Madam Speaker;
Honourable Premier;
Colleagues in the Executive Council;
Honourable Members of this House;
The HOD and Management of the Gauteng Provincial Treasury;
Ladies and gentlemen.
Introduction
Honourable Speaker; in six months’ time our country will celebrate a significant historical milestone. On 27 April 2014, it will be exactly twenty years since the birth of our democratic dispensation, which was ushered in in 1994 when millions of our people exercised their right to vote for the first time.
As we move closer to this momentous occasion, the sheer buzz in our sun-splashed townships and cities will multiply, driven by the vibrant mix of energy that characterises the lifestyle of people in Gauteng – the melting pot of Africa!
As we always say: It Starts Here! Therefore there is no doubt that the celebratory mood in Gauteng will drive the general sentiment towards our 20th birthday in the entire country, as we reflect on the progress made in the first two decades of our democratic system.
Celebrating the gains of freedom
Honourable Speaker, it is therefore necessary that when we publicly debate the performance of our government like we do today; we must perhaps pause just for some time, to take stock of what has been our living experience since we achieved the freedom that we cherish so much in this country of ours.
This is important because there is no doubt that Gauteng is a better place to live in. The province is characterised by millions of confident and proud people than in 1994. They are full of hope about their country, acknowledging that there are still challenges, but noting also that today is way better than yesterday and prospects for the future are looking brighter each day.
Honourable Speaker; in the Gauteng of today, the masses of our people no longer suffer the indignity of, amongst other things, the bucket toilet system; they now stay in proper government built houses, have access to basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation.
The doors of learning are wide open. Children are no longer forced to study under trees because government has spent billions of rands to build modern schools for them. As a result of these massive investments, most of the young people in our province are highly educated and hold various qualifications from institutions of higher learning.
Today this province has the ever increasing number of prosperous young black people than we could possibly have imagined in 1994!
Honourable Speaker; our infrastructure service delivery programme has seen massive rollout of community healthcare centres. This has significantly increased access to primary healthcare services in our province.
The Gauteng of today has modern and well developed transport infrastructure. Our highways and byways are world class; we have large air and rail networks that supply the country’s ports contributing to our import/export markets. Today, the country connects with the world via, amongst others, the best modern airport in the Sub-Saharan Africa - the OR Tambo International Airport located in the province of Gauteng!
Honourable Speaker; as one nation, we must without any sense of guilt celebrate these and other achievements. We must do this because every time we celebrate a milestone, we essentially bear witness to the enduring ideal of millions of our people - both black and white - who fought for the freedom that we enjoy today.
Theirs was an ideal that said freedom reins when people are independent, proud and confident. And freedom reins when we work to narrow the inequality gap based on a collective understanding that our country cannot succeed when a growing many barely survive, while a shrinking few prosper.
Reflections on the mandate of Treasury
Honourable Speaker, allow me please to briefly reflect on the mandate of Gauteng Provincial Treasury (GPT) and its central role to building a developmental state capable of implementing the priorities of government.
GPT is responsible for all financial matters in the province. It is the duty of Treasury to ensure that provincial budgets and budgetary processes promote transparency, accountability and the effective financial management of the economy.
This mandate means the assumption of a supervisory and leadership role in managing finances in respect of provincial departments, public entities as well as local government.
In broad terms this implies that Treasury must discharge its responsibility to facilitate a process whereby the state create an enabling environment for inclusive economic growth and job creation; that will not only allow businesses to thrive but also ensure that services are effectively delivered to our people.
Building the capacity of Treasury function effectively
It is for the reasons mentioned above that there is a general recognition even in our Constitution that Treasury functions are central to building a well-functioning developmental state. Therefore Treasury must always have the necessary authority and capacity in terms of human capital in order to ensure that the government system is fully functional, and its service delivery mechanism funded to respond to the needs of the citizens.
We have therefore noted the concerns of the Finance Portfolio Committee with regard to our vacancy rate. Through our Human Resource Management Unit we identified all vacancies on our organisational structure and put in place a comprehensive plan that is currently being implemented to fill these positions. We are therefore confident that through this intervention we will bring the vacancy rate of the department within the set benchmark of the provincial government in the current financial year.
As Treasury we are committed to the effective management of employee debt. Most of this debt is related to bursaries in cases where employees have left the department. That is why the Human Resource Management Unit and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer work closely to monitor employee debt on a monthly basis.
