North West Intervention: Content Advisor on outstanding matters

Meeting report

The meeting was opened and chaired by the Chairperson of the Ad – Hoc Committee on Section 100 Intervention North West, Mr TC Dodovu, who welcomed all present, indicating that the purpose of the meeting was to receive a briefing from the Content Advisor (Mr P Dlomo) on outstanding matters related to section 100 Intervention in the North – West Province. Members were also requested to consider some of the proposals made with regards to whether travelling to North West for public hearings was feasible or not.  

Presentation by Content Advisor

Following opening remarks by the Chairperson on the Section 100 Intervention North West, Mr P Dlomo, proceeded to make a presentation to the Committee.

The presentation included the following:

• Introduction and Recap
• Outstanding issues on specific sector Departments in the North West;  
• Outstanding issues on the 2018 oversight recommendations in each facility visited by the Committee;
• Cross cutting observations;  
• Copies of the presentations can be obtained from the Committee Secretaries.

The presentation was concluded and Members were given the opportunity to make comments and ask questions.Issues raised included the following:

• The Committee expressed concerns that there was no correlation between the allegedly improved clean audit outcomes achieved by some provincial departments and service delivery on the ground. Members further raised concerns around the slow process in appointing heads of departments in the Province and indicated that there were allegations that the newly appointed Head of Department of Social Development (HOD) did not have the necessary qualifications and good track record to run government departments.  
• The Committee expressed concerns that the Department of Health in the North West was not paying service providers within 30 days as required by Public Finance Management Act. Members further highlighted that the newly appointed HOD for the provincial Department of Health was also implicated in the Public Works forensic investigation report, which was conducted by the National Treasury. Furthermore, the Committee was also concerned that the Department of Health and many other departments were leasing offices instead of buying buildings to save money. The Committee also raised the fact that there were allegations that such leased buildings were linked to some politicians around the Province. 
• The Committee noted the work of the Health MEC, who has been working tirelessly to get things back on track in the Department, amongst other things raised, was the concerns around the shortage of EMS vehicles in the Province, that a large number of vehicles were not working and also in bad condition. The Committee noted that vehicle maintenance, operationalisation and procurement is the responsibility of the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management.  
• The Committee noted that the Auditor General’s report had found some government officials doing business with the state in the province and yet there was no plan to name and shame them and there were no signs of consequence management to address these recurring findings.
• The Committee expressed serious concerns that Gangsters in the Klerksdorp area were putting some pressure and demanding certain amount of percentage per contract awarded by government institutions. Members were concerned that the Tshepong hospital management did not  lay criminal charges against such behavior and opted for meeting them to discuss the matter instead.  
• The Committee expressed concerns around the under expenditure, which was reportedly taking place in the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Committee raised concerned about the fact that MEC of Agriculture and Rural Development once wanted to lay charges about corruption that took place in the Department and was informed that she needed to use internal processes of the Department.   
• With regards to senior and other critical funded managerial vacant positions, the Committee further made emphasis on the appointment of people with requisite skills and qualifications in order to bring stability in the North West Province. Members further emphasised that such people should also have good track record of running government institution, so that they don’t undo the work done by the intervention team.
• Members, further made proposals that there was a need to find space and time in the programme to meet all the administrators under one roof and discuss all the challenges that were flagged in the presentation, it was also proposed that may be the Committee should recommend that all the outstanding priorities should form part of performance agreements signed between the Premier and the MECs.
• Members, also raised concerns about the disconnect and dysfunctionality of intergovernmental and interdepartmental planning, which leads to Public Works and Road as well as the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management not being able to provide the required services to other departments timeously.

Members, enquired whether there were mechanisms to ensure that the work done by sector committees is incorporated into the committee’s work; especially issues that are affecting the NW intervention.

• Other issues raised, a point was made whether the state had an ability to build adequate capacity to ensure that what happened in the North West is avoided in other provinces; whether there was a need to build capacity of the state security agencies and parliamentary committees, whether some of the cases that had been dropped can be revisited; whether the issue of the Committee visiting North West for public hearings should not wait for the IMTT meeting, then make a decision from there,
• Members agreed that due to the number of issues affecting local government in the Province, which are linked to the intervention, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs needed to appear before the Ad Hoc Committee on a suitable date.   

Closing remarks by Chairperson

The Chairperson (Mr TC Dodovu), in his closing remarks, thanked everyone for their attendance and participation and indicated that the meeting was adjourned.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 13:00. The next meeting will take place on 31 May 2021, where the Committee would be Briefed by the Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) on progress report of s100 Intervention in North West province, since the last reporting the February 2021.