Department of International Relations and Cooperation Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report

Meeting report

The Chairperson initiated the meeting by welcoming all members, and tendered apologies on behalf of Mr B Holomisa (UDM) and Ms C Dudley (ACDP). He said the Committee initially had 3 items on the agenda but the South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA) was unable to make it to the meeting and would instead be presenting the following week. The Committee would only deal with the Consideration and adoption of the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report and outstanding minutes.

Department of International Relations and Cooperation Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report
The Chairperson asked if there were any changes to note in regards to the BRRR report.

Mr I Davidson (DA) said that there was nothing outstanding to note in the report. However, it was important for the Committee to express its disappointment in the Minister. She had promised to appoint a Ministerial Task Team to assist Departmental managers to get the Department back on track. But the Task Team had not been appointed as yet. The African Renaissance and International Cooperation Fund (ARF) was a well-run department but it was problematic that internal issues were not picked up by the audit committee. Also, South Africa was increasing its number of embassies globally but embassy budgets were not expanding, and from a budgetary point of view this was problematic because ambassadors were not adequately equipped financially to promote South Africa.

Mr E Eloff (DA) said he agreed with Mr Davidson. It was imperative that the Committee receive regular feedback from the Department, especially on all recommendations that had not been adhered to. It was important to add this into the report.

Ms M Kubayi (ANC) said it was important to ensure that the report was coherent.

The Chairperson thanked Members for their observations and agreed with Ms Kubayi. The Minister was supposed to respond to all the issues raised in the previous meeting in a months’ time. The ARF was running the risk of distorting the image of the Department, and the Committee sought to capture that sentiment in the report.

Mr Davidson said the current report sounded like a technical review and it needed to depict the Department’s overall disappointment.

Ms Kubayi suggested that another recommendatory paragraph should be added stating that the Committee was disappointed in the ARFs response to all the issues raised, and it also cautioned against the ARFs activities reflecting against the good performance of the Department.

The Chairperson proposed for the adoption of the report with corrections, and members agreed. The report was adopted.

Adoption of Minutes 14 August 2013 and 21 August 2013
The minutes were adopted with minor corrections.