Date: 19/05/2003
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: Buthelezi: Home Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
INTRODUCTORY SPEECH BY MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP, MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, DURING HOME AFFAIRS BUDGET DEBATE, National Assembly, Cape Town, 19 May 2003
Madam Speaker:
It is a pleasure for me to introduce the debate on the Home Affairs Budget Appropriation for the 2003/2004 financial year.
I am approaching this budget debate with a deep awareness that in the past nine years that I have served as Minister of Home Affairs I have exercised my functions exclusively in the service of the State. I have sought no other goal than serving the State and the people of South Africa. I never allowed political considerations to detract from what I had to do to benefit the State and the people of South Africa. I never used my office to benefit my political party. I have not given jobs and positions to my friends nor have I prevented my foes from achieving them when they were qualified for them. As this might be my last budget speech as Minister of Home Affairs I wish to place on record that my honour has been that of serving the State and the people of South Africa and I hope that what I have to say today will highlight it.
At times it seems that media reports and other public statements use the Department of Home Affairs as the flogging horse of governmental service delivery inadequacies. It is not my intention to shy away from shortcomings in my Department, nor to make excuses for persistent defects and failures which we are addressing within the tight confines of what is possible, shaped by very scarce available resource and other externally imposed limitations. It is unfortunate that the good we do in Home Affairs, our achievements, as well as the positive societal impact that our activities have are too often completely overshadowed by unwarranted adverse publicity and negative perceptions.
Twenty eight million South Africans bear identity documents issued by my Department. This affords to all of them fundamental rights of citizenship and enables their access to a wide range of benefits and activities in both the public and private sectors. Significant value is added to their existence and livelihood. I have witnessed the distribution of ID's from a mobile unit in some of the remotest and inaccessible rural areas of our country. I have observed the joy and expressions of self worth on humble faces paging through their first ID. I have sensed the hopes and aspirations that accompany the receipt by many of this small green booklet. The logistics involved in the processing of each of these ID's and especially their distribution to outlying areas are complex and highlight how much we are silently doing which is indeed extraordinary.
I saw a boy of not older than seven escorting his only relative - an almost blind grandfather, to our office to complete the Home Affairs paperwork of a child support grant application. The boy represented a new but growing social phenomenon in society - that of "child headed households" resultant from the devastating effects of the AIDS pandemic. His birth needed to be registered for him to perform the ill-prepared role thrust upon him of sole breadwinner of this nuclear family. A s I experienced our contribution in facilitating subsistence and alleviating degradation first hand I realised in how many ways and how often every days Home Affairs gets its job done silently and efficiently.
At the end of last year there was a databank of 43 187 445 fingerprints on record in the Department representing the backbone of our identification system. The total South African population represent the recurring clients of Home Affairs as we register their births, identify them, marry them, naturalise them, change their names, issue travel documents to them and record their deaths. Moreover, we constantly replace all such documents when lost or expired. In addition we manage and process all millions of foreign visitors to our country. Thus, cumulatively our client base probably exceeds 300 million persons. Considering the span and scale of our business operation, I commend my officials for their dedication and hard work.
Widespread corruption in the Department is often alleged. Not a single instance of unethical conduct can be justified and we have significantly stepped-up our investigation and prosecution capacities. We are nurturing a mind set among staff that reflects the highest levels of integrity and honesty and we are installing incorruptible systems, thus protecting the Department against unscrupulous elements attempting abuse. However, the observation in the recently released United Nations sponsored Country Corruption Assessment Report that about 30% of our officials have been approached by members of the public and their agents to perform unlawful activities is disturbing. Taking into account the tradability of the documents we issue and the high monetary value derived from the intrinsic benefits they bear, it is obvious that staff will be subjected to temptations. I am extremely proud of the conduct and performance of thousands of Home Affairs officials all over the country.
Negative comments are often passed regarding the Department's standard of service delivery. It is true that the reach of our services, especially to remote rural and marginalised urban communities, is inadequate, our queues frustrating, our waiting periods too long and customer service often inadequate. We are engaged in systematic efforts to improve service delivery. We were the first Department to issue a Service Delivery Improvement Plan under my signature as prescribed in the Batho Pele White Paper. We have recently introduced the notion of "exemplary offices" which are a nucleus of centres of service excellence in all regions, from which our vision of a modern, efficient and customer oriented new Department will be rolled out. This project is dovetailed with the introduction of the Department's new corporate identity that will clearly identify our office locations to the public and provide a people-centred modernised interior for enhanced service quality.
