We refuse to approve any oversight visits and study tours if committee work is not up to date. The absence of reliable recordings of official proceedings can seriously compromise Parliament. Currently, no applications for study tours are being considered for those committees that have outstanding work in front of them. Furthermore, a fortnightly report on committees' activities will be published, indicating all outstanding minutes of meetings, oversight visits and study tours. The emphasis should be that all members of a portfolio committee, and not only the committee chairperson, must be held accountable for the work in front of that committee.
The Legal Services Office and the Chief legal adviser play a crucial role in providing support to committees. The services offered by this section ensure that legislation processed by committees is informed by the Rules, and that it is constitutionally sound.
Earlier in the debate the hon Speaker raised the issue around the constitutionality of some of the Bills that are passed by the House. In this respect I do agree with speakers that consideration must be given to increasing the capacity of this office in order to meet the growing demand for assistance from the committees. The number of ad hoc committees that exists puts further strain on their capacity. More work also needs to be done to clarify the relationship between portfolio committees on the one hand, the legal services unit on the other hand, and the Office on Institutions Supporting Democracy.
Ad hoc committees and joint ad hoc committees are established to deal with specific matters or appointments to statutory bodies in certain instances, and have to report to the House within a specific timeframe. In this respect we do find the situation that political parties tend to delay in submitting names of members to serve on these committees. This has a negative impact on their functionality and in meeting the reporting deadlines.
A further challenge has been the functioning of joint ad hoc committees because of the unavailability of Members of Parliament due to different programmes between the National Assembly and the NCOP. This leads to a number of pieces of legislation and Bills that both Houses must attend to stalling in front of the National Assembly.
We have also noted that the committee secretaries to portfolio committees are assigned to give support to the ad hoc committees over and above their normal duties. This kind of allocation has a negative impact on our efficiency. The ad hoc committees require dedicated and specialised levels of support, even if that support must be sourced on a temporary basis.
In the light of the debate that has taken place today and the input from members, I certainly do not share the opinion that Parliament is dysfunctional, or not functioning at all. Indeed, there are certain things that work, and they work very well; but indeed, there are certain things that we need to improve upon.
One such area that we need to review is the Committee Section in its current format. It will be critical to enhance the focus of this important section and for chairpersons of committees, themselves, to have control over committee activities. This includes the management of support staff allocated to that committee to improve the accountability of officials working with committees.
The Committee of Chairpersons meets quarterly and the continued interaction with the Auditor-General had a positive impact on the work of committees. Over the past year there has been regular interaction, through road shows, the sharing of information on the performance of municipalities, as well as areas of improvements and concern of government departments. Similar engagements will continue to take place this year.
In our next engagement the Auditor-General is expected to brief the Committee of Chairpersons on the audit report on the use of consultants by government departments. Furthermore, the continued collaboration with the Office of the Auditor-General has greatly enhanced the quality of reporting by committees in the Budget Review and Recommendation Reports.
With the appointment of the Interim Director of the Budget Office, we also expect that we will place further focus on how we can enhance this process. Similar relations exist with the Financial and Fiscal Commission, who are due to brief the Committee of Chairpersons on the Annual Submission on the Division of Revenue.
Increasingly, the cluster approach to committee work is being implemented. This is to ensure closer collaboration between portfolio committees in the National Assembly and also select committees, where possible, in the NCOP. The use of clusters ensured that Parliament submitted its input on the Presidential Committee on the Review of State-owned Enterprises and made a substantial input through continued engagements with the National Development Plan. We want to thank all members who participated in this process.
On a similar approach, eight National Assembly portfolio committees will undertake a co-ordinated oversight visit from 3 to 9 June 2012 to investigate the human rights abuses of farm workers in the Western Cape. The NCOP will undertake a similar visit to other provinces and districts. These reports will be shared between the two Houses and will further enhance the oversight and accountability function that we are trying to achieve.
In terms of the Oversight and Accountability Model that was adopted in 2009 and launched last year during the Budget Vote of Parliament, we published the Manual for Parliamentary Committees. It is critical that all members should possess these two documents to assist them in the execution of their functions and mandates.
The Political Task Team-and political parties that served on this task team in the Third Parliament must listen - that was established during the Third Parliament and that was supposed to oversee the implementation of the Oversight and Accountability Model is no longer in place. Most of those members did not return to Parliament in 2009. We are still waiting for feedback from all political parties on the recommendation that has been made for the Political Task Team on the Development of the Public Participation Model to monitor and drive the implementation of the oversight model.
