My father has a fishing coat.
The first problem we see in the department's strategic planning for 2011-12 is the lack of short-term targets in all its priority areas and programmes. The second problem is the department's lack of political will to restore run-down offices and labour centres around the country. The budget this year does not reflect any funds set aside for these purposes. Oversight visits done by parliamentarians to the Mpumalanga, North West, Gauteng and Limpopo offices revealed that the offices were dilapidated and staff morale was very low.
Furthermore, the 2011-12 budget doesn't include funds set aside for an increase in the department's mobile units. How effective have they been? The record on the ground does not support the service delivery objectives of the department. The sub-programme on the compliance, monitoring and enforcement budget decreased by 6,8% from last year. The budget for inspection and enforcement services only increased by 0,65% from last year. The sub-programme on the training of staff has gone up only by 0,5% while the budget for the sub-programme on registration, inspection and enforcement services is much more than key sub-programmes.
The department has not set target dates for compliance with a number of its programmes, including areas as critical as the amendments to occupational health and safety in its strategic plan 2011-12, and the financial and human resource implications of the Employment Services Bill. The definition of decent work still eludes the department, as do guidelines on how public employment services should comply with the relevant legislation supporting the definition of decent work. This is where the labour brokers have come in handy - by providing a workforce that would otherwise fall through the employment cracks.
The Auditor-General's report of 2009-10 pointed out that public-private partnerships, PPPs, are poorly recorded and undocumented, as are some assets and documents of the department. How can this department specifically ... [Time expired.]