ATC100323: Report on Strategic Plan & Budget Vote 4 of the Department of Home Affairs & its Entities

Home Affairs

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on the strategic plan and Budget Vote 4 of the Department of Home Affairs and its entities, dated 23 March 2010

 

The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs having met with the Department of Home Affairs, Government Printing Works (GPW), Electoral Commission (EC), Film and Publication Board (FPB) reports as follows:

 

1.         Introduction

 

The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs plays an oversight role on the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Home Affairs, and its Entities. The Committee scrutinized the Strategic Plans and Budgets of the Department of Home Affairs and the GPW on the 9th of March 2010 and scrutinised the Strategic Plans and Budgets of the EC and the FPB on the 16th of March 2010 in order to establish whether funds that are allocated to the Department and its Entities are aligned to the respective strategic plan documents.

 

2.         Department of Home Affairs

 

The aim of the Department of Home Affairs is to efficiently safeguard identity and status, regulate migration to ensure security, promote development and fulfill its international obligations.

 

The activities of the Department are organized in the following programmes:

 

Programme 1: Administration

Programme 2: Services to Citizens

Programme 3: Immigration Services

Programme 4: Transfers to Agencies

 

Both Civic and Immigration functions impact on the identity and security of citizens and other residents and these are core functions of the Department of Home Affairs. They have a critical role in ensuring the security and integrity of the state and the society.

 

2.1.       Programme 1: Administration

 

The purpose of this programme is the overall management of the Department and centralized support services. Expenditure on this programme increased from R643.8 million in 2006/07 to R1.4 billion in 2010/11 in order to refurbish the Department’s offices and information systems.

 

Five out of six Deputy Directors-General (DDG) positions had been filled and 15 new offices were opened and refurbished since January 2009.

 

Receipting solution had been rolled out to the top 88 sites and asset management system implemented.

 

 

 

 

2.2.       Programme 2: Services to Citizens

 

The purpose of this programme is to provide a secure, efficient and accessible service and documents for citizens and lawful residents. Expenditure increased from R968.3 million in 2006/07 to R1.4 billion in 2010/11. The expenditure in the provincial Civic Services sub-programme accounted for a significant portion.

 

Late Registration of Birth (LRB) has been a challenge. Some of the children are not born at the hospitals and these children are not registered with the Department of Home Affairs. The Department wants to do away with LRB. A birth certificate should be the only entry point into the National Population Register (NPR).

 

In order to curb corruption, the Department had introduced the live capture of photos into passports. It will be rolled out to all regional and district offices and the live capture of photos into Identity Documents will be piloted in 5 offices. 

 

2.3.       Programme 3: Immigration Services

 

The purpose of this programme is to facilitate and regulate the secure movement of people into and out of the Republic of South Africa through ports of entry, determine the status of asylum seekers, and regulate refugee affairs. Expenditure increased from R571.7 million in 2006/07 to R1.3 billion in 2009/10. The highest costs were for detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, implementing the Advanced Passenger Profiling (APP) system and for employing additional immigration officers ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. All FIFA guarantees relating to the Department of Home Affairs will be fulfilled by 11 July 2010.

 

APP is a system where passengers are processed in their countries before they depart for South Africa. Full implementation of the APP will be done in the 2010/11 financial year. The Movement Control System (MCS) will be fully operational in the 2010/11 financial year. The MCS will be integrated with the National Immigration Information System (NIIS) and Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS).

 

Government is in the process of establishing a Border Management Agency (BMA), and the Department of Home Affairs will contribute to the establishment of BMA by seconding one fulltime official.

 

2.4.       Programme 4: Transfers to Agencies

 

The purpose of this programme is to provide financial support to the FPB, the GPW and the EC. The large increase in the allocation to the Electoral Commission between 2008/09 and 2010/11 is driven by the elections cycle.

 

Transfers to Agencies will be broken as follows:

Agency	2010/11
Government Printing Works (GPW)	R97 228 million
Electoral Commission (EC)	R1 430 503 billion
Film and Publication Board (FPB)	R55 217 million
TOTAL	R1 582 953 billion

 

3.         Budget of the Department of Home Affairs

 

The Department of Home Affairs received an allocation of R5 919 584 billion for the 2010/11 financial year compared to an amount of R5 263.8 allocated in 2009/10. The largest portion of the Department’s budget allocation went to the transfers to agencies programme, administration and services to citizens respectively. The Electoral Commission received an additional allocation of R150 million in 2010/11 to prepare for the 2011 local government elections.

 

The allocation has been broken into down into the following programmes:

Programme	2010/11
Administration	R1 470 926 billion
Services to Citizens	R1 446 011 billion
Immigration Services	R1 219 694 billion
Transfers to Agencies	R1 582 953 billion
TOTAL	R5 719 584 billion

 

The budget for the 2010/11 financial year is shaped by the government’s new framework of outcomes and associated targets.