If we fail to do this, we may arrive at a situation where we implement the Oversight and Accountability Model in a format that is designed by officials of Parliament. It is the role and task of politicians to see to it that the policy is implemented to achieve the desired outcomes, as it is contained in the model. Processes are under way for the establishment of the Oversight and Advisory Mechanism Section, in line with the model. This should address a lot of the concerns that have been raised by members, for instance: What happens to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, reports and its recommendations? What happens to portfolio committees that regularly report on some of the activities that they have undertaken, and executive response in that regard?
As far as the development of the Public Participation Model is concerned, I heard the very valid issues that were raised by the hon Smith with regard to the participation of communities in the work of Parliament. This issue was also further emphasised by the hon Chief Whip of the Opposition.
A multiparty political task team that will provide direction and guidance on the development of the Public Participation Model is currently in place and it has started its work. The Joint Political Task Team on Public Participation met on 24 January. We involved the provincial legislatures so that we can emerge with a product that can be applied across the legislative sector.
The objectives for the project were divided into three focus groups, namely to conduct a constitutional review to look at the judgments from the Constitutional Court that had certain implications for the laws that we made; to research the current practices that are taking place in Parliament and in the provincial legislatures; and to engage the people of the country in terms of the key elements that should be part of such a model. It is expected that the final draft of the Public Participation Model will be ready by the end of this year.
In respect of information and communications technology, Parliament is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and its committee that deals with this matter, as well as the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament and the International Telecommunications Union, respectively. Parliaments around the world are involved in ongoing programmes that seek to enhance their oversight work, while responding to continuous changes in technology.
In 2009 a five-year ICT strategy was adopted by Parliament, and in October 2010 Parliament hosted the third World e-Parliament Conference on ICT at the Pan-African Parliament. The conference also established the Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network to serve as a platform for training and sharing of experiences on ICT development in the region. The active participation and development of regional programmes will ensure that the region is not left behind in terms of technology.
The ICT Focus Group continues to monitor the implementation of the strategy, and it is important for political parties to deploy MPs to this focus group who have a real interest in ICT so that we can effectively oversee the implementation thereof. Furthermore, the Chief Whips' Forum in the NA has recently requested the ICT Focus Group to research and to report to it on the use of ICT equipment during sittings, as well as possible Rule amendments. This work is currently being undertaken by evaluating prevailing practices in other parliaments.
With regard to projects that were implemented over the past year, both the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, and Climate Change projects have been successfully implemented. Parliamentary committees have incorporated the monitoring of MDGs in their oversight work and committee programmes. It is envisaged that a meeting with provinces will be organised later in the year to share experiences. A range of activities has taken place in terms of the Climate Change Conference of Parties, Cop 17. The hon Greyling is correct-there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of the greening of Parliament. He is a member of the Political Task Team, and we look forward to seeing his input so that we can take the matter forward.
The Portfolio Committee on Water and Environmental Affairs has been assigned to deal with content issues around climate change and to monitor the implementation of the White Paper and other commitments that were made in Durban. From 4 to 8 June the committee will lead other committees in engaging the relevant government departments on the implementation of the White Paper and related commitments.
One of the issues that came up in this debate, and a matter that we do not compromise on, is the programmes of portfolio committees. We have adopted the following attitude: When a portfolio committee needs to conduct oversight and there is a programme and it is costed, then funding should not be a problem. However, in respect of committee budgets, we do sit with a challenge: Almost 40% of portfolio committees could not spend the budgets that were allocated to them in the past financial year. [Interjections.] What we then do is move the funds around to those committees who do have approved programmes that are in line with the programmes that were adopted.
I now turn to the hon Dudley. As far as the experience during the Extended Public Committees is concerned, we agree. It is unacceptable that the venues that have been used are not properly equipped to house proper debates. As far as the overseas trip experience that you had is concerned - and the Speaker is certainly not to be blamed for this - we do have a procedure in place. We do expect to comply with that procedure if there is any outstanding matter that needs to be dealt with before it is signed off. For some of the overseas trips it is not R100 000 that is being used, it is R1 million, R1,5 million and R2 million. We need to ensure that we do meet the criteria and that the objectives are clearly spelled out. If that is not clear, we cannot approve such a trip.
HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!