I salute our officials who are often providing services from structures that do not even resemble the general concept of an office location, as they are dilapidated, without ceilings and floors, or even sometimes, doors and windows. They perform their functions from those structures without basic office equipment such as telephones; fax machines, safes, electricity and more. They do not have vehicles to transport applications to and from the closest collection points and operate with a skeleton staff responsible for a geographical area and barren terrain that is mind-boggling. They are there, day-in and day-out in summer heat and winter cold, not only coping, but in fact doing remarkably well under such adverse conditions.
I have recently instructed a comprehensive scientific investigation into the required personnel establishment and organisational structure of the Department linked to the current sparseness of Home Affairs offices and service points throughout the country. Final proposals regarding these matters will be submitted to me by the end of June 2003. Currently the Department has 1 915 vacant posts calculated on the basis of a 1995 outdated and insufficient personnel establishment, including 358 vacancies at the Government Printing Works. This establishment does therefore not take into account at all the spiralling need for departmental services since 1995. As an interim measure, Cabinet has approved the filling of 349 critical posts during the 2003/2004 financial year and an amount of R20, 933 million is included in the current budget for this purpose. However, as indicated in the Budget Planning Submission MTEF) 2003/04-2005/06, an additional amount of R67, 908 was requested for the filling of 704 further vacant posts during 2003/4. Yet, this is all patchwork based on a 1995 scenario and the complete current picture of Home Affairs personnel requirements will only emerge on the completion of the mentioned scientific investigation.
The inadequate reach of our services into deeply rural and marginalised urban communities is also pertinently being addressed in this investigation. The scientific formula employed to determine office location and staffing levels, in fact, contains a built-in bias towards these areas, compensating in particular for distance in sparsely populated areas and taking into account, as well, the availability or absence of public transport. A fleet of mobile units that will be augmented significantly will serve areas with a population of less than 5 000. These units will also be deployed in accordance with special requests such as from old age homes or schools. In areas where the population exceeds 5 000, temporary service points will be opened, servicing these communities according to need and on predetermined days. Where the population exceeds 40 000, permanent service points, and where it exceeds 80 000, district offices will be established. Evenly important is the new personnel dispensation envisaged for these eventualities, which for the first time provides for a dedicated personnel contingent attached to mobile units and service points. Up to now personnel of already understaffed district offices had to perform services in mobile units and service points, an arrangement that seriously impeded service delivery at district offices. Consequently, this development will have a tremendous overall positive effect on especially the rural operations of the Department.
It is obvious that concretising the above will have major implications. The completion of the investigation in five of the ten regions has shown that in these regions there is need for 6 new regional offices, 36 new district offices, 26 new permanent service points, excluding service points where services are only provided on certain days or by special request, and more than a doubling of mobile units to 219. Furthermore, this necessitates a 722 staff increase from 2 195 to 3 917 and the personnel costs alone of these proposals amount to R127, 295 million. Still in progress are the similar scientific investigations for the remaining five regions as well as the seven primary business units located in the departmental Head Office. Then too, the necessity to expand our foreign operation in the light of escalating international travel to South Africa places tremendous additional pressure on our already over-stretched capacities at ports of entry and our twenty foreign offices - we are just not equipped to process the more than 8 million foreigners per year who visit our country. Consequently, it can realistically be expected that the eventual requirements will by far exceed the doubling of the above.
The centrality of Home Affairs' services in the success of Batho Pele is common knowledge. Without addressing our aforesaid requirements, service excellence in Home Affairs will remain but an unfulfilled dream, and service delivery improvement throughout Government will remain elusive.
The financial and infrastructure's requirements of establishing a properly equipped and adequately staffed Department of Home Affairs are massive and should obviously be considered in conjunction with wide-ranging other governmental priorities and obligations and in the light of fiscal limitations. It is precisely against this background that I have construed my strategic vision on the devolution of the delivery interface of the Home Affairs civic services to third tier authorities. Apart from making financial sense, this option is also fully aligned with governmental policy on integrated service delivery and remains the only financially viable option for the future. Municipalities and traditional authorities are closest to the people and the sensible link between communities and our central records and systems. We have done our internal homework regarding this matter and it needs to be pursued at an intergovernmental level now. Because of the inevitable involvement of so many other stakeholders we cannot go it alone. I urge my colleagues, especially of the Ministers of Public Service and Administration and of Provincial and Local Government to support me in the developing and rollout of this only viable alternative for addressing current unsatisfactory service levels.
