Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture has sent back a delegation from the Department of Arts and Culture, after they presented a report to it which the Committee described as “thin and vague”. The delegation, led by the Director-General (DG) Mr Sibusiso Xaba, presented the department’s expenditure report and performance review for the first quarter of the 2012/13 financial year.
The Chairperson of the Committee, Ms Thandile Sunduza, said that the report was unacceptable and the committee could not be expected to engage with the document without more information. “I went through the report and it is really disappointing, and although we don’t like sending officials back because it’s taxpayer’s money that is being used, we can’t accept this kind of a report,” she said.
The committee’s major concern was that the report lacked specifics and only gave a superficial account of programmes and costs the department reported for the quarter.
The Chairperson said compared to last year’s first quarter report the department had regressed in terms of the quality of information it provided.
In response, the DG said that they structured the report this way and did not give details because they were reporting against the Strategic Plan of the department. “We are reporting against the strategic plan and the report is against what we had promised to do: that strategic plan was approved by this Committee,” Mr Xaba said.
Member of the Committee, Ms Linda Moss, said the Committee was not just saying the delegation should go back for fun but because it needed to understand clearly what the department was doing. “A detailed report will further assist the committee when it comes to the budget review later in the financial year.”
The delegation was directed to draft a detailed report and then return to Parliament to present before the Committee.
