Speaker, hon members, our country, like the rest of the world, has been affected by the economic downturn. We are going through a recession for the first time in 17 years. As a result of this, tax revenues, after adjusting for inflation, are expected to decline significantly. Our government finds itself having to meet its commitments to the people of South Africa with fewer resources than before.
We are taking steps, however, to ensure that government works better and uses public resources to deliver services to the people. The overarching goal of these steps that we have taken is to make sure that departments operate better and serve our people with speed and effectiveness.
The two Ministers in the Presidency, Ministers Chabane and Manuel, will be tabling Green Papers on Planning and Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, respectively, in the near future, which will outline clear and concrete steps on how we plan to improve the way government does business. Cabinet has also appointed a three-person Ministerial Task Team consisting of Ministers Gordhan, Chabane and Baloyi to make proposals on reprioritising spending to increase the impact of the Budget. The assignment of this task team is not to cut public spending, but to make proposals on how to reduce wastage and direct spending to new high-impact areas. They will be presenting their proposals to Cabinet in due course.
Beyond the immediate work of the Ministerial Task Team, government is undertaking a detailed and comprehensive expenditure review to identify whether there are programmes which should be scaled down and their funding redirected to high-impact priorities. The National Treasury is looking into how government procurement is managed and investigating cases of impropriety in the awarding of tenders.
Let me say, in conclusion, that this government is taking all these steps because the challenges facing our society demand that we work better. It also has to be stated that Cabinet and the national sphere of government will work in concert with the other two spheres to give effect to these steps. Thank you.
Mr Speaker, thank you Deputy President for your adequate response. Indeed, it shows that the ANC-led government is committed to uplifting the lives of all South Africans by ensuring that there will be proper planning and correct allocation of resources. The ANC also applauds the decision of the executive, informed by our manifesto, to focus on skills development, which we think is the main contributor to the x- inefficiencies that we see in government and state-owned enterprises.
I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all members of this House to use all the tools that we have identified to play their oversight role more effectively for the good of our people. All these good plans, if not communicated well to all relevant stakeholders will be to no avail. We therefore request the executive to develop a communication strategy that will be understood by all.
That was more like a statement than a question.
Mister Speaker, as the Deputy President quite correctly pointed out, times are tough, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost and service delivery is literally falling apart with sewerage running through the streets. Yet, public servants, including Directors-General, fail to disclose their business interests and they further fail to sign performance agreements. These officials are displaying a total disregard for regulations - then they award themselves tenders worth R600 million or more!
If government wants to be taken seriously, it must not tell us about new plans and new structures. It must show by its actions that it will enforce the rules. My question is: Between April and August 2009 what disciplinary action has government taken against defaulting officials?
Speaker, on a point of order: That is not a supplementary question; it is an entirely new question, which is unrelated to the question on the paper. It's not about fiscal efficiencies, I'm afraid.
Order! We will let the Deputy President decide on that one.
Speaker, obviously I would not have the data of actions taken since April to date at my fingertips, but of course, there are a number of cases that have been widely reported by the media of action taken against those who were found to have flouted the rules and regulations and procedures of awarding tenders. And that work must, indeed, continue to be done until we eliminate this challenge of the abuse of public resources. I make that commitment without any fear of contradiction. Thank you.
Speaker, Deputy President, over the years many service providers, who do business with government, have incurred great losses due to government's failure to pay them on time. Many of these service providers had to close down their businesses as a result.
There are still travel agencies today that allege that this Parliament has not settled some two-year-old accounts. Many minibus and bus operators that transport children from townships to school have also failed due to lack of finance and late payment by government.
In view of this unacceptable practice, can the Deputy President tell us why service providers to government are paid so late and what has been done to ensure that they are paid promptly as a way to improve the operational efficiency of the state? Thank you.
Thank you, hon Rev Meshoe. Obviously, government's position is that all the service providers ought to be paid within 30 days of providing such service. Where delays occur, there are channels for addressing them. As the President has already indicated, a hotline is going to be opened. That will be one more channel for addressing such delays.
My office has also received similar requests from time to time from service providers who are aggrieved, and we have ensured that we act with the requisite speed to nudge the relevant chief financial officers to meet their commitments. It is a challenge, I must admit, that in certain instances officials actually hide bills in order to cause such delays because they are mismanaging the funds. This is a problem we are aware of. We will take steps to ensure that we eliminate it. At local government level, we are looking at processes to ensure that each one of the municipalities would have deployed people with accounting qualifications, who need to be trained on the job. [Time expired.]
Speaker, hon Deputy President, I'm sure you will agree with me that to achieve a developmental state, you need efficient and qualified public servants. I know of an incident in a Seta in East London where the CEO of that Seta forged all his qualifications. I reported it, he came to his office with the police and suspended a number of employees.
As one of the steps you are going to try and put into place, will you consider doing a verification of qualifications of all senior managers in departments? I ask this as the lack of skills has become an excuse for inefficiency, but then we appoint people without the right qualifications. I will also suggest that that is one of the steps that must be taken to make sure that we don't take people without the necessary qualifications to do the job.
Thank you, hon Ms De Lille, I couldn't agree with you more. In fact, this is part of a normal procedure to verify qualifications, but as in all systems that are followed by human beings, there will, from time to time, be those cases where people succeed in dribbling themselves through the systems. Verification is a normal procedure. The Public Service Commission also does that on an ongoing basis. I'm glad that you are referring to a specific case that we can attend to with immediate effect.
