Question NW4219 to the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans
11 December 2015 - NW4219
Jooste, Ms K to ask the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans
(1)With reference to her department’s 2014-15 Annual Report, (a) what are the reasons for her department’s failure to achieve its target for updating and verifying the National Military Veterans Database by merely achieving 37% instead of 75% of the target and (b) what plans have been put in place to ensure that the database is completed as a matter of urgency instead of being delayed to the 2019-20 financial year as per her department’s strategic plan; (2) why was the indicator referred to as Information-Level of Credibility of Database, as reflected in her department’s 2015-16 Annual Performance Plan, removed from the specified annual report when it is a prerequisite for accessing military veteran benefits; (3) what is the detailed breakdown of the 21 322 military veterans whose personal files were updated on the specified database in terms of (a) the number of military veterans and (b) each former (i) statutory and (ii) non-statutory force to which each military veteran belonged?
Reply:
(1) The reason why the target was not achieved is because the Department relies on the military veterans to approach the department with requests to update their records. It is assumed that those Military Veterans who are not updating their records, their personal details have not changed.
(2) As per the Act the listing of Military Veterans in the National Military Veterans database is a permanent function which is not expected to end as it caters for the transition of members of the defence force who exit service.
(3) The 21 322 updated files completed was not broken down as per former force, at the time of reporting, due to the nature of our system we may not be able to go back at the end of the reporting period to track the composition of the batch. With the current improvements on the system, we will make sure such a break-down is provided in future.
DATE OF SUBMISSION: 11 DECEMBER 2015