Notwithstanding the above shortcomings at the service interface level, the Department is engaged in various dynamic development initiatives pertaining to both of its line functions. Within Civic Services the foremost focus is on systems development projects aimed at modernising our operations on the basis of appropriate electronic platforms whilst the Migration Branch is largely engaged in the implementation of the new legal instruments embodied in the Immigration Act, 2002 and the Immigration Regulations made in terms of such Act and relating to the management of critical immigration matters. The Immigration Advisory Board is now fully operational, as it has held its inaugural meeting earlier today. With this step having been taken the new system of migration control has now been launched. It will take time before the new system will reach its full maturity in what remains an always-fluid field of policy formulation inherently characterised by tensions and internal conflicts. However, as people are beginning to experience the new system, they are beginning to appreciate its greater benefits in spite of unavoidable initial teething problems.
The introduction of the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) is the topmost project aimed at modernising the management of Civic Services. Recent international events have had a dramatic impact on the security management requirements of nation states. This has inter alia necessitated the comprehensive, reliable, instant and secures identification of nationals coupled with the effective documentation of the transnational movement of people as key elements of international safety and security.
There is no doubt that HANIS, and dovetailing with the rewrite of the National Population Register, automated fingerprint identification (AFIS) and an electronic document management system (e-DMS), positions South Africa as a leader in the field of national identification. A major milestone was achieved during the previous year with the basic system commissioning during February 2002 and this system becoming operational in August 2002. Thereafter, about 700 000 ID application records have been captured and we have achieved an average 6 000 application records intake per day. Of particular note is that the system issues strictly unique identity numbers. Using complex biometrics-reliant technologies, the system forbids a situation whereby anyone could, like in the past, have two identity numbers or two persons have the same identity number. This accomplishment will in itself already significantly curb fraud, which is a central overall objective of the system. Also, a reliable AFIS database is in place. At present priority tasks that are being attended to include firstly the implementation of the On-line Verification Service, which is an expansion of the initial verification system to cater for external users such as banks and includes the HANIS Call Centre, secondly, the fast-tracking of the image capture processes by inventions such as using flatbed scanners; and thirdly the expansion of the HANIS storage capacity.
Essential matters pertaining to the identity card component are deliberated with all HANIS stakeholder departments during the monthly Interdepartmental Technical Committee meetings. The Directors-General of these departments convene as a Steering Committee whenever necessary. Of particular note is the intent of the Department, working in conjunction with National Treasury, on using the Public Private Partnership Procurement Model or a strategic tender for the rollout of the card component of HANIS. Currently this process entails employing transaction advisors, an option analysis, a feasibility study, and will eventually culminate in tender processes and contract negotiations. The finalisation of the identity card component is critical to the overall progress of HANIS and the Department is bent on expediting delivery.
I have informed both Cabinet and the Portfolio Committee of Home Affairs that in recent times I began discovering a number of problems inherent in the HANIS project and of which I had not been apprised before June of last year. Some of such problems have massive repercussions for the finances of the State. This led me to take direct leadership of several features of the HANIS project, also on the strength of the Report I received from the Haysom Commission which I appointed as a watchdog to inform me and Cabinet of problems which may develop. This process of critical analysis and independent review was essential given the magnitude of the expenditure involved in the HANIS project. Out of this analysis it emerged that some of the technological solutions and project features, which were being pursued, were not the correct ones. New technology has emerged which will enable us to reduce the costs of identity cards and employ microchips only in respect of certain segments of the population, which may need them or wish to have them. In other respects high-density bar-codes can achieve all the intended goals of a secure identity card with built-in biometrics, which can be read by an optical scanner whilst serving as the basis, which integrates e-governance and the rendering of services by other organs of the State as well as private transactions.
Lastly in this regard reference should also be made to escalating security considerations that have a bearing on the protection of the HANIS system and the data it contains. The need for recovery after disaster cannot be overemphasised. Consequently, a HANIS Disaster Recovery Plan has been formulated. This vital component was not included in the original tender and its costing is currently being assessed.