 

 

 

Challenges faced by the Department in 2009/10 are as follows:

 

·         Ensuring that all South Africans have birth certificates and Identity Documents (IDs);

·         Separation of economic migrants from genuine asylum seekers;

·         Outdated document management system;

·         Controls, people and systems needed to achieve a clean audit;

·         Adherence to set turnaround times for key enabling documents.

 

The Department’s request for funds to implement the following projects was not approved by the National Treasury:

 

·         Electronic Document Management System (EDMS);

·         Passport Project;

·         Children fingerprints;

·         National Immigration Information (Refugee Affairs);

·         Port Control;

·         Port Control – Advanced Passenger Processing (APP);

·         Who Am I Online (WAIO);

·         Information Services Infrastructure;

·         Data Quality Management;

·         Learning Center;

·         Outsourced Security Services;

·         Accelerated Birth Registration;

·         HANIS Database Increase;

·         Smart ID Card.

 

The following agencies/entities fall within the Department of Home Affairs:

 

Government Printing Works

 

Government Printing Works provides security printing services to the South African government and SADC governments. It was established as a trading entity in the Department of Home Affairs but in September 2008 was converted into a government component. The conversion allowed GPW to begin operating on sound business principles.

 

GPW has three strategic thrusts over the medium term:

 

·         Technological upgrade;

·         A new production facility;

·         An effective marketing and business strategy.

 

The following critical equipment is needed to be procured as part of the asset replacement programme:

 

·         Web offset printing presses;

·         Web-feb Kraft press;

·         Shed based laser imaging system;

·         Three unit sheet-fed offset printing press;

·         Digital printing systems;

·         Polycarbonate material manufacturing line;

·         Upgrade to the Unomatic passport booklet assembly line.

 

GPW generates revenue mainly from printing identity documents, forms, examination papers and passports. Revenue is expected to increase over the MTEF period from R289.7 million to R861.7 million. The transfers from the Department of Home Affairs to GPW only service bank charges. A further R93.7 million in 2010/11 is for the new production facility.

 

Currently GPW does not have an internal audit committee but it is in the process of being established.

 

GPW stated that there was no delay or backlog in the printing of the passports. The machine prints approximately 24, 000 passports per day. The delay is at the Department of Home Affairs. Once the data package is downloaded into its server by the Department of Home Affairs, the turnaround from GPW is 24 hours to personalize the information. GPW can personalize the data into 8,000 passports per day. The delay in the production of Identity Documents is not the responsibility of the GPW but that of the Department of Home Affairs. The Department of Home Affairs has not paid GPW since the production of the new passports and this will have an impact in the operations of GPW.

 

The Chief Executive Officer also stated that GPW is ready to print the Smart ID Card, as soon as  the Department of Home Affairs is ready to implement.

The budget allocation from the Department is R97 228 m for the 2010/11 financial year.

 

Electoral Commission

 

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Dr Brigalia Bam stated that the Electoral Commission is preparing for the 2011 local government elections which must take place between 2nd of March and 2 June 2011. The Commission will also amend the Municipal Electoral law which would seek to resolve the conflicts that occur at the voting stations.

 

The Strategic Objectives of the Electoral Commission are as follows:

 

·         To interact nationally and internationally with relevant bodies in order to strengthen electoral democracy and position the Commission as a continuously improving world-class organisation;

·         To develop, implement and monitor strategy and policy to ensure the effective and efficient functioning of the Commission;

·         To optimize voter registration opportunities to achieve an accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date national voters’ roll;

·         To efficiently and effectively facilitate the participation of political parties and candidates in the electoral process on a continuous basis;

·         To provide electoral operational systems and infrastructure to support the delivery of credible elections in accordance with election timeframes;

·         To plan and implement strategies to educate, inform and coordinate programme delivery of civic and democracy education to civil society through partnerships, research and knowledge management on a continuous basis;

·         To ensure professional and enabling business processes and corporate services to support the core business of the Electoral Commission.

 

The Chief Electoral Officer, Adv T Tlakula, went through the strategic objectives. She indicated that the mission of the EC has been revised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some of the highlights of the presentation from the EC:

 

·         The Electoral Commission had managed elections for SRCs at universities, taxi associations and other institutions in South Africa and was also involved in international work in Kenya and Sudan;

·         The EC was conducting research on electronic voting and are developing a fraud prevention strategy;

·         During June and July 2010, no bi-elections would be held because law enforcement agencies would be busy with the 2010 FIFA World Cup;

·         For 2011 local government elections, the EC would train and deploy mediators;

·         The staff turnover had been very low at the EC;

·         There is currently a court case with POPCRU because there are no special votes for police officers during local elections;

·         The EC intended to have 23 599 273 registered voters on the voters’ roll by the end of the financial year and checked this against the National Population Register of the Department of Home Affairs. There would be 20 500 voting stations secured and well equipped;

·         The Municipal Electoral Officers (MEOs) will be appointed for the elections by the EC.  MEOs are nominated by the municipalities and they are senior officials of the municipalities.

