Issued by: Government Communication (GCIS)
The Director-General of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Mr Roger Jardine, today welcomed the performance audit of the Associated Cultural Institutions (national museums) for the period August 1997 to August 1998 which was recently tabled in Parliament by the Auditor General.
Mr Jardine said that the institutions were governed by an act of Parliament, namely the Cultural Institutions Act of 1998, which makes provision for the Minister to appoint museum governing councils after a process of public nomination. In terms of the Act, councils are required to govern the institutions according to a set of defined functions and responsibilities. These include the formulation of policy for the institution, the preservation and safeguarding of collections; and the management and control of moneys provided to them in order to deliver on these functions.
Mr Jardine noted that the key concerns raised in the Auditor Generals report related directly to the functions and responsibilities of the governing museum councils, namely: the ineffective conservation and restoration of collections; the lack of proper records; insufficient security protection; the unsuitable storage of collections; and the lack of regular maintenance programmes.
Mr Jardine said that the Department fully supported the findings of the Auditor General and is committed to working with the Councils to assist them to fulfil their legislative responsibilities. This included providing them with the necessary resources to address the inadequacies and weaknesses highlighted in the Auditor General's report. He said that in the department's next three year Medium Expenditure Framework (MTF), the Department has committed a substantial percentage of the R33 million capital works budget towards upgrading facilities in the soon to be established national flagship museums. These flagship institutions. will come about through a well planned amalgamation of the existing national museums in Gauteng and the Western Cape so as to maximise capacity, expertise, and infrastructure.
Mr Jardine added that the report highlighted the pressing need to replace the current system of Framework Autonomy, which places the management of the museums at arms-length to government, with a system that clearly reflected the principle and practice of public accountability. In this regard Mr Jardine said that the Department was in the process of finalising a new Finance and Reporting System which will provide a more efficient management system for institutions. He said that he was confident that the new system would go a long way towards addressing the problems highlighted in the Auditor General's report.
Mr Jardine stressed however that simply spending more money to expand facilities would not solve the problems. Rather, what was required was the development of an holistic and integrated national collections policy and strategy that takes full account of the need for representivity, conservation display, interpretation and security. He said that the absence of a collections policy at the level of institutions resulted in ad hoc acquisition decisions compounding storage, security and conservation problems. He added that the creation of the two flagship museums would provide a better framework for the management of collections.
Mr Jardine also said that new national heritage legislation would be debated in Parliament in the near future. The legislation, amongst other things, make provision for the development of dynamic partnerships between communities and heritage institutions, like museums, to collectively identify and protect objects and sites of cultural significance. In this process emphasis is placed upon raising public awareness and appreciation of our vulnerable cultural heritage and on involving all communities in its protection. In addition, the legislation establishes formal mechanisms and structures for ensuring the safekeeping of our cultural heritage, and introduces stiff penalties for those who choose to wilfully damage or destroy our national heritage.
Mr Jardine called on the associated institutions to study the Auditor General's report and to implement corrective steps. He committed the Department to working with the institutions to ensure that appropriate measures are instituted.
For more information please contact Andile Xaba, preferably by fax at (012) 323-0165 or phone (012) 337-8313