Opening Remarks by the Hon. NN Mapisa-Nqakula, on the occasion of the presentation of the 2006/7 annual report of the Department of Home Affairs to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, Cape Town

Chairperson
Honourable members
Members of the press
Colleagues
Comrades and friends

I must thank the portfolio committee for having once again, afforded us an opportunity for this interaction on the occasion of deliberations on the Annual Report of the Department of Home Affairs.

We understand that this portfolio committee meeting has a very specific purpose and that is to present the annual report of the Department of Home Affairs for the financial year 2006 to 2007. I must also add that from where we stand both as the executive and the administration of the department, we fully appreciate the seriousness of the audit findings and therefore the oversight role that this Committee must perform in this regard.

At the end of this short introduction, I will hand over to Mavuso Msimang, our Director-General, to present the actual detail of the report. As the serving Accounting Officer, he will answer for the reporting period, even though he joined the department immediately after the financial year under review in this report. It is my duty however, chairperson to take the committee through a synopsis of where we have come from, and to where we are going in improving the overall management of the department, including the area of financial management.

Of course the picture that I will paint here is one that the portfolio committee is already aware of, as we have consistently briefed you on the work we have been doing since the appointment of the Support Intervention Task Team (SITT) in 2006. It is however necessary to take you through this synopsis again because of its relevance in providing a context through which the 2006/07 annual report should be dealt with. At the same time, whatever context that we give to the issues raised in the annual report, this should not detract from the responsibility we have to account for the funds entrusted to us for the reporting period in question. We must also account for our performance in the context of our plans and programmes. It must be noted that we did deliver services and we made some improvements, in spite of poor systems, weak management and a deficient operating model.

For this I must acknowledge the efforts of our many dedicated staff who worked under very difficult conditions. To respond to some of the previous concerns by this committee, allow me to indicate that your assertion is correct, when you say that, as the executive authority, the buck finally stops with me. I raise this not just as a political statement, but to reiterate my responsibility in respect of steering the department, delivering on its mandate and giving it strategic direction. It is at this level that I want to take this opportunity to put the annual report for 2006/07 into perspective. Not just by looking backward, but also by looking forward.

I am realistic about what can be achieved in building the New Home Affairs. Mismanagement is being tackled with. What we are building is an environment and work culture that is different, premised on the need for accountability, effective and efficient performance. This is not the first disclaimer received by the department. As members will recall following the first disclaimer for the 2004/05 financial year, I took a decisive, and by no means common, step by using the powers afforded a minister under Treasury Regulations to request the assistance of the treasury in making a diagnosis of the problem and assisting in planning to remedy the inadequacies.

As you will recall, I went a step further in my budget vote speech that year and announced the appointment of a SITT that spent six months of 2006 in the department. We did this for two important reasons: One was that we acknowledged that the department was dysfunctional and needed drastic attention. The other is that we know that Home Affairs is a highly strategic department and must be made to work efficiently to serve all citizens including our visitors. The support intervention team was guided by a committee made up of myself and the Minister of Finance and Public Service and Administration. The Director-General of the Office of the Public Service Commission led the team and submitted her report to us in early 2007.

I would like to remind honourable members that on the 14 March 2007, a summary of the report was presented to this portfolio committee. It painted a picture of poor leadership and management, misalignment of human resource, poor information technology (IT) deployment, and an unco-ordinated service delivery strategy. It is against this background that the annual report currently under review should be appreciated. In light of these dire findings I, again with the support of Cabinet, searched for and found a Director-General which was one of the major recommendation of the SITT. I secured resources from the National Treasury and launched a comprehensive turn around programme.

We undertook careful planning, starting with a scoping exercise that was carried out in March and April 2007. We subsequently engaged starting in June last year, the services of a team of experts to implement a turn around programme working under the leadership of the Director-General. The turn around or transformation programme must be viewed as a comprehensive long term programme for the rebuilding of a new and different Home Affairs. Building this New Home Affairs is indeed going to be a process: Phase One was already concluded in December and consisted mainly of baseline studies and systems design. It also included a number of quick wins that have already impacted positively on specific areas, such as turn around times for identity documents (IDs) and work permits.

The details of other quick wins have been outlined to the committee when we presented the report of the first phase. We have also indicated, in practical terms, the extent to which these projects have made positive impact on the delivery of services. Part of the quick wins of the first phase included dedicated work for an audit cleanup. This work included looking at the issues raised by the Auditor General in his report and developing a plan to address audit concerns. The overall plan for improvement of financial management and system was also designed during the first phase. It included a risk assessment for the department and we implemented some of the quick wins.

Phase two of the turn around began in January 2008; it entails a detailed implementation of the programmes identified during phase one findings. We have already started to make an impact with respect to expenditure controls, revenue collection and contract management. We are putting in place appropriate building blocks, instilling a new culture of doing business, all in support of improved service delivery. I will conclude by repeating, by enlisting the support of the honourable members of this committee in the task of transforming the Department of Home Affairs. We will take the frontline responsibilities in achieving this task, but this is an effort that required the commitment of all of us.

I am very pleased with the progress we are making, and confident that this national project will succeed.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Home Affairs
12 February 2008