ATC120424: Report on Annual Performance Plan and Budget Vote 4
Home Affairs
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on the Annual Performance Plan and Budget Vote 4 of the Department of Home Affairs and its entities, dated 24 April 2012
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on the Annual Performance Plan and Budget Vote 4 of the Department of Home Affairs and its entities, dated 24 April 2012.
The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs having met with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) on 13 March 2012, Government Printing Works (GPW), Film and Publication Board (FPB) on 17 April 2012 and Electoral Commission (EC) on 18 April 2012, reports as follows:
1. Introduction
The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs plays an oversight role over the Department of Home Affairs and its entities. The Committee scrutinized the Annual Performance Plan and the budget of the DHA as well as Strategic Plans, Performance Plans and Budgets of the EC, GPW and FPB in order to establish whether funds that are allocated to the DHA and its entities are aligned to the respective strategic plan documents and Government Priorities.
2. Department of Home Affairs
The Department of Home Affairs is a custodian, protector and verifier of the identity and status of citizens and other persons resident in South Africa as recorded on the National Population Register (NPR) and this includes issuing travelling documents. The department also controls, regulates and facilitates immigration and the traffic of persons through ports of entry.
The activities of the department are organized in the following programmes:
Programme 1: Administration. The purpose of this programme is to provide leadership, management and support services to the department.
Programme 2: Citizens Affairs. The purpose of the programme is to provide secure, efficient and accessible services and documents for citizens and lawful residents.
Programme 3: Immigration Affairs. 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.
The Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) of government has twelve priority outcomes and the Department of Home Affairs contributes directly to three of the twelve outcomes which are:
Outcome 3: All people in South Africa are and feel safe.
Outcome 5: A skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path and;
Outcome 12: An efficient, effective and development oriented public service and an empowered, fair and inclusive citizenship.
In addition to the Programme of Action of Government, the following priorities had been specified for the department in the State of the Nation Address for 2012:
Improving border crossings, port capacity and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as part of the regional trade corridors.
Advocating for improved departmental infrastructure as part of initiatives of the Presidential Infrastructure Commission/Summit.
Improving national security, fraud detection and prevention through online verification of identity such as fingerprints.
Updating needed scarce foreign skills lists and speeding up visa provision in line with the required technical and engineering capacity needed for large infrastructure projects.
Job creation through meaningful economic transformation and inclusive growth.
It is in line with these priorities that the department proposed three strategic outcomes, comprising 11 strategic objectives across its three programmes. The three outcomes are as follows:
Secured South African citizenship and identity.
Immigration managed effectively and securely in the national interested including social and cultural development.
A service that is efficient, accessible and corruption free.
The Minister of Home Affairs signed Performance Agreement with the President. The agreement included the following:
Completion of all strategic information and identification projects within already defined budgets and timeframes.
Effective and efficient refugee management strategies and systems.
Contributing to the level of skills and general economic development in South Africa targets by realizing a positive skills migration trend of around 50 000 migrants annually. The focus should be on critical skills shortages, supportive of the medium term strategies and governments outcomes.
The registration of every child within 30 days of birth.
The issuing of identity documents to every South African 16 years and above.
Improving the turnaround times for all services, queuing times and unit costs per service.
Determining and improving the maximum distance for a citizen to travel to access Home Affairs services.
2.1 Strategic Priorities for 2012/13
In the 2012, there had been budget cuts in all the programmes of the department, although the expenditure of frontline personnel had increased. Government in general is targeting the reduction of large administrative budgets in favour of increasing frontline personnel and infrastructure investment to channel more resources toward the actual services delivery. The department divided its 11 strategic objectives into 24 outputs and 53 targets. Of the 53 targets 36 were for Civics and Immigration and 17 were for key support functions.
Herewith are the 11 strategic objectives for the department for 2012/13:
To ensure that registration at birth is the only entry point for South Africans to the National Population Register (NPR).
To issue identity documents to citizens turning 16 years and above.
To ensure registration and identification of all South African citizens, foreign residents, refugees and asylum seekers to enhance the integrity and security of identity.
To ensure a secure, responsive and flexible immigration regime in support of national security, priorities and interests.
To implement effective and efficient asylum seeker and refugee management strategies and systems.
To facilitate the efficient movement of bona fide travelers to support national interest and priorities, and to prevent and prohibit the movement of undesirable persons in the interest of national security.
