Question NW1522 to the Minister of Arts and Culture
19 June 2017 - NW1522
Vos, Mr J to ask the Minister of Arts and Culture
With reference to his department’s expenditure of nearly 10% of its institutional budget on monitoring and evaluation annually, (a) which (i) entities and (ii) projects have been evaluated to date, (b) what corrective measures were instituted against poor performing entities and projects to date and (c) which (i) entities and (ii) projects have been identified as not performing well?
Reply:
a. (i) The performance of all the Department’s entities is reviewed (evaluated) on a regular basis.
(ii). similarly, the department conducts implementation reviews (evaluation) on its programmes and projects on regular basis through project in-year reviews and oversight visits with intention to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency. The flags in every school programme and the library conditional grants are some of the programmes that were recently reviewed. Furthermore, the Department has established the South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) to conduct mapping studies and other studies on cross cutting issues on the arts, culture and heritage sector. Twenty (20) research reports were produced in the 2016-17 financial year. Another 27 research reports are envisaged in the 2017-18 financial year. Moreover, the Department conducts 5-year reviews that focus on a range of issues relating to the operations of the Department including performance. The last review was conducted in the 2014-15 financial year. The next 5-year review will be conducted during 2018-19 financial year and will focus on the period 2015-2019.
b. (i). The Department conducts regular oversight visits, with the focus more on entities that are not performing well. The purpose of these visits is to assist the entities with the implementation of turnaround plans. Moreover, a number of forums have been established to facilitate monitoring and evaluation of public entities and to share best practices. These include the chairperson’s forum, where the Minister and the Chairpersons of Councils/Boards engage on issues affecting the public entities.
(ii). In cases of unsatisfactory programme and/or project performance, a diagnosis exercise is conducted to ascertain the reasons for poor performance. Findings emanating from the diagnosis exercise are used to improve the design and implementation of the programme and/or project. The Technical Intergovernmental Committee (TIC) and MinMEC are some of the platforms the Department has established to review and correct poor performing projects that are done in collaboration with provinces.
c. (i). Guided by the audit outcomes of the Auditor-General (AG), 11 DAC public entities received qualified audit outcomes and this highlighted shortcomings in their control systems. In most cases the shortcomings related to the accounting of heritage assets as specified in the GRAP 103 standard. The Ditsong Museums of South Africa and the South African State Theatre got adverse and disclaimer audit outcomes, respectively, thus highlighting a collapse in their control systems.
(ii). In the 2016-17 financial year there has been delays in the implementation of the following projects: Liberation Heritage Route online map application; refurbishment of the community arts centres and a series of infrastructure projects ( legacy project); the Khoi San Heritage Route; and the Liberation Heritage Route.