The total HANIS budget for 2003/2004 is R258 million. The total expenditure on the project until February 2003 was R812 million and it is estimated that an amount of R438, 5 million, excluding the yet unknown cost of the identity card component as well as the aforesaid Disaster Recovery Plan will still be required. Obviously this figure will be affected by the Consumer Price Index and foreign exchange fluctuations to the extent that National Treasury will not hedge currency exchange risks.
A further systems development in Civic Services pertains to the introduction of an electronic document management system (e-DMS) for which the first contract was awarded in October 2001. The objective of the e-DMS is to implement an effective, real time, online solution that will cater for automated document management processes from capture to business transaction solutions and thus resulting in the overall improvement of business process efficiency. The system will make all Home Affairs records and archiving information, within the scope of the contract, available for access to any authorised individual at any workstation in the entire system, both nationally and internationally. Implementation has been structured in three phases of which the first will be completed at the end of June 2003. This phase comprises of the design and implementation of the core centralised e-DMS and an associated workflow component; integration thereof with the National Population Register; conversion of the existing microfilm records to online documentation format; implementation of a centralised bulk scanning and indexing environment to initiate the capture of all new transactions; initiating the process of existing records back-capture. A tender specification for Phase 2 to address the start of the back scanning of documents in the Registry of Home Affairs' Head Office will be published during the course of the current financial year. Phase 3 will address the rollout of the core system functionality to regional offices and the integration of all the Home Affairs systems i.e. National Population Register, Movement Control System, Passport System and HANIS with the e-DMS.
A total of R70 million has already been spent on Phase 1 of the e-DMS Project and R52; 5 million has been allocated for the current financial year in order to complete Phase 2. A further R78 million will be required during the 2004/5 financial years for Phase 3.
These systems developments will offer state of the art technology and utility to our citizenry and also enable South Africa to leapfrog most of the world's technology applications in the field of civic services. As such it will craft a new outlook on governmental service delivery and significantly boost the Bathos Peel imperative.
Apart from these major systems development initiatives, two priority Civic Services practical projects that are currently underway deserve mention. Firstly, following the President's commitment in his 2002 State of the Nation address to the fast-tracking of Child Support Grants and their extension to children up to the age of 14, the Department is working in close collaboration with the Department of Social Development, the lead Department in this project, to ensure an integrated approach with the view to optimising service delivery. The Home Affairs' role in achieving this objective is to provide applicants with the necessary enabling documents such as birth certificates and identity documents, to apply for these grants. However, no financial provision has been made to cater for the increased demand for services by Social Development, which is already impacting heavily on the Department's overstretched resources. To meet these targets, the Department will require additional funding in order to extend its operational capacity in this field. This will be addressed with National Treasury in the forthcoming MTEF budget estimates as well as to hopefully find relief in the shorter term in the Adjustments Estimates later this year.
Notwithstanding these inhibiting factors, the Department has introduced various interim measures to reach as many applicants as possible with available resources. These include the incorporation thereof with the Vital Registration Programme which is an initiative between us and the Department of Health as well as provincial hospitals to enhance birth registrations; the involvement of 29 Traditional Authorities in Kabuli-Natal to assist with birth registrations; participation in the Eastern Cape Inter-provincial Support Programme (IPSP) in terms of which mobile units and contract workers are provided through Deloitte & Touche as well as my Department's participation in the DPSA sponsored Joint Management Team; the utilisation of volunteers; and the combination of this programme with our planned ID Campaign focussed on the next general elections. In addition a high-level workshop was recently convened between Social Development at the national as well as provincial levels and ourselves in order to map the way forward. Amongst technical matters it was also resolved that a Memorandum of Understanding between the two Department's will be entered into; that joint meetings at a provincial level will be formalised; and that joint project plans will be formulated. Thus, Home Affairs is fully committed to heed the President's call for poverty alleviation through, amongst other things, the expediting of grant registrations.
