House Chairperson, as far as the Eseta is concerned, this entity has received a disclaimed opinion - the worst finding possible - and not only for the last financial year but for three years in a row, in fact. It is indeed a very damning report.
The Auditor-General identified some 14 areas in its operations which led to the disclaimer. The autopsy on this body showed multiple causes of death.
The Eseta's mandate is very clear and, to achieve its goals, certain targets were set. However, in many instances it fell far short of its targets; for example, in indicator 2,2 it set itself a target to develop skills in at least 322 small levy-paying firms; it achieved only 24. In indicator 2,5 it set itself a target of annually increasing the number of small BEE firms in receipt of skills training to 70, but achieved nothing, and so it goes on.
The chairperson of the Eseta, in his annual report, also was clearly confused about the role of the Eseta. In fact, it would seem he was writing a piece for the UN or Human Rights Commission when he referred to the newly appointed Minister and Deputy Minister and when said:
It is trusted that the new members will continue our quest to improve the relations of mankind while aiming to create a society endowed with social justice.
Mr Chairperson, this was a consensus report by Scopa and the DA therefore supports it.
Like the Eseta, the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority, Pseta, is terminally sick, if not already dead. It received the third disclaimed opinion in as many years. The Auditor-General based his finding, inter alia, on the following: documents were not always available to support records; there was irregular expenditure; and there was widespread noncompliance. The Auditor-General was thus unable to make any finding because of the systems mess that this entity presented.
The root cause for the unavailability of documents was lack of proper leadership, and the Auditor-General put it very bluntly in his interaction with Scopa when he said:
Management and staff did not fulfil their duties and responsibilities.
However, don't expect to find any evidence of staff or management having been disciplined for nonperformance in the entity's annual reports.
At least nine instances of noncompliance with the Public Finance Management Act and two of noncompliance with the Skills Development Act are pointed out. This sorry state of affairs did not simply appear overnight. It developed because of wrong appointments, poor leadership, incompetence and negligence. However, trying to find the culprits who caused this disaster is going to be difficult.
There were three CEOs in one year alone and all of them were in an acting capacity; and at least two, if not all three, have since left. The CEO's role was fulfilled by private consultants. This was also a consensus report by Scopa and the DA will therefore support it, although we are of a firm view that the current system of Setas has dismally failed our nation's training needs and should be replaced by a better system.
Chairperson, my time is up, but we also support the other two reports; the Road Traffic Management Corporation report and the report on the Department of Defence and Military Veterans. I thank you. [Applause.