To contribute towards realizing a positive skills migration trend of around 50 000 migrants annually.
To transform the culture of the organization in support of security identity, citizenship and international migration.
To ensure ethical conduct and a zero tolerance approach to corruption.
To obtain a clean audit report
To ensure secure, effective, efficient and accessible service delivery to clients.
2.1.1 Programme 1: Administration
Expenditure on this programme over the MTEF period will focus on:
Improving access to the services rendered by the department by increasing the number of services points and connecting health facilities to the departments network for registration of birth for babies. The department plans to connect 43 health facilities and the total number of facilities connected would be 235.
Designing and implementing a new National Identity System that would include South African and foreign nationals. This would include business process reengineering, provision of access to systems, inherent biometric features and system integration to enable the department to ensure the integrity and security of the identity of all citizens. This form part of the departments Information Technology System Modernization Project (Who Am Online Project) for which an amount of R1.1 billion had been allocated over the MTEF period.
Improving business processes and systems to combat fraud and corruption by rolling out online verification and live capture for both passports and identity documents to districts and regional offices.
Integration of immigration and civic services systems, in particular the National Immigration Information System(NIIS), Case Management, and the Movement Control System(MCS), Home Affairs National Identification System(HANIS) and the National Population Register(NPR) through the Systems Modernization Project.
Improving the service delivery environment for both the public and staff through infrastructure development and improvement.
Developing a cadre of disciplined, professional officials who are security conscious and caring and responsive to the needs of all South Africans through establishing a world class Academy and the culture and practice of constant learning.
Developing leadership with the capacity to drive transformation.
2.1.2 Programme 2: Citizens Affairs
Expenditure on this programme over the MTEF period will focus on:
Continued rollout of the NPR Campaign with focus on birth, marriage and death registrations and the issuance of identity documents.
Rendering services in provincial offices as well as the production and providing support in the issuance of key enabling documents, including the efficient management of the refugee centers and ports of entry in provinces.
Implementing an operating model that is appropriate to a security department that must deliver services effectively and securely to every citizen and to other clients and sectors.
Digitization of documents and stabling of a document management system.
2.1.3 Programme 3: Immigration Affairs.
Expenditure on this programme over the MTEF period will focus on:
Facilitating the importation of critical skills into South Africa .
Implementing an integrated immigration management system by amending and implementing the Immigration and Refugee Acts and Regulations.
Developing and implementing a risk based immigration management approach to minimize risks and maximize benefits to the country.
3. Budget of the department
The department received a total allocation of R5 ,3 billion in 2012/13. This is a 9.5% decrease in nominal terms from its 2011/12 budget. The projected inflation is 5.9% and the overall cuts to the budget of the department of 9.5% (-R554 million) are thus closer to 15.4%. As result of the reduced budget allocation, all programmes within the department had a cut in expenditure in 2012/13. The biggest reduction is for the Administration programme which is 11.8% or R223.8 million less. The Citizen Affairs budget was decreased by 9% or R306.3 million and Immigration Services receives 4.2% or R24.2 million less in 2012/13. The only increases are under Administrative programme for corporate services (+11.24%) or R56 million and office accommodation (+5.5%) or R17 million and under the citizen services delivery to provinces gets a R105 million increase (+6.8%).
GPW and FPB had their budgets increased. The FPB budget increased by 6% or R3.9 million and GPW was increased by 4.8% or R6.2 million. The EC budget has declined due to the fact that it is a non-election year.
The majority of the sub-programmes within the DHA received smaller allocations this financial year than 2011/12.
The allocation has been broken down into the following programmes:
|
Programme
|
|
|
Nominal % change |
|
R million |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
|
|
Programme 1: Administration |
1 897.9 |
1 674.1 |
-11.76 |
|
Programme 2: Citizen Affairs |
3 374.2 |
3 067.9 |
-9.08 |
|
Programme 3: Immigration Affairs |
578.8 |
554.3 |
-4.18 |
|
TOTAL |
R5 850.9 |
R5 296.3 |
|
The major contributors to the decrease from 2011/12 to 2012/13 related to the once-off funding from National Treasury to cover the shortfall in the production cost of passports in 2011/12 which was R327 million as well as the R234 million less for Information Technology Modernization projects. Only R314 million had been allocated for IT Modernization as against the R548 million previously allocated.