Secondly, with effect from 1 April 2003 the Department has engaged in an Identity Document Campaign that will continue until the close of voter registration for the 2004 general elections. Currently the Department has the capacity to deal with about 8 000 ID applications per day with a turnaround time of two months. It is estimated that applications will escalate to
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: Buthelezi: Home Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
INTRODUCTORY SPEECH BY MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP, MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, DURING HOME AFFAIRS BUDGET DEBATE, National Assembly, Cape Town, 19 May 2003
Madam Speaker:
It is a pleasure for me to introduce the debate on the Home Affairs Budget Appropriation for the 2003/2004 financial year.
I am approaching this budget debate with a deep awareness that in the past nine years that I have served as Minister of Home Affairs I have exercised my functions exclusively in the service of the State. I have sought no other goal than serving the State and the people of South Africa. I never allowed political considerations to detract from what I had to do to benefit the State and the people of South Africa. I never used my office to benefit my political party. I have not given jobs and positions to my friends nor have I prevented my foes from achieving them when they were qualified for them. As this might be my last budget speech as Minister of Home Affairs I wish to place on record that my honour has been that of serving the State and the people of South Africa and I hope that what I have to say today will highlight it.
At times it seems that media reports and other public statements use the Department of Home Affairs as the flogging horse of governmental service delivery inadequacies. It is not my intention to shy away from shortcomings in my Department, nor to make excuses for persistent defects and failures which we are addressing within the tight confines of what is possible, shaped by very scarce available resource and other externally imposed limitations. It is unfortunate that the good we do in Home Affairs, our achievements, as well as the positive societal impact that our activities have are too often completely overshadowed by unwarranted adverse publicity and negative perceptions.
Twenty eight million South Africans bear identity documents issued by my Department. This affords to all of them fundamental rights of citizenship and enables their access to a wide range of benefits and activities in both the public and private sectors. Significant value is added to their existence and livelihood. I have witnessed the distribution of ID's from a mobile unit in some of the remotest and inaccessible rural areas of our country. I have observed the joy and expressions of self worth on humble faces paging through their first ID. I have sensed the hopes and aspirations that accompany the receipt by many of this small green booklet. The logistics involved in the processing of each of these ID's and especially their distribution to outlying areas are complex and highlight how much we are silently doing which is indeed extraordinary.
I saw a boy of not older than seven escorting his only relative - an almost blind grandfather, to our office to complete the Home Affairs paperwork of a child support grant application. The boy represented a new but growing social phenomenon in society - that of "child headed households" resultant from the devastating effects of the AIDS pandemic. His birth needed to be registered for him to perform the ill-prepared role thrust upon him of sole breadwinner of this nuclear family. A s I experienced our contribution in facilitating subsistence and alleviating degradation first hand I realised in how many ways and how often every days Home Affairs gets its job done silently and efficiently.
At the end of last year there was a databank of 43 187 445 fingerprints on record in the Department representing the backbone of our identification system. The total South African population represent the recurring clients of Home Affairs as we register their births, identify them, marry them, naturalise them, change their names, issue travel documents to them and record their deaths. Moreover, we constantly replace all such documents when lost or expired. In addition we manage and process all millions of foreign visitors to our country. Thus, cumulatively our client base probably exceeds 300 million persons. Considering the span and scale of our business operation, I commend my officials for their dedication and hard work.
Widespread corruption in the Department is often alleged. Not a single instance of unethical conduct can be justified and we have significantly stepped-up our investigation and prosecution capacities. We are nurturing a mind set among staff that reflects the highest levels of integrity and honesty and we are installing incorruptible systems, thus protecting the Department against unscrupulous elements attempting abuse. However, the observation in the recently released United Nations sponsored Country Corruption Assessment Report that about 30% of our officials have been approached by members of the public and their agents to perform unlawful activities is disturbing. Taking into account the tradability of the documents we issue and the high monetary value derived from the intrinsic benefits they bear, it is obvious that staff will be subjected to temptations. I am extremely proud of the conduct and performance of thousands of Home Affairs officials all over the country.
Negative comments are often passed regarding the Department's standard of service delivery. It is true that the reach of our services, especially to remote rural and marginalised urban communities, is inadequate, our queues frustrating, our waiting periods too long and customer service often inadequate. We are engaged in systematic efforts to improve service delivery. We were the first Department to issue a Service Delivery Improvement Plan under my signature as prescribed in the Batho Pele White Paper. We have recently introduced the notion of "exemplary offices" which are a nucleus of centres of service excellence in all regions, from which our vision of a modern, efficient and customer oriented new Department will be rolled out. This project is dovetailed with the introduction of the Department's new corporate identity that will clearly identify our office locations to the public and provide a people-centred modernised interior for enhanced service quality.
