Question NW1439 to the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
19 June 2017 - NW1439
Mackenzie, Mr C to ask the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
With reference to his reply to question 1545 on 11 May 2015, (a) what amount of money did his department allocate to (i) implement and (ii) manage the 112 emergency call centre programme listed under Programme 4 of her department’s 2017 Budget Vote and (b) what is her department’s plan of action for the emergency call centre programme?
Reply:
With reference to Question 1545, I have been advised by the Department as follows:
(a) (i) No budget was allocated to implement the 112 emergency centre in 2017/18 financial year.
(ii) No budget was allocated to manage the 112 emergency centre in 2017/18 financial year.
(b) The 112 emergency call centre programme is not part of the Department’s current financial year deliverables.
The Budget Programme structure of the Department, which informs its programmes and sub-programmes was determined by National Treasury in 2009, following the last time the Department was restructured. Since then, there has been major changes including the change to the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) however there has never been a change to the Programme Budget Structure hence all our Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) documents and allocation still reflect this outdated Programme Structure. Similar examples are the Digital Terrestrial Television which is still reflected as a sub-programme under Programme 5 and Programme 4 still has SMME Enterprise development.
Following the current restructuring process in line with the new DTPS mandate, the Department will approach National Treasury to revise its Programme Structure accordingly so that going forward the ENE and allocations are done in line with a Budget Programme structure that is reflective of the organisational structure.