DA: Statement by David Maynier, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of defence and military veterans, on the Defence Department’s Strategic Plan (17/03/2010)

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Published: 17 Mar 2010

DA: Statement by David Maynier, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of defence and military veterans, on the Defence Department’s Strategic Plan (17/03/2010)

The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, must intervene and withdraw the woefully inadequate Department of Defence Strategic Business Plan 2010/11 to 2012/13 from Parliament.

The fact is that the department's strategic business plan is a mess and needs some heavy-duty panel beating.

The National Treasury today provided the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans with a devastating critique of the department's strategic business plan for the 2010/11 to 2012/13 financial years - most importantly that:

there was no credible vision of what the defence force should do;
the strategic business plan was based on outdated policy (White Paper on Defence 1996);
there was a lack of strategic goals and objectives;
there were no lower level operational plans; and
there was a lack of focus on outcomes.

The National Treasury concluded that there was a "need for planners with a new vision" for the defence department.

This is symptomatic of the strategic confusion, which is a result of the defence and military veterans department's reluctance to table a Green Paper on Defence and Military Veterans, as well as weak senior management in the civilian defence secretariat. It also raises the serious question about how it was that the strategic business plan was approved by the Council of Defence on 25 February 2010 and the Defence Staff Council on 22 February 2010.

The DA therefore calls on Minister Sisulu to withdraw the defence and military veterans department's strategic business plan from Parliament.

The department needs to go back to the drawing board and produce separate strategic business plans for the defence department and the military veterans department which comply with the various regulations set out by the National Treasury.