I salute our officials who are often providing services from structures that do not even resemble the general concept of an office location, as they are dilapidated, without ceilings and floors, or even sometimes, doors and windows. They perform their functions from those structures without basic office equipment such as telephones; fax machines, safes, electricity and more. They do not have vehicles to transport applications to and from the closest collection points and operate with a skeleton staff responsible for a geographical area and barren terrain that is mind-boggling. They are there, day-in and day-out in summer heat and winter cold, not only coping, but in fact doing remarkably well under such adverse conditions.
I have recently instructed a comprehensive scientific investigation into the required personnel establishment and organisational structure of the Department linked to the current sparseness of Home Affairs offices and service points throughout the country. Final proposals regarding these matters will be submitted to me by the end of June 2003. Currently the Department has 1 915 vacant posts calculated on the basis of a 1995 outdated and insufficient personnel establishment, including 358 vacancies at the Government Printing Works. This establishment does therefore not take into account at all the spiralling need for departmental services since 1995. As an interim measure, Cabinet has approved the filling of 349 critical posts during the 2003/2004 financial year and an amount of R20, 933 million is included in the current budget for this purpose. However, as indicated in the Budget Planning Submission MTEF) 2003/04-2005/06, an additional amount of R67, 908 was requested for the filling of 704 further vacant posts during 2003/4. Yet, this is all patchwork based on a 1995 scenario and the complete current picture of Home Affairs personnel requirements will only emerge on the completion of the mentioned scientific investigation.
The inadequate reach of our services into deeply rural and marginalised urban communities is also pertinently being addressed in this investigation. The scientific formula employed to determine office location and staffing levels, in fact, contains a built-in bias towards these areas, compensating in particular for distance in sparsely populated areas and taking into account, as well, the availability or absence of public transport. A fleet of mobile units that will be augmented significantly will serve areas with a population of less than 5 000. These units will also be deployed in accordance with special requests such as from old age homes or schools. In areas where the population exceeds 5 000, temporary service points will be opened, servicing these communities according to need and on predetermined days. Where the population exceeds 40 000, permanent service points, and where it exceeds 80 000, district offices will be established. Evenly important is the new personnel dispensation envisaged for these eventualities, which for the first time provides for a dedicated personnel contingent attached to mobile units and service points. Up to now personnel of already understaffed district offices had to perform services in mobile units and service points, an arrangement that seriously impeded service delivery at district offices. Consequently, this development will have a tremendous overall positive effect on especially the rural operations of the Department.
It is obvious that concretising the above will have major implications. The completion of the investigation in five of the ten regions has shown that in these regions there is need for 6 new regional offices, 36 new district offices, 26 new permanent service points, excluding service points where services are only provided on certain days or by special request, and more than a doubling of mobile units to 219. Furthermore, this necessitates a 722 staff increase from 2 195 to 3 917 and the personnel costs alone of these proposals amount to R127, 295 million. Still in progress are the similar scientific investigations for the remaining five regions as well as the seven primary business units located in the departmental Head Office. Then too, the necessity to expand our foreign operation in the light of escalating international travel to South Africa places tremendous additional pressure on our already over-stretched capacities at ports of entry and our twenty foreign offices - we are just not equipped to process the more than 8 million foreigners per year who visit our country. Consequently, it can realistically be expected that the eventual requirements will by far exceed the doubling of the above.
The centrality of Home Affairs' services in the success of Batho Pele is common knowledge. Without addressing our aforesaid requirements, service excellence in Home Affairs will remain but an unfulfilled dream, and service delivery improvement throughout Government will remain elusive.
The financial and infrastructure's requirements of establishing a properly equipped and adequately staffed Department of Home Affairs are massive and should obviously be considered in conjunction with wide-ranging other governmental priorities and obligations and in the light of fiscal limitations. It is precisely against this background that I have construed my strategic vision on the devolution of the delivery interface of the Home Affairs civic services to third tier authorities. Apart from making financial sense, this option is also fully aligned with governmental policy on integrated service delivery and remains the only financially viable option for the future. Municipalities and traditional authorities are closest to the people and the sensible link between communities and our central records and systems. We have done our internal homework regarding this matter and it needs to be pursued at an intergovernmental level now. Because of the inevitable involvement of so many other stakeholders we cannot go it alone. I urge my colleagues, especially of the Ministers of Public Service and Administration and of Provincial and Local Government to support me in the developing and rollout of this only viable alternative for addressing current unsatisfactory service levels.
