Madame Speaker,

The nine SCOPA reports before the House today indicate varying degrees of compliance with the Public Finance Management Act and National Treasury regulations by the relevant institutions.

In respect of the SA Weather Services, it is clear that the Auditor-General uncovered massive management inefficiencies and deficiencies leading the Committee to term management at the Weather Services a "failure". This stinging rebuke should, one hopes, motivate management to drastically improve their performance. SCOPA will of course keep a close watch on improvements in this regard, and we await the report called for in the Committee's recommendations.

Non-compliance with the PFMA and Treasury regulations caused fruitless expenditure of more than R45 million at the Compensation Commissioner. The Auditor-General also highlighted numerous other deficiencies, among them the inadequate role played by the national Department of Health. Clearly, the entity suffers from a lack of skilled personnel, lack of monitoring and very low levels of compliance.

It is particularly shocking to note that the Department of Labour displayed various instances of non-compliance with PFMA and Treasury regulations. The IFP supports the Committee's recommendation that the Accounting Officer of the department should provide Parliament with a progress report within 30 days. In addition, the Department paid performance bonuses far in excess of the Public Service directive of 1, 5% of total personnel expenditure. This indicates either complete incompetence, a total lack of knowledge or wilful ignorance on the part of the Department and its Accounting Officer.

Madame Speaker,

In conclusion, the IFP supports the recommendations of SCOPA made in the reports before the House and we express our appreciation for the outstanding work being done by this Committee.

I thank you.

Mr H J Bekker MP


FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mr H J Bekker MP 083 255 4520
Liezl van der Merwe 083 611 7470