House Chairperson and hon members, the report is derived from a series of engagements with the department and its entities through briefing sessions about its programmes and deliverables undertaken during the 2010-11 financial year. These include the assessment of performance and progress made towards achieving the Outcome 8 targets with the objective of creating sustainable human settlements and improving the quality of household life.
Coupled with that, the portfolio committee undertook provincial oversight visits and also held briefing sessions with other relevant stakeholders, which include the Financial Fiscal Commission and the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation.
The department was evaluated on four key outputs of Outcome 8. These are the accelerated delivery of housing opportunities, access to basic services, the efficient utilisation of land for human settlements development, and an improved property market.
In the delivery performance report the department planned to deliver 220 units during the period under review. However, the department managed to construct approximately 185 000 units and delivered approximately 64 000 service sites.
In respect of upgrading the informal settlements, a total of 72 000 households in informal settlements have received upgraded services, either through in situ upgrading or through relocation. This number represents 18% of the total objective of 400 000 households, as per the 2014 targets.
Regarding affordable rental accommodation, there is remarkable progress: 14,3% of the total target of 80 000 for 2014 has been achieved. The department also identified 33 000 hectares of state land for release, while the target set for 2014 was 6 252. Approximately 309 properties owned by Transnet have been identified by the department for medium-high density settlements.
With regard to the provision of affordable housing opportunities to the gap market, a mortgage default insurance is expected and the department is expected to contribute 36% of the targeted 6 000 housing finance opportunities.
Regarding job creation, the department reported that through the human settlements development grant at least 128 360 direct jobs were created since 2010. In addressing crime and corruption, forensic audits and investigations of projects and contracts by the Special Investigating Unit were undertaken and a substantial number of government officials have been arrested. There was an acknowledgement of debts to the value of R21,7 million and so far the department has managed to recover R19 million.
In the Auditor-General's report the department has received an unqualified audit opinion for the two consecutive financial years of 2009-10 and 2010- 11. However, the audit statement has emphasised specific matters. These include irregular expenditure of R12,1 million, which was in contravention of the Public Finance Management Act, PFMA, Treasury regulations relating to supply-chain management, and Public Service Regulations.
There was material underexpenditure on the rural household infrastructure grant. The department has materially underspent the budget on the programmes for rural infrastructure development - an amount of R38 million was spent out of a total allocation of R100 million. As a consequence the department failed to achieve some of its objectives around providing sanitation services to rural communities.
There was also a comment on the compliance with laws and regulations with regard to the annual financial statements, performance and annual reports, procurement and contract management. There were also queries from the Auditor-General, which included the predetermined objectives. The Auditor- General's office commented that the information provided was deficient in the following respects: measurability, where targets were not measurable; and the reliability of the information.
Regarding internal controls ... [Time expired.] The portfolio committee requests the adoption of the report and thanks all members who participated in the process. [Applause.]
There was no debate.
Chairperson, I move:
That the Report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.