Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon members, it is a fruitless and wasteful endeavour in itself that many annual reports from government departments fail to meet its own key performance indicators and its own performance targets. This is a clear indication that somewhere somehow along the chain between planning and implementation, something goes terribly wrong. It simply cannot be that every single year there is a budget dedicated to planning, monitoring and evaluation, yet, in far too many departments, performance outcomes seem to be on the decline.
What exactly are we planning? Departments are allocated budgets to meet their targets and they are always either underspending or misspending. So, what is wrong? They are either understating their
targets or they are not achieving the key performance indicators that they have set for themselves.
This department has a role in guiding government departments in long-term planning and annual performance. It provides evidence- based input on cost- cutting issues that have long-term implications for development.
Perhaps a question that might be useful to ask is: To what extent is the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation getting the fullest co- operation from all government departments? This department is an all- encompassing department and it should play a key role in every aspect of service delivery and act as a check and balance in all departments on their performance output.
Monitoring and evaluation are critical for ensuring that our departments are fully functional and keep their proverbial eyes on their targets, and for assessing the wide, diverse range of interventions that are required to solve the challenges we are facing as a nation.
The department works with agencies to cover a wide range of areas. Brand South Africa is one area where national and international
communities market South Africa as a destination for investment and tourism. Agencies like the Media Development and Diversity Agency contribute to providing grants to promote media development and diversity to communities and small commercial radio projects.
A robust monitoring and evaluation system will benefit the people of South Africa and will ensure that improvements are result-oriented and development outcomes are clearly demonstrated through palpable outcomes. We need to ensure that our government departments are implementing projects that are directly benefiting citizens and empowering them in various ways.
The IFP will therefore support this budget, as we are well aware of the importance and need for this department. We hope that the department will put implementation as the driver, and limit all these plans that have proven futile. Action is what we want. I thank you.