For the MTEF period, the department requested R5 763.4 billion for 2012/13, 2012/14 was R7 131.9 billion and for 2014/15 was R7 325.7 billion but it was only allocated R5 269.3 billion, R6257.8 billion and R6 536.6 billion respectively.
It requested additional funding for the following:
· Re-training of immigration and civic officials on awareness
· Security upgrade
· Profiling border community immigrants and strengthening Stakeholder forum
· Advance Passenger Processing System
· Capacity improvement: 282 posts for immigration affairs and 19 posts counter-corruption officials
· Financial management improvement
· Deportation
· Building Project for new Department of Home Affairs Head office
· Department of Home Affairs IT Modernization
· Create the capacity for effective and efficient Maritime Ports and Border Management
· Implementation of a new model for effective and efficient Refugee Status Determination
· Relocation of Refugee Reception offices towards the borderline
· Law enforcement, monitoring and compliance improve systems records, turn rail stations into proper ports of entry, improve tracing and analysis functions and porous borderline (informal crossings)
· Recruitment and training of new Immigration Officers and
· Rollout of the Smart Card Technology.
4. Challenges faced by the department:
· The Advanced Passenger Processing system has only been allocated R50 million. This is not sufficient for the completion of the entire project.
· The implementation of the Border Post Infrastructure is in conjunction with the Department of Public Works (DPW) and it is not solely in the hands of the Department of Home Affairs.
· Inadequate capacity and funding for increasing presence and monitoring of migration within sea and air ports of entry is a continued security risk.
· Financial management capacity is lacking in both skills and human resources.
5. The Committee raised the following issues:
· Recommended the regularization of other undocumented nationals from Southern Africa in South Africa along the lines of the documentation of the Zimbabwean Project.
· The local offices of the department should be further capacitated.
· The need for more effort in successful prosecution of the officials of the department who are found to be corrupt.
· The Committee needed clarity on the Nigerians who were wrongfully deported by the department.
· The issue of employment of people with disabilities was not sufficiently addressed by the department. People with disability were below the 2% threshold required by law.
· The issue of reaching 50% gender parity especially for senior management positions is an issue that needed further effort by the department. At the meeting, there were only two females at the Deputy Director-General level.
· During the Peoples Assembly in Mangaung , the Committee visited the Thaba Nchu office and the Committee requested that that office should also be given a priority.
· The Lebombo Border post the infrastructure was done by DPW without consulting the department. As a result it was done in a way that was not unsuitable for the work of the DHA, it is thus presently not being used.
· The department reported that the Smart ID Card would be piloted in 2012/13 but it has not been budgeted for in 2012/13.
· Ganyisa office in the North West has not been included in the budget for 2012/13 and it was reported that people were being serviced in a container.
· Soweto is one of the biggest townships and yet it does not have an office.
· The Chairperson indicated that Skilpadheks border post in the North West did not have enough residential accommodation. Accommodation for officials at the land ports of entry should be looked into by the departments and the Department of Public Works.
· It was a concern to the Committee that there was not budget for motor vehicles and during oversight it was reported in many offices lack of transport was hampering service delivery.
· The department should educate people on the services that it provides. The budget did not have allocation for community awareness.
· The total for unauthorized expenditure of R99 883 million was far from acceptable.
· The centralization of finalizing permits at DHA head office was causing delays and the Committee wanted the DHA to speed up this process.
6. Entities that receive transfers from the Department of Home Affairs
The Film and Publication Board, Government Printing Works and the Independent Electoral Commission receive transfers from the DHA. During the 2010/11 financial year, they showed an improvement in the handling of their finances. This was evident when they presented their annual reports because they all received an unqualified audit report from the Auditor-General. GPW during its presentation of the Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan for 2012/ 13, indicated that it would not require transfers from DHA from the 2014/15 financial year since operating as a government component had made it far more profitable.
6.1. Film and Publication Board (FPB)
The FPB was established in terms of the Film and Publications Act (1996) with the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs as the executive authority. The Board regulates and controls the creation, production, possession, and exhibition of certain films, interactive computer games and publications. The mandate of the FPB is the protection of children from exposure to harmful and inappropriate content and punishes the use of children in pornography and this is done by the regulation of films, publications and games. The FPB works closely with the Departments of Education, Police as well as Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and other regulators. FPB and ICASA had concluded a Memorandum of Understanding. FPB also reported that it has engaged internet service providers concerning children accessing undesirable content, but that mobile access by youth to such content was increasing and difficult to control.
