The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has cautioned the Department of Labour (DoL) not to undo the progress it has made in tightening its financial control systems.
Themba Godi, chairman of SCOPA said DoL has been a source of worry for sometime. However, he said it was encouraging that this worrying scenario was becoming a matter of the past.
“I hope that the one step forward as reflected in the department’s Annual report won’t be followed by two steps backward. We think progress has been made to deal with matters raised by the Auditor-General (AG). The challenge is whether this progress will be sustained moving forward. We now want to disprove the assertion that when people are called to appear before SCOPA, they are assumed sinners. If we sustain things at this level, the focus will now fall on issues of value for money.”
Godi was speaking during the SCOPA review of 2011/12 Annual Report of the Department of Labour in Cape Town today, 4 June.
Last year the committee members had expressed concerns of DoL, that after attaining a clean bill of health in 2011 following six years of negative audits by the Auditor General, it was skidding on shaky grounds. The committee cautioned of a lack of proper controls and adherence to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) prescripts, the ‘high’ vacancy rate, and non-compliance to Supply Chain Management policies among others.
Department of Labour Director-General Nkosinathi Nhleko attributed the improvements in financial systems management to the department’s proactive interventions through internal audits and training provided by National Treasury.
Nhleko said that delivery of performance targets was a matter of concern to the department, and as an organisation we: “are committed on ensuring that we perform to desirable outcome.”
Responding to the continued use of consultancy services, the Director-General said the department uses external services in areas where it lacks capacity. He said where possible and practical, the DoL would conduct work itself, while recruiting, building and expanding internal capacity.
Nhleko said the department’s vacancy rate stood at 7,03% as at end of March 2013. He said the lack of significant shift from last year’s figure of 7,3% could be attributed to the decentralisation of the Compensation Fund operations in provinces and the building of Information Communication Technology (ICT) capacity within the department following the end of the 10-year public private partnership with Siemens last November.
The Department of Labour was now using the Employment Systems of South Africa (ESSA), an internal electronic system to recruit at lower levels to help reduce the ‘stubborn’ vacancy rate.