Mechanisms to ensure that the executive applies a full disclosure policy on providing answers to all accountability measures of Parliament
2. Mr M J Ellis (DA) asked the Deputy President:
(1) Whether, with reference to his statement on executive accountability to Parliament on 24 June 2009 (details furnished), his standpoint is being enforced; if not, why not; if so, why are Ministers (a) providing incomplete and inadequate answers to parliamentary questions and (b) not answering questions, especially on issues of national importance;
(2) whether, in light of his statement as Leader of Government Business, he will introduce any mechanisms to ensure that the executive applies a full disclosure policy on providing answers to all accountability measures of Parliament; if not, why not; if so, (a) what mechanisms, (b) when and (c) how will the executive be accountable until the introduction of these mechanisms? NO862E
Hon Speaker, I would like to assure the hon members that Ministers are well aware of their obligations to account to Parliament in terms of the Constitution.
Hon Ellis, in his question to me, refers to Ministers who provide incomplete and inadequate answers and/or do not answer questions at all. I am not aware of that happening and he has not given me specific examples.
It is true, however, that Ministers do exceed the period provided for in the Rules of the National Assembly, for answering written questions, but I am sure that the hon Ellis is also quite aware that those same Rules provide for remedies to this problem, namely, the transfer of those questions from written to oral reply. I am not aware of this being done in the recent period, however.
Hon members, as I have already stated, the Rules of the National Assembly do provide mechanisms for ensuring that questions to the executive are answered. As these Rules are adopted by this House and not the executive, I believe it would be up to the National Assembly to decide whether there is a need to tighten these Rules or to strengthen them in any way.
However, as Leader of Government Business, it is my duty and responsibility to ensure that Cabinet Ministers are reminded of their obligation and I do so by regularly reporting, in detail, to each meeting of Cabinet the number of questions each Minister has outstanding. That is the reply to the question. Thank you.
Speaker, I want to thank the hon Deputy President for his reply. I wonder whether Mr Manuel will allow me to ask my follow-up question? [Laughter.]
It depends on the quality of the follow-up! [Laughter.]
Proceed, hon Mr Ellis.
I want to assure the hon Deputy President that there are a number of examples that we could give him of Ministers who have not replied to questions or who have replied inadequately. If he would be interested I certainly would be prepared to provide him with those examples.
Can I just say, hon Deputy President, that even now, since the election up until the present time, there are in fact 209 questions, in general, outstanding in terms of the Rules of Parliament.
You talk, sir, about the fact that we can transfer questions from written to oral. I would like to say, Mr Speaker, that that is not always the solution because of the quotas that are applied to members. May I ask the hon Deputy President one question as to the possibility of encouraging Ministers to reply in the future? In the provincial legislature of Gauteng, for example, if a Minister has not replied to an oral question, or a question, within the specified time, that Minister has to stand up and explain to the legislature at the next question day why that has not happened. Would the Deputy President be prepared to consider such a mechanism in this House? Thank you.
Hon Speaker, that really is not my gift. I think if the National Assembly decides to introduce that, I will support it. Thank you.
Members are reminded to press their talk button if they wish to ask for the floor. Please do not use your neighbour's button. Use the button where your name appears.
Speaker, I would like to thank the Deputy President for his very eloquent answer. From the ANC's perspective, question time, and indeed all other platforms for holding the executive to account in terms of our oversight responsibility, is seen as an opportunity to allow the executive to give feedback to the people on the progress that is being made with the delivery of services as well as feedback on their response to the many challenges that face them. This is the opposite to the grandstanding and political point-scoring that is often reflected in some of the questions that some members of the Opposition ask. By doing this they are simply flooding the House with questions that are purely aimed at scoring political points.
Deputy President, I want to ask whether you will ensure that, in addition to responding to the questions that have been asked, the members of the executive actually ensure that, where measures need to be taken to correct certain errors, those corrective measures are actually implemented ...
Hon member, your time has expired.
Hon Speaker, we proceed from the understanding that the Ministers or Cabinet should subject themselves to the oversight responsibility of this Parliament - this National Assembly and the NCOP. As we understand it, the purpose of such oversight is to ensure that we discharge our responsibilities in a manner that serves the country. Therefore, it is in the interest of all of us to comply and co-operate with the requirements and responsibilities of this august House. Thank you.
Hon Mr Ellis, I shall allow you a second supplementary question. That will be the last one I shall allow you.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I simply want to ask the Deputy President whether he would prefer Members of Parliament to stand up and ask questions of intelligence and purpose, rather than the sweetheart type questions that Mr Masutha would like us to ask. Surely any Minister, and certainly the Deputy President, would far prefer to be challenged by questions rather than simply to be asked the sweetheart type questions that members of the ANC ask. [Applause.]
Speaker, I would assume that all questions are asked sincerely and it is the sincerity of the questions that really matters, because the purpose is to ensure that all of us are able to perform our duties and account to the people of this country who have sent us to this Parliament. Thank you.
Fifa 2010 World Cup Tournament: Progress made in meeting obligations regarding government guarantees, and in installing a monitoring mechanism to ensure adherence to government procurement policies
3. Mr B M Komphela (ANC) asked the Deputy President:
(1) What progress has been made in meeting the Government's obligations with regard to the Government guarantees given to Fifa to host the 2010 World Cup Soccer Tournament;
(2) whether the Government has put a monitoring mechanism in place to ensure that Government procurement policies are adhered to in all processes related to the Fifa 2010 World Cup Tournament; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?