Notwithstanding the above shortcomings at the service interface level, the Department is engaged in various dynamic development initiatives pertaining to both of its line functions. Within Civic Services the foremost focus is on systems development projects aimed at modernising our operations on the basis of appropriate electronic platforms whilst the Migration Branch is largely engaged in the implementation of the new legal instruments embodied in the Immigration Act, 2002 and the Immigration Regulations made in terms of such Act and relating to the management of critical immigration matters. The Immigration Advisory Board is now fully operational, as it has held its inaugural meeting earlier today. With this step having been taken the new system of migration control has now been launched. It will take time before the new system will reach its full maturity in what remains an always-fluid field of policy formulation inherently characterised by tensions and internal conflicts. However, as people are beginning to experience the new system, they are beginning to appreciate its greater benefits in spite of unavoidable initial teething problems.
The introduction of the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) is the topmost project aimed at modernising the management of Civic Services. Recent international events have had a dramatic impact on the security management requirements of nation states. This has inter alia necessitated the comprehensive, reliable, instant and secures identification of nationals coupled with the effective documentation of the transnational movement of people as key elements of international safety and security.
There is no doubt that HANIS, and dovetailing with the rewrite of the National Population Register, automated fingerprint identification (AFIS) and an electronic document management system (e-DMS), positions South Africa as a leader in the field of national identification. A major milestone was achieved during the previous year with the basic system commissioning during February 2002 and this system becoming operational in August 2002. Thereafter, about 700 000 ID application records have been captured and we have achieved an average 6 000 application records intake per day. Of particular note is that the system issues strictly unique identity numbers. Using complex biometrics-reliant technologies, the system forbids a situation whereby anyone could, like in the past, have two identity numbers or two persons have the same identity number. This accomplishment will in itself already significantly curb fraud, which is a central overall objective of the system. Also, a reliable AFIS database is in place. At present priority tasks that are being attended to include firstly the implementation of the On-line Verification Service, which is an expansion of the initial verification system to cater for external users such as banks and includes the HANIS Call Centre, secondly, the fast-tracking of the image capture processes by inventions such as using flatbed scanners; and thirdly the expansion of the HANIS storage capacity.
Essential matters pertaining to the identity card component are deliberated with all HANIS stakeholder departments during the monthly Interdepartmental Technical Committee meetings. The Directors-General of these departments convene as a Steering Committee whenever necessary. Of particular note is the intent of the Department, working in conjunction with National Treasury, on using the Public Private Partnership Procurement Model or a strategic tender for the rollout of the card component of HANIS. Currently this process entails employing transaction advisors, an option analysis, a feasibility study, and will eventually culminate in tender processes and contract negotiations. The finalisation of the identity card component is critical to the overall progress of HANIS and the Department is bent on expediting delivery.
I have informed both Cabinet and the Portfolio Committee of Home Affairs that in recent times I began discovering a number of problems inherent in the HANIS project and of which I had not been apprised before June of last year. Some of such problems have massive repercussions for the finances of the State. This led me to take direct leadership of several features of the HANIS project, also on the strength of the Report I received from the Haysom Commission which I appointed as a watchdog to inform me and Cabinet of problems which may develop. This process of critical analysis and independent review was essential given the magnitude of the expenditure involved in the HANIS project. Out of this analysis it emerged that some of the technological solutions and project features, which were being pursued, were not the correct ones. New technology has emerged which will enable us to reduce the costs of identity cards and employ microchips only in respect of certain segments of the population, which may need them or wish to have them. In other respects high-density bar-codes can achieve all the intended goals of a secure identity card with built-in biometrics, which can be read by an optical scanner whilst serving as the basis, which integrates e-governance and the rendering of services by other organs of the State as well as private transactions.
Lastly in this regard reference should also be made to escalating security considerations that have a bearing on the protection of the HANIS system and the data it contains. The need for recovery after disaster cannot be overemphasised. Consequently, a HANIS Disaster Recovery Plan has been formulated. This vital component was not included in the original tender and its costing is currently being assessed.
