Memorandum from the Parliamentary Office
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION 3209
DATE OF PUBLICATION OF INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 28/08/2015
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER 34 OF 2015)
Mr Y Cassim (DA) to ask the Minister of Higher Education and Training:
1) (a) How many staff members teaching in adult education centres in each
province have experienced delays in salary payments during the transition
from provincial to national management of the specified centres, (b) what
have been the (i) dates, (ii) scale and (iii) average length of these
delays, (c) what bridging funds to assist teachers in this sector have
been provided, especially in cases where they have been unable to pay for
costs such as (i) rent and (ii) other vital expenses and (d) have any
teachers been evicted from their homes as a result of the lack of payment
of their salaries;
2) are any salary payments still outstanding; if so, what steps has he
taken in this regard?
NW3810E
REPLY:
1) (a) In the erstwhile Adult Education and Training (AET) centres,
when reference is made to
âsalary paymentsâ the concept is also used to refer to other forms of
payment such as claims and stipends. Claims for instance, are part-
time and extra-ordinary payments, usually over and above the normal
salary of a person. The Department of Higher Education and Training
(DHET) became responsible for the payment of salaries of staff members
teaching in AET centres from 1 April 2015, and is unable to respond to
delays in salaries, which may have occurred prior to the AET function
shift when the function was still with the Provincial Education
Departments (PEDs). The response covers the period from 1 April 2015
to 31 August 2015. In view of the above, 2Â 540 staff members teaching
at AET centres experienced delays in salaries during the transition
from provincial to national competence.
(b) Table 1 below responds to the delays experienced by AET teachers of
the Eastern Cape Province
|Dates |Scale |Average length |
| | |of delays |
|Month |Date salary |Actual | | |
|Affected |paid |calendar | | |
| | |days delay | | |
|April 2015 |17 August |119 days |10 AET |17 days |
| |2015 | |teachers | |
|May 2015 |17 August |88 days | | |
| |2015 | | | |
|June 2015 |17 August |48 days | | |
| |2015 | | | |
|July 2015 |17 August |17 days | | |
| |2015 | | | |
|August 2015|31 August |0 days | | |
| |2015 | | | |
The System Change Control (SCC) was not performed by the Eastern Cape
PED which led to the appointment of AET teachers onto the DHET PERSAL
on 1 June 2015 instead of 1 April 2015. The salaries of the affected
AET teachers were backdated from 1 April 2015 to 31
July 2015 and paid on 17 August 2015, and their salaries for August
2015 were paid on 31 August 2015. Currently, there are no staff
members teaching at Eastern Cape AET centres experiencing any delays
in salary payments.
Tables 2 to 5 below outline the delays experienced by the Northern
Cape, North-West, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape AET teachers with
regards to payment of stipends and claims.
Table 2: Delays experienced by AET teachers of the Northern Cape
Province
|Dates |Scale |Average length |
| | |of delays |
|Month |Date salary |Actual | | |
|Affected |paid |calendar | | |
| | |days delay | | |
|April 2015 |30 June 2015 |61 days |248 AET |45.5 days |
| | | |teachers | |
| | | |paid | |
| | | |stipends | |
|May 2015 |30 June 2015 |30 days | | |
|June 2015 |30 June 2015 |0 days | | |
In the Northern Cape and North West provinces, delays were experienced
with the payment of stipends in April and May 2015 mainly because the
appointment of AET teachers who are paid stipends could not be
performed programmatically. AET teachers had to be uploaded manually
onto the DHETâs PERSAL system. The stipends for April and May 2015
were paid on 30 June 2015 as supplementary payments together with
stipends for June 2015. There have been no delays experienced with the
payment of stipends since June 2015.
Table 3: Delays experienced by AET teachers of the North-West Province
|Dates |Scale |Average length |
| | |of delays |
|Month |Date salary |Actual | | |
|Affected |paid |calendar | | |
| | |days delay | | |
|April 2015 |30 June 2015 |61 days |1 340 AET |45.5 days |
| | | |teachers | |
| | | |paid | |
| | | |stipends | |
|May 2015 |30 June 2015 |30 days | | |
|June 2015 |30 June 2015 |0 days | | |
With regard to the stipends in the Northern Cape and the North-West
Provinces the stipends will run automatically every month as fixed
amounts per month have been loaded.