The FPB vision has changed to: A leading and credible regulator of the content of films, games and certain publications to inform and protect adults and children. This vision now aims to protect adults who do not want to be exposed to harmful content.
The FPB has identified three strategic goals for the institution for the three year MTEF. These strategic objectives are divided across the FPBs four programmes and 9 strategic objectives. The four programmes are as follows:
· Industry compliance programme
· Public awareness and education programme
· Organizational capacity and capability enhancement programme
· Administration and governance programme
The spending over the MTEF period will focus on the following:
· To expand the activities aimed at preventing child pornography on the internet;
· To continuously evaluate the convergence of societal norms and values;
· To review the Films and Publications Act in order to ensure effective regulation of the industry;
· To develop strategic partnerships and stakeholder relations;
· To conduct outreach awareness;
· To implement FPB turnaround strategy;
· To improve human resources management;
· To amend the regulation fee structure and to identify new revenue generation sources; and
· To ensure sound IT governance throughout the organization.
The FPB receives its revenue from the following sources:
· Grant from the Department of Home Affairs
· Classification fees
· Registration fees
· Annual renewal of registration certificates and,
· Interest received.
For 2012/13 FPB has budgeted for R79 373 million and is expecting a grant of R69 372 million from the Department of Home Affairs. The rest of the revenue will come from classification, registration and annual renewal of registration certificates.
6.1.1. The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs raised the following issues:
· FPB should strongly look into movies that are made in the streets and broadcast into certain television channels. These movies have not been classified by the FPB.
· FPB should consider blocking internet sites that provide harmful content.
· Parents should be educated on the danger of unclassified films and games, especially the effects it has on children.
· FPB should make itself visible to the community and educate the community about the work of FPB.
· There was a concern raised with the language used in music and whether if falls within the mandate of FPB and the response from FPB was that it only classifies music videos. It can only act if there is a complaint from members of the public about the lyrics.
· Films and games come through ports of entry into South Africa and it seems that FPB does not have the capacity to enforce monitoring and compliance. It cannot rely on South African Revenue Services (SARS) for intercepting illegal materials coming into the country.
· There are 17 monitors for the whole country and it is not enough to conduct monitoring.
· Based on the challenges of the FPB, there was a need to review legislation.
6.2. Government Printing Works (GPW)
The GPW was converted into a Government Component in 2009. It provides security and other printing services to the South African government and some states in the SADC region. The entitys main strategic objective is to establish itself as the security printer of choice. To achieve this, it identified three strategic priorities:
· Replacing machinery and equipment
· Acquiring a new production facility and office accommodation
· Developing a business and marketing strategy
GPW is in discussion with the Department of Public Service and Administration for special dispensation for critical jobs. It is currently competing with private printers for certain skills. For it to retain the critical skills, GPW must be able to pay market related salaries.
Vetting will also be introduced for key personnel in the supply chain management. GPW is planning to implement the E-Gazette. Currently it prints several hundred thousand pages for the gazettes every year and sells them at only R5 per gazette irrespective of size.
Herewith are the key projects to be undertaken by the GPW:
· Installation and commissioning of new security printing division and passport factory.
· Piloting and rollout of new ID Smartcard technology.
· Implementation of the E-Gazette.
· Create capacity to print passport visa pages in-house.
· Development of the new facility at Visage Street .
The entity is experiencing the benefits of operating as government component in that its increased independence resulted in a 49% increase in gross profits from 2010 to 2011. A supply chain management unit was created when the entity became a government component. This unit will look into initiatives aimed at revenue growth, cash management and increasing productivity levels. Because of this, the entity will no longer receive transfers from the Department of Home Affairs from 2014/15. Revenue is expected to increase to R1.1 billion in 2014/15 due to the increase of production capacity. For 2012/13, GPW envisages to generate R814.7 million and to receive R135.2 million from the Department of Home Affairs.
GPW generates revenue from printing of examination papers, identity document and passports and non-security documents such as statistical reports, annual reports, brochures, government gazette and standard office stationery.
7. The Committee raised the following issues:
· GPW is a state security printer; therefore, it is important that all personnel should be vetted.
· It should consider printing maps and stamps.
· There was a concern that the line item on employee compensation was increasing and that of the administration was almost double while for production was decreasing. In response the GPW indicated that the increased spending was related to capacitating and retaining staff. Production rates are dependent on Government demand and thus fluctuate each year.