The total HANIS budget for 2003/2004 is R258 million. The total expenditure on the project until February 2003 was R812 million and it is estimated that an amount of R438, 5 million, excluding the yet unknown cost of the identity card component as well as the aforesaid Disaster Recovery Plan will still be required. Obviously this figure will be affected by the Consumer Price Index and foreign exchange fluctuations to the extent that National Treasury will not hedge currency exchange risks.
A further systems development in Civic Services pertains to the introduction of an electronic document management system (e-DMS) for which the first contract was awarded in October 2001. The objective of the e-DMS is to implement an effective, real time, online solution that will cater for automated document management processes from capture to business transaction solutions and thus resulting in the overall improvement of business process efficiency. The system will make all Home Affairs records and archiving information, within the scope of the contract, available for access to any authorised individual at any workstation in the entire system, both nationally and internationally. Implementation has been structured in three phases of which the first will be completed at the end of June 2003. This phase comprises of the design and implementation of the core centralised e-DMS and an associated workflow component; integration thereof with the National Population Register; conversion of the existing microfilm records to online documentation format; implementation of a centralised bulk scanning and indexing environment to initiate the capture of all new transactions; initiating the process of existing records back-capture. A tender specification for Phase 2 to address the start of the back scanning of documents in the Registry of Home Affairs' Head Office will be published during the course of the current financial year. Phase 3 will address the rollout of the core system functionality to regional offices and the integration of all the Home Affairs systems i.e. National Population Register, Movement Control System, Passport System and HANIS with the e-DMS.
A total of R70 million has already been spent on Phase 1 of the e-DMS Project and R52; 5 million has been allocated for the current financial year in order to complete Phase 2. A further R78 million will be required during the 2004/5 financial years for Phase 3.
These systems developments will offer state of the art technology and utility to our citizenry and also enable South Africa to leapfrog most of the world's technology applications in the field of civic services. As such it will craft a new outlook on governmental service delivery and significantly boost the Bathos Peel imperative.
Apart from these major systems development initiatives, two priority Civic Services practical projects that are currently underway deserve mention. Firstly, following the President's commitment in his 2002 State of the Nation address to the fast-tracking of Child Support Grants and their extension to children up to the age of 14, the Department is working in close collaboration with the Department of Social Development, the lead Department in this project, to ensure an integrated approach with the view to optimising service delivery. The Home Affairs' role in achieving this objective is to provide applicants with the necessary enabling documents such as birth certificates and identity documents, to apply for these grants. However, no financial provision has been made to cater for the increased demand for services by Social Development, which is already impacting heavily on the Department's overstretched resources. To meet these targets, the Department will require additional funding in order to extend its operational capacity in this field. This will be addressed with National Treasury in the forthcoming MTEF budget estimates as well as to hopefully find relief in the shorter term in the Adjustments Estimates later this year.
Notwithstanding these inhibiting factors, the Department has introduced various interim measures to reach as many applicants as possible with available resources. These include the incorporation thereof with the Vital Registration Programme which is an initiative between us and the Department of Health as well as provincial hospitals to enhance birth registrations; the involvement of 29 Traditional Authorities in Kabuli-Natal to assist with birth registrations; participation in the Eastern Cape Inter-provincial Support Programme (IPSP) in terms of which mobile units and contract workers are provided through Deloitte & Touche as well as my Department's participation in the DPSA sponsored Joint Management Team; the utilisation of volunteers; and the combination of this programme with our planned ID Campaign focussed on the next general elections. In addition a high-level workshop was recently convened between Social Development at the national as well as provincial levels and ourselves in order to map the way forward. Amongst technical matters it was also resolved that a Memorandum of Understanding between the two Department's will be entered into; that joint meetings at a provincial level will be formalised; and that joint project plans will be formulated. Thus, Home Affairs is fully committed to heed the President's call for poverty alleviation through, amongst other things, the expediting of grant registrations.
Secondly, with effect from 1 April 2003 the Department has engaged in an Identity Document Campaign that will continue until the close of voter registration for the 2004 general elections. Currently the Department has the capacity to deal with about 8 000 ID applications per day with a turnaround time of two months. It is estimated that applications will escalate to
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