Honourable Speaker; we have taken into consideration the comments of the Committee on the productivity and performance of government employees versus the salaries that they earn. It must be noted that South Africa’s public service performance management framework is aligned, with amongst others, the best practices in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
As such various interventions have been introduced by the Department of Public Service and Administration to facilitate strategic human resource management and performance in the public service. Our view is therefore that all departments must fully implement these measures in order for government to achieve value for money from its workforce.
These include taking note of the fact that for an employee to be successful in a particular position they must have both the skill and the will. This entails making sure that candidate’s motivation and competence are thoroughly assessed before they are placed in the job because this guarantees performance for a long term.
It is for this reason that the Gauteng Provincial Treasury is actively involved in capacitating critical areas including the Offices of the CFOs both in departments and municipalities. This is aimed at ensuring that only those people with the right skill and will manage the resources of government. Working within the public service performance management framework, we are continuously looking for innovative ways to improve the performance of our employees as that is critical for an effective and efficient government system.
Working to achieve clean audits
In this context, we should report to this august House that a lot of work has been done to move towards clean government. This view is underscored by the fact that effective leadership and oversight in financial management have resulted in the achievement of eight clean audits and twenty three unqualified audit reports in the province in 2012/13 financial year.
Through Treasury’s intervention initiatives in financial matters, we ensured that information provided for annual performance audit was useful and consistent with the planned programmes. As a result of these we were able to provide what is called in auditing terms information that was well defined, verifiable, specific, and measurable and time bound.
We fully acknowledge that much more still need to be done in this regard, but we also state this in public that our track record so far indicates a clear path towards achieving clean audits. That is why our focus currently is on enhancing key areas of internal controls, ensuring compliance with rules and regulations, boosting financial management capacity and implementing audit action plans.
Fighting fraud and corruption
Madam Speaker; yesterday was the first day of the International Fraud Awareness Week, an initiative of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners which runs from 3 to the 9 of this month.
The International Fraud Awareness Week encourages governments, private sector and employees globally to proactively take steps to minimise the impact of fraud by promoting anti-fraud awareness, detection and prevention.
As government we are fully committed to the fight against fraud and corruption. We have therefore joined this global movement not only to raise awareness but also to find innovative solutions to detect and prevent incidences of fraud and corruption across our system.
This time last year, we established a partnership with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and hosted the International Fraud Awareness Seminar. We used this engagement also to launch a project called the Identity Verification Solution. Its objective is to enhance the accuracy of the payroll system, match bank account details with authentic officials and detect and prevent fraudulent transactions. This project is part of action plans in respond to audit outcomes and is also intended to deal with fraud and corruption.
I am happy to report that to date about 60 000 employees from, amongst others, Gauteng Department of Health, Gauteng Department of Finance, Office of the Premier and the Gauteng Provincial Treasury have had their details verified against organisational structures in the provincial government, the Home Affairs national population register and various banking institutions.
Forensic investigations are currently underway into all employees who did not show up for verification and those with adverse results (No-match on fingerprint and ID number). Since the salaries of these employees have been stopped, the investigation is focusing on banking details and the appointment process on the organisational structure.
This is just one of many key projects that we have launched to deal decisively with fraud and corruption. Collectively, these initiatives indicate that we are committed to urgently work to prevent those who operate with impunity from continuing to pillage the resources that we should use to facilitate growth and development in this province.
Gauteng Funding Agency
Madam Speaker; let me now turn to the Gauteng Funding Agency (GFA), a trading entity of the Gauteng Provincial Treasury. In the year under review, GFA continued to make its experience, skills and competencies available to sponsoring departments and municipalities in Gauteng to interface with prospective external funders. This was evident in the steady increase of GFA’s project pipeline which stood at 15 projects at the end of the financial year with a total value of R22 billion.
It is important to note that the Minister of Public Service and Administration has approved GFA’s application for the entity to become a Government Component.
This development will enable GFA to achieve planned annual targets. This is because the non-achievement of these targets in the 2012/13 financial year was largely due to the protracted process of promulgating of the entity as a Government Component. It will also ensure that GFA deal with its vacancy rate which is currently at 43% and was attributed to the delays in promulgation process. In the 2012/13 financial year, GFA achieved a total of 64% of its planned targets.
GFA has completed most of the feasibility studies, and the challenge at this stage is on implementation of these projects by the owner departments. To address this situation GFA will ensure that service level agreements with sector departments are tightened up and adhered by the department. There will also be continuous consultation with the departments to ensure that any impasse is addressed.
Conclusion
Honourable Speaker, let me take this opportunity to thank the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Finance Portfolio Committee for engaging us vigorously and methodically on our work. Indeed through their wisdom we have continuously improved our operations.
Thank you
