financial Governance]; Ms Venita Haupt [Corporate Services]; and Mr Siphiwe Ndlovu [Intervention Secretariat and Liaison Head Official], but later seconded to lead Corporate Services. .Other officials appointed in terms of section 36(3) as Accounting Officers, included the administrators in Education, Roads and Transport, as well as Public Works departments, with the exception of the Health administrator, whose appointment did not include the replacement, but to support the then Head of Department [Accounting Officer], who had recently been appointed.
The South African Revenue Services (SARS) was working with Office of the Chief Procurement Officer in the National Treasury to support procurement reforms.
(1)(b)(i) The Director-General of the National Treasury appointed consultants such as Deloitte, ESP Consulting, Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC), Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs and Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo Auditors.
(1)(b)(ii) The timeframes for the appointments of the administrators and the secondment of support teams, as well as consultants, ranged from immediate to different intervals.
(1)(b)(iii) The treasury officials listed in paragraph (1)(a)(i) above were tasked to lead line function programmes in provincial treasury at Deputy Director-General level.
(1)(b)(iv) The positions of these officials ranged from lead administrator – heading the intervention and Accounting Officer, supported by the heads of programmes [DDGs] to execute treasury functions in terms of section 18 of the PFMA. These functions ranged from provincial budget preparation and oversight; revenue and cash management, transversal Supply Chain Management; overseeing of financial governance issues, dealing with audit issues; corporate services, to day-to-day treasury operations [HR/M, legal services etc.]; as well as providing secretariat services and liaison with stakeholders supporting the intervention. Each administrator had a team of support staff for effective implementation of the section 100(1)(b) intervention in each of the five provincial departments in Limpopo that were placed under administration.
The consultancy [Deloitte, ESP Consulting, PwC, ENSafrica and Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo], were appointed by National Treasury to support the intervention for verification of contracts and invoices, contract management and document review, and conducting forensic audits as well as forensic investigations where necessary.
The other appointments by the Minister of Finance, were those of administrators as Accounting Officers as requested by the Ministers responsible for those departments, namely, for the Department of Education – Mr Mzwandile Matthews; for the Department of Roads and Transport – Mr Mathabatha Mokonyama; and for the Department of Public Works – Mr B. Matutle, but later replaced by Mr Mbuyi Dondashe. Ms Valerie Rennie was appointed by the Minister of Health as an administrator, but was not recommended to the Minister of Finance for appointment as the Accounting Officer of the Department of Health in Limpopo.
(2) No, the Public Affairs Research Institute did not work with the administrators and National Treasury as part of the team, when the Limpopo provincial Department of Health was placed under administration.