Question NW3064 to the Minister of Basic Education
01 October 2015 - NW3064
Mhlongo, Mr TW to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(a) How does (i) her department and (ii) entities reporting to her define red tape and (b) what (i) specific interventions and/or (ii) systems have been implemented to (aa) identify and (bb) reduce red tape in (aaa) her department and (bbb) the entities reporting to her? (a) How does the Minister define Red Tape and (b) what (i) specific interventions and/or (ii) systems have been implemented to (aa) identify and (bb) reduce Red Tape in your (aaa) Department and (bbb) the entities reporting to you? NW3605E
Reply:
The Department of Basic Education:
a) Red tape is not defined in any legislation but our understanding of Red tape is that is refers to rules, procedures and measures of a legislative of administrative nature that prevent or retard good administration, governance and service delivery.
b) The Department’s systems are fairly streamlined and there are no legislative or administrative measures that prevent or retard service delivery.
(bbb) Public Entities reporting to the Minister.
South African Council for Educators (SACE):
(a) "Red Tape", in the view of SACE, entails following rules, procedures and protocols appropriate to entities. It may, in some cases, be a time consuming process. Unless the rules are changed officially, processes cannot be speeded up. Therefore, a motivation is required for rule change consideration.
(b) (i)(aa) The Council has sub-committees which meet regularly (at least six times per annum) and make recommendations to the Executive Committee who takes decisions on behalf of the Council. The Executive decision is implemented unless revoked by Council.
(b)(ii)(bb) The Council has delegated the operational powers to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who has delegated approval powers to the Chief Operations Officer and Chief Financial Officer to ensure immediate processing without delay. This allows Council to process all operational matters including procurements, filling of posts and payments immediately, when the need arises.
Umalusi:
(a) Failing a definition of “red tape”, Umalusi is not in a position to respond to the parliamentary question in a definitive way.
(b)(ii)(bb) As a quality assuror, Umalusi has its own policies and systems, and where it is found that policies or systems renders work cumbersome, then those policies and systems are reconsidered for amendment to ease the flow of work.