Table 4: Delays experienced by AET teachers of the Western Cape
Province
|Dates |Scale |Average length |
| | |of delays |
|Month |Date salary|Actual | | |
|Affected |paid |calendar | | |
| | |days delay | | |
|April 2015 |22 June |53 days |400 AET |37.5 days |
| |2015 | |teachers paid| |
| | | |on a claim | |
| | | |system | |
|May 2015 |22 June |22 days | | |
| |2015 | | | |
The reason for delay is the late submission of claim forms to the DHET
by the PED. The payment of claims received from the Western Cape is up
to date with exception of approximately forty-nine problematic cases
which involve officials working in Community Learning Centres (CLCs)
that are above the age as prescribed by the Public Service Act, 1994
or have taken severance packages during 1998 and 2001 and were only
allowed to work for one (1) continuous year, or were previously
dismissed from service. Such cases have been discussed with the
Management of the Western Cape and contracts for these officials will
end on 31 December 2015.
Table 5: Delays experienced by AET teachers of KwaZulu-Natal Province
|Dates |Scale |Average |
| | |length of |
| | |delays |
|Month |Date salary paid |Actual | | |
|Affected | |calendar | | |
| | |days delay | | |
|April 2015 |22 July 2015 |83 days |542 AET |47.5 days |
| | | |teachers | |
| | | |paid on a | |
| | | |claim | |
| | | |system | |
|May 2015 |28 July 2015 |58 days | | |
|June 2015 |2 September 2015 |64 days | | |
|July 2015 |30 September 2015|61 days | | |
|August 2015|Claims not yet received | | |
The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province used the claim system to pay AET
teachers. As explained in my response to question 1, a claim is not a
salary and in the case of KZN, these are extra-ordinary appointments
because most of the AET teachers are already appointed as full-time
teachers by the KZN PED. In order for any claim to be processed, the
DHET has to verify the claim through the Centre Manager, the Regional
Manager and the Vocational and Continuing Education and Training
Programme Manager. The claims for April and May 2015 were submitted
late in June 2015 by the KZN PED. DHET officials worked overtime to
first appoint AET teachers onto the DHET PERSAL system and then verify
claims and ultimately process payment of claims.
It should also be noted that for the claims method of payment, AET
teachers who were transferred from PEDs had to be first appointed onto
the PERSAL system before the claims could be processed. There are
still cases whereby relevant documentation for appointment is still
outstanding and on-going communication is taking place with the KZN
Regional Office to rectify this, hence, payments for these claims are
still outstanding. This delay affects approximately 542 AET teachers
for the period between April and July 2015. These are mainstream
teachers who have not completed and submitted the necessary Human
Resources Management and Administration (HRMA) mandate documentation.
This is due to the fact that they believed it is unnecessary as they
are already employed full-time by the KZN PED. Such officials are
being assisted by HRMA and the Acting Community Education and Training
College Principal to complete and submit documentation for their
appointment, processing and payment of their claims.
Other causes of the delays in the payment of claims in KZN is the non-
appointment of AET teachers or non-payment of claims because of
instances of negligence and/or irregularities in the forms that are
submitted to the DHET for loading appointments and processing of
payments. For most of the 542 outstanding cases, the DHET has not
effected appointments or processed claims as doing so would be in
contravention of the prescripts of both the PSA and the Public Finance
Management Act, 1999 (PFMA). Such cases include instances where:
⢠Documentation submitted to the DHET was incorrectly completed;
⢠AET teachers have not submitted original documents required to
upload their appointment;
⢠An AET teacher signs as both the Claimant and Centre Manager on
his/her own claim forms;
⢠Discrepancies are found between the hours claimed and the actual
hours worked;
⢠The hours claimed far exceed the maximum hours the teacher is
allowed to work per month;
⢠Information provided is not correct and relevant to the
applicable officials, i.e. incorrect identity document numbers
and PERSAL number were used; and
⢠Some documents submitted are not signed by the necessary
delegated officials and incorrect calculations are made on the
forms.
(c) There are no bridging funds that were provided as the PFMA does
not allow for such.
(d) The DHET has not received any reports of teachers having been
evicted from their homes.
2) No, there are no outstanding salary payments but there are outstanding
payments of claims. The DHET is liaising with the Regional Offices to
ensure that correct documentation, which are correctly and accurately
completed, is submitted to enable uploading of appointments and
processing of payments. The DHET is in the process of paying claims
received on an on-going basis. Queries are received through the Rapid
Response Team and escalated to the relevant managers for a solution.
Compiler/contact persons:
Ext:
DIRECTOR â GENERAL
STATUS:
DATE:
REPLY TO QUESTION 3209 APPROVED/NOT APPROVED/AMENDED
Dr BE NZIMANDE, MP
MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
STATUS:
DATE: