Budget Vote Debate- Extended Public Committee
Mkhuleko Hlengwa Mp
Inkatha Freedom Party
Hon Chairperson,
South Africa is not short of plans, which if implemented correctly as planned should place us way ahead as a country in terms of our developmental agenda but because monitoring and evaluation is nothing but a desktop exercise and devoid of consequences all the plans are meaningless.
Even more worrying is that we are constantly overwhelmed with plans but the country is underwhelmed by a lack of service delivery.
Since 1994 great plans have been mooted, but their implementation has never seen the light of day. The Growth, Employment and Redistribution plan, or GEAR as it was known, stands out as a progressive plan that disappeared like dew in the morning sun. The same fate befell the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative, ASGISA. In a similar fashion the Youth Wage Subsidy also walked the plank. These monumental plans for our nation’s development and progress faltered at the instance and resistance of COSATU. The National Development Plan finds itself facing the same resistance and potentially the same fate as GEAR, ASGISA and the Youth Wage Subsidy.
At the rate that we are going we will in 2030 look back on the NDP and say it was “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
We cannot continue planning plans about plans and planning how we will plan the plan for the implementation of the plan.
We have a plan, it must be implemented.
The due processes of Monitoring and Evaluation need to be seriously jacked up. The MPAT for example are a full year behind. The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation needs to be Monitored and Evaluated itself first, if we are to take it seriously.
The Public Service Commission, Auditor General, Parliament and Departments are all monitoring and evaluating and this duplication of activities which do not speak to each is cause for concern. Surely coordination in this regard must become a norm.
When departments do not satisfy the 30 day payment rule or adhere to the PFMA, to the detriment of small and emerging businesses or KPI’s are not achieved, what consequences follow? Or is it business as usual?
To what extent is the department getting the fullest co-operation from all government departments? DPME is an overarching department that should really go into every aspect of service delivery and question all departments on their key performance indicators, KPI’s, and performance targets.
When one looks at the annual reports of many of the departments, one finds that their own KPIs and their own performance targets are not met. That means that something is wrong. Yet, one will find that the budget of the department had been allocated to meet those targets wastefully spent. So what is wrong? Something is wrong. They are either understating their targets or they are not achieving the key performance indicators that they have set for themselves.
In conclusion, our buzzwords moving forward should not be “plan, plan, plan” but rather “deliver, deliver, deliver!”
The IFP will support Vote 8 because we feel the need for this department cannot be overemphasised.
I thank you.
Contact:
Hon MH Hlengwa, MP
083 871 2711
IFP Media, Parliament