 

The budget allocation for the EC for 2010/11 is R1 453 514 090 and the allocation has been done according to the strategic objectives as well as provincial allocation.

 

Film and Publication Board

 

Mandate of the FPB

 

·         Regulate the creation, production, possession, broadcasting and distribution of films, interactive computer games and certain publications;

·         Making use of children in pornography punishable;

·         Providing consumer advice to enable adults to make informed viewing, reading and gaming choices,

·         Protecting children from exposure to disturbing and harmful materials and from premature exposure to adult experiences.

 

Strategic objectives of the FPB are as follows:

 

·         Enhance, integrate and implement a constitutionally sound regulatory framework;

·         Develop and maintain organizational capacity and capability;

·         Form and maintain national and international partnerships, and co-ordinate initiatives that support the business of the FPB;

·         Position the FPB as a viable and credible, professionally run organization.

 

Key priorities for 2010/11:

 

·         Establishing of the 2010 Special Project office to oversee outreach, awareness and positioning of the FPB during the FIFA World Cup and beyond;

·         Ensuring compliance by distributors, categorize distributors according to their needs and service;

·         Ensuring appointment of representatives and credible examiners;

·         Improving classification turnaround times (fast-track method to be put in place);

·         Strengthening relations with the FPB Stakeholders; and where possible enter into Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs);

·         Improving of handling of records in the organization, using electronic records and data storage platforms available;

·         Ensuring proper segmentation and targeting of the FPB clients;

·         Repositioning the FPB in the eyes of the public;

·         Ensuring greater participation of members of the public in the formulation of guidelines;

·         Greater focus on customer care and resolution of queries from distributors and other clients;

·         Increasing outreach and awareness using new media technologies.

 

Challenges of the FPB

 

•          The strategy is ambitious and required a high level of skills, commitment and dedication from staff of the FPB;

•          Limited skills, abilities and commitment of staff to execute implementation;

•          Limited resources available – no budget increase expected from National Treasury for the next two to three years;

•          Lack of management of the organizational review process;

•          Limited knowledge of project management by the FPB;

•          Alignment of strategy responsibilities as closely as possible to existing skills and job requirements;

•          Lack of capacity and resources for the 2010 Project Office;

•          Lack of availability of the SAPS to assist in joint raids during the 2010 FIFA World Cup;

•          Absence of an industry body to represent industry at large (small and bigger players);

•          Absence of an effective and secure labeling system;

•          Absence of a diverse and differentiated classification model responsible to the multiplicity of distribution platforms;

•          Piracy/ distribution rights/ parallel importing;

•          Lack of transformation industry – need for introduction of BEE codes;

•          Lack of facilitation industry negotiations on fair industry rights regularly.

 

The FPB received a budget allocation of R55, 217m for the 2010/11 financial year. The FPB also generates revenue through classification fees, registration, and annual renewal registration.

 

4.         The following were raised by the Committee:

 

·         During the presentation, there was no mention of the implementation of the Smart ID Card;

·         During the Committee’s oversight to the Cape Town International Airport on the 2nd of February 2010, the immigration offices were not properly constructed which will be a challenge for profiling of travelers;

·         The Department of Home Affairs should properly flag its offices that are not performing well;

·         The Committee wanted to ascertain the amount spent on the consultants for the 2009/10 financial year and the allocations for consultancy for the 2010/11 financial year;

·         The Committee requested the plan of the Department of Home Affairs on how it intend to address human trafficking and prostitution in South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup;

·         There are frustrations with regards to the Refugee Reception Centers around the country; The Committee wanted to ascertain whether the forensic audit report on the Smart ID Card was made available to the Minister of Home Affairs by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA);

·         The Committee expressed a concern that the GPW’s mandate is to print security documents for the state and the government does not provide it with sufficient funding to fulfill its mandate;

·         The Department of Home Affairs has not paid GPW for the printing of the new passport;

·         The Electoral Commission should look at the possibility of electronic voting;

·         There is a challenge of ensuring that MEOs remained objective and independent;

·         There is a perception that ballot papers sometime goes missing;

·         The FPB logo is not copyright protected and can easily be used;

·         There is the debate on the responsibility of parents to ensure that children do not watch harmful materials.

 

5.         Conclusion

 

The Committee thanked the Department of Home Affairs and its entities on their presentations of the Strategic plans and budgets. The Committee also wished the Director-General well on his retirement and stated that he had laid a foundation for the turnaround of the Department of Home Affairs.

 

The Committee recommends that budget vote 4 be passed.

 

Report to be considered.

 

 

__________________________               ________________

B A Martins                                                       Date

Chairperson of PC on Home Affairs