New PricewaterhouseCoopers Contract
This morning I met with management team from PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. Consortium (Include Umnombo, SizweNtsaluba & Gobodo), the purpose was to agree on all the details of the work that PwC will be doing for the department during the duration of their contract which commenced on 9 February 2012 up to 14 September 2012.
The department has secured these services in order to strengthen our capacity to conduct credible forensic audits and investigations, thereby ensure that the key tenets of Section 100 (1) (b), that of strengthening our financial management capacity and improving the control environment of our supply chain management.
This is high level qualitative and technical work that requires a cohort of highly skilled individuals providing the kind of expertise that is not available in the department.
This step is important in demonstrating government’s commitment to ensure that the scourge of fraud and corruption is attended to by a dedicated team of people, who will simultaneously pass on their skills to our own officials in the department, as per the terms of the contract.
Appointments
In order to further demonstrate our commitment to change and radical improvements, the department has moved to ensure that all critical vacancies are immediately filled with interim skilled officials deployed by both provincial and national government, again in line with the recommendation of Section 100 and the resultant turnaround plan that we are vigorously implementing across all sections of the department.
The appointments have targeted finance, supply chain, infrastructure, human resources, internal audit and risk management.
Challenged districts like Lusikisiki, Queenstown, Fort Beaufort, Cradock and Graaff Reinet have also been affirmed with the deployment of experienced officials as acting district directors.
Implementation of Government and COSATU MoU
Contrary to all the reports about our failure to implement the tenets and spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding signed on the 8 February 2012, I want to put on record the following assertion:
- I and all my colleagues in Cabinet remain committed to working together with teacher unions in order to restore quality learning and teaching in all our schools.
- On 13 February 2012, I issued a circular to our schools affirming my commitment to restore temporal educators to all schools with substantive vacant posts. This is after consultation with all unions in the PLRC.
- On 14 February 2012 the provincial Education Labour Relations Chamber was resuscitated and immediately set about the work of finding a common ground on all outstanding issues that remained outstanding after the signing of MoU. Between 14 February and 29 March 2012, chamber has already met seven (7) times, and I remain optimistic that we will be able resolve all pertinent issues with the help of the two (2) mediators that are assisting in resolving areas of difference.
- To date the department has already re-instated 1836 temporal teachers. This fully resonates with the demand that we fill all substantive vacant posts and ensure that there are teachers in front of all our learners in schools. We are optimistic that the pending agreement in the chamber will result in further recruitments of skilled educators to fill available posts.
- We are currently in the process of going through all the submissions on the reversal of suspensions, we will make pronouncement in this regard in due course.
Key issues and priorities for implementation in 2012/13
Over the past year since I joined the department, I have been insisting that we should refocus and make sure that learning and teaching, our core business, occupies the centre of our operations. In pushing towards the realisation of that goal, I have instructed the Departmental Executive Committee to take collective responsibility and control of the management of the department. In that regard, the following issues will be receiving attention:
- Improvement of the physical environment and provision of learner support for the Foundation Phase.
- Rationalisation will be fully addressed in an integrated manner with integrated comprehensive planning; ensuring that it is policy driven and takes into account all the relevant factors.
- Adoption of a different District Model that is driven by multi-disciplinary teams that will be located closer to the schools; and will be fully resourced to enable their full functionality in the field
- Development of a new integrated LTSM system for schools; that will equally prioritise the foundation phase and grade 12.
- The development and implementation of a SCM strategy and system that is compliant with Treasury Regulations
- Review of all Financial Management policies and introduce a more effective system
- Implement and institutionalise Risk Management and systems
- Establish an Internal Control Unit and implement all proposed recommendations
The greatest hero in all these efforts are ordinary people who continue to make tremendous sacrifices and immense contributions. We must not fail them.
The time to act is now! Change is inevitable!
