The Department of Labour (DoL) has committed itself to strengthen its supply chain management processes and also complement this with the appointment of well trained personnel, a meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) was told in Parliament today (Tues).
Addressing the meeting, Department of Labour Director General Nkosinathi Nhleko, said an appropriately staffed department and competent workforce was critical to addressing lapses in governance structures.
Nhleko was addressing Scopa after its committee members expressed concerns of the DoL Annual Reports and Financial Statements financial reports. The committee members expressed concerns, that after attaining a clean audit last year after six years of negative audits by the Auditor General (AG), the department’s financial statements were skidding on a shaky ground.
The committee warned of lack of officials keeping to proper controls and adhering to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) prescripts.
“When there is good leadership things could be turned around,” said the committee members.
Themba Godi, chairman of Scopa, said the achievement of a healthy audit last year was a good starting point, “but, not an end”. He cautioned the Department’s officials not to try and justify what is wrong, instead should acknowledge what is wrong.
“Trust is good, but control is better. Prevent and detect when things go wrong. We want the department to have in place a strong risk management team,” cautioned Godi. He called for an end to continuous process of reengineering and refocusing, saying it was time for implementation.
Scopa members had earlier raised concerns on the department’s aspects of procurement and contract management not following guidelines, raised issues on irregular expenditure, irregular personnel compensation, wrongful remunerations, the lack of performance of programmes, adequacy of management, and high vacancy rates in the department.
Labour Minister, Mildred Oliphant, had earlier told the Committee that steps had already been taken to address the key points in the department following the appointment of Nhleko and Deputy Director-General: Corporate Services Lerato Molebatsi. She said more senior positions would be filled. Oliphant said the issue of asset management was also receiving priority at higher level.
Labour Department Chief Financial Officer Bhekithemba Maduna told Scopa that systems were being tightened to deal with lapses in PFMA. Maduna assured the Committee that stringent measures and sanctions would be taken to deal with deviations from processes and policies.
Molebatsi told Scopa that matters of regular personnel assessments especially at leadership level were receiving priority attention. She said the current 7,2% vacancy rate was something the department was not excited about and measures were in place to reduce it.
Turning to an information communication technology strategy, she said a process was currently unfolding in partnership with Accenture to deal with capacity issues in the department and its public entities.
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Department of Labour to beef up its supplier management systems after Standing Committee on Public Accounts flashes red flag