· The relationship between DHA and GPW should be stronger so that identity documents, births certificate and passports are secured.
· There should be gender balance in the organization. The delegation from GPW is always comprised of men only.
· Government gazettes in electronic versions would be far easier to deliver in all 11 official languages.
· GPW needs to have a high concentration of highly skilled personnel.
8.3. Electoral Commission (EC)
The Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission led the delegation from the EC. The EC is a chapter 9 Constitutional institution reporting directly to Parliament. He reported that the vision of the organization would change in the near future.
During the presentation on the Strategic Plan for 2011/12 2015/16 and the Annual Performance Plan for 2012/13, the Chief Electoral Officer reported on the following strategic goals:
· Promote principles of peaceful, free and fair elections.
· Improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
· Manage free and fair elections.
· Strengthen electoral democracy through education for public participation.
· Support core business of the Electoral Commission
In order to achieve these strategic goals, the EC has 21 strategic objectives related to its budget. Expenditure increased from R927.3 million in 2008/9 to R1.4 billion in 2011/12. The growth in expenditure was attributed for national and provincial elections in 2009 and the two registrations drives for the local government elections in 2011. The EC has requested a budget of R770 million for the 2012/13 financial year and the amount will increase to R1.4 billion in the 2013/14 financial year because there will be two voter registrations in preparations of 2014 elections. The budget will increase slightly to R1.56 billion in 2014/15 financial year.
In non election years, the primary focus of the EC is around the voter education and promotion of democracy. It was reported that there had been increase in by-election. The by-elections were as a result of the death, expulsion and resignation of local councilors . Unlike in the past, by-election as result of deaths had stabilized.
The EC also does international work where it is funded by the Department of International Relation and Cooperation (DIRCO). The EC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with DIRCO. In 2012 it is hosting the Electoral Commission of Angola. The Deputy Chairperson also reported that he visited Egypt where he met with the authorities of Egypt , Libya and Tunisia . Libya has indicated that it wanted to send a formal request to South Africa to request it to assist Libya with the establishment of its Electoral Commission. The EC has signed an MOU with India which is part of BRICS and another one had been signed with Mexico outside of BRICS. The EC has assisted many countries in the African continent with regard to elections and it also learnt a lot on best and worst practices in this regard.
The EC reported that research is being completed on the electronic voting. Once this research has been completed, it will be presented to the Committee. The EC also reported that it was working on legislative amendments which will be submitted to the Minister of Home Affairs around August 2012.
9. The Committee raised the following issues:
· The Committee was impressed with the work of the EC and that it is completely professional. It was however concerned with the behaviour of some electoral staff that may tarnish the name of the EC during elections such as some of the presiding officers being aligned to certain political parties. The EC should conduct Continuous training of presiding officers. The EC explained that it considering modular training instead of once-off training towards elections.
· The EC should establish a strong connection with BRICS and assisting in the African continent could be a strategic goal.
· The Committee wanted the EC to have more of an impact on the ground instead of merely reporting for meetings, workshops and other events. There were still many people who did not know the importance of voting and voter education should be an ongoing process.
· The Committee wanted to know if there were any pending legal issues relating to the elections or by-elections. A few such cases were mentioned such as the running of independent candidates.
· On the research that is being conducted on electronic voting, the committee indicated the need to consider that many schools in the rural areas, used as voting stations, do not have electricity.
· A concern was expressed that during voting days, it was chaotic outside some voting stations with political parties having tables and tents. EC replied that it enforced the law which required parties to position themselves at a certain distance away from the voting station.
· The Committee wanted to know if the EC will be in a position to handle harmonized local, provincial and national elections in 2014.
10. Conclusion
The Committee thanked the Director-General of Home Affairs and the staff for their presentations and indicated that the department should continue getting an unqualified audit report from the Auditor-General whilst not forgetting to continue providing service delivery to the people.
Both the Film and Publication Board and Government Printing Works had extended an invitation to the Committee to visit their offices/ factory in Pretoria to see the implementation of their respective budgets.
The Acting Chairperson of the Committee indicated that the Committee was very proud of the work of the EC and that it must keep it that way. He also requested that the EC should provide the Committee with an international calendar for elections where the Committee could also participate in observer missions.
The Committee recommends that the report be adopted.
Report to be considered.
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