Chairperson, the department has the strategy that speaks to the programmes and the mandate of the department. The mandate is through Arts and Culture and heritage to contribute to economic growth, job creation, skills development, rural development, nation-building and social cohesion. They have six programmes.
On the issue of finance, the department received an unqualified audit report. The audit report also highlighted key issues of concern such as irregular expenses, and of unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The Auditor-General's report also highlighted the public entities that need serious interventions in terms of the procurement processes and supply chain management. The committee discussed the annual report and observed that the Department of Arts and Culture is not doing enough in terms of its responsibility for the promotion of nation-building and social cohesion. We, as the committee, also observed that the department also seemed not to monitor the public entities that it is responsible for. Further, the committee observed that the department had timeframe attachments to its programmes.
On the issue of the recommendations, the department should address capacity and financial constraints as matters of urgency in order to fast-track service delivery. The department should also put in place monitoring evaluation mechanisms to ensure that the entities that it is responsible for comply with the Public Finance Management Act, further regulations and other relevant legislation. The Department of Arts and Culture must look towards its organisational structure to make a true analysis of its staffing needs.
The department should revisit its funding of the different programmes and make a thorough analysis in order to compare this against measurable objectives. The Department of Arts and Culture and the committee should interact more closely on the supply chain management of the department. The department should give more details and reasons in future annual reports. The department should attach realistic timeframes for its programmes.
Lastly, the Minister of Arts and Culture, the Deputy Minister and the director-general made a commitment towards the next budget review report for 2011-12. Thank you very much, Minister, for that. Finally, I want to thank the committee and all the political parties that made contributions and for their constructive participation in the budget review processes. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
There was no debate.