HEARINGS ON ANNUAL REPORT

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HEARINGS ON ANNUAL REPORT

PRESENTATION TO PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE

19 October 2005

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OUTLINE VISION & MISSION INTRODUCTION STRATEGIC OVERVIEW & KEY POLICY DEVELOPMENTS HIGHLIGHTS ON 2004/05 ACHIEVEMENTS

BRANCH: SOCIAL SECURITY BRANCH: INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT

FINANCIAL PERFOMANCE OVERVIEW OF FINANCIAL RESULTS AUDIT OPINION

CONCLUSION

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VISION & MISSION VISION

A caring and integrated system of social development services that facilitates human development and improves the quality of life.

MISSIONTo ensure the provision of comprehensive social protection services against vulnerability and poverty within the constitutional and legislative framework, and create an enabling environment for sustainable development. The department further aims to deliver integrated, sustainable and quality services in partnership with all those committed to building a caring society.

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Introduction In the year under review we endeavoured to give effect to

our vision and mission through addressing the complexities and the multiple dimensions of poverty by: Extending social grants to the most needy including children,

older persons, disabled persons and other vulnerable groups; Focusing on finalising the legislative and policy frameworks that

govern our operations through new policies and legislation which include the Older Persons’ and Children’s Bills;

Restructuring and re-strategising to gear the Department for a new role in expanding welfare and developmental services; and

Contributing to work of the Clusters of government, as a co-chair, to ensure the delivery of Cabinet priorities

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Introduction The success of our endeavours are reflected in that we:

Expanded our capacity and delivered on our international obligations; Provided the requisite leadership to the provincial departments; Registered over 1,3 million beneficiaries; Improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the grants system; Effectively started to eliminate fraud, corruption and improved targeting; Introduced critical pieces of legislation into Parliament; Completed the financing model for welfare funding, Developed a new service delivery model for welfare and developmental

services; Expanded care & support to people affected & infected by HIV & Aids; Enhanced capacity of the Population Unit to provide research support; and Coordinated development of comprehensive social security system;

The following slides provide the details of these initiatives

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Strategic overview & key policy developments

Overview of service delivery environmentPoverty & unemployment continues to challenge the

social development sectorConsequently, social assistance continues to dominate

our budgets and spending trendsCrowd out effect on other social developmental

servicesFraud & corruption on social grants continue to

challenge the department despite efforts to eradicate it

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Overview of service delivery environment-cont Impact of HIV & AIDS & other social ills demand that focus

shift from social grants to social welfare & other developmental services

Support given to NGOs is still fragmented & unpredictable Exodus of social services professionals, specifically social

workers, to other professions & other countries continues unabated

Disparity in conditions of employment of social workers in government and those in NGO sector is a major challenge

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Overview of organisational environment- contThe centralisation of the social assistance function

presents an opportunity for the restructuring national & provincial departments & re-directing of focus to other social development services

Both national & provincial departments continue to have capacity challenges

Current number of social workers is insufficient to deal with the social challenges resulting from poverty, unemployment and HIV and AIDS

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Response to challenges A new social development service delivery model has been

developed A retention strategy for social services professionals has been

crafted Salaries of social workers in public service have been reviewed &

plans are put together to deal with the NGO sector as well The new financial awards policy aims to address the funding of

NGOs & other service providers Fraud strategy for social grants is beginning to pay dividends in

all provinces and an overall savings is projected by end of year.

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Key policy developments Integrated development

Service delivery model & financial awards policy Children’s & Older Person’s Bills in pipeline Minimum standards for in-patient drug treatment centres

approved Draft policy on substance abuse Comprehensive review of drug master plan underway The process of reviewing the prevention and treatment of Drug

Dependency Act No 20 of 1992 has commenced

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Key policy developments-cont Integrated development-cont

Draft policy on victim empowerment & victim’s charter

Draft policy framework for orphans & vulnerable children

Draft Policy Framework and Strategy on Child Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation completed

ECD guidelines finalised

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Integrated development-contThe Child Protection Register (CPR) has been installed

in seven provinces and the process of upgrading and installing database is ongoing.

Draft policy for people with disabilities as well as draft integrated policy for the transformation of protective workshops have been developed

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Key policy developments-contSocial Security: A position formulated on responding to age equalisation of old age grant Research and proposals on deductions from social grants was completed The demographic and financial model for social security grants was

updated in line with Census 2001 data. Completed a detailed study on socio-economic impact of social grants We could not complete work on:

Research into needs of the disabled; Relationship between grants and private insurance; Spatial analysis of social grants impact, especially on females; Spatial and individual panel survey of impact of social grants

Limited staff capacity & agency work detracted from some of these initiatives

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Social Security Achievements

Grants Administration Design application, verification and approval processes Norms & standards blueprint implementation plans completed, but

reduction of cycle times delayed due to limited human resources – could not implement 1:800 staff to beneficiary ratio.

Reviews of disability grants progressed with over 180 000 completed, savings in excess of R200 million, however delays in KZN, Mpumalanga and Limpopo;

Child Support Grant reviews behind schedule as focus was on disability

Some success in reviews of foster care as grants are now lapsed at end of financial year

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Integrity improvement plans implementing data detection of fraud Extension of 9 and 10 yrs at 98% of success rate Coverage of eligible persons over 90% complete for all grants A total of 9,4 million beneficiaries were in receipt of grant as at March

2005. About 1,4 million increase in coverage Compliance with conditional grant framework achieved R3,2 billion transferred to provinces as conditional grant for CSG

eligibility criteria & conditions for grant uniform in all provinces The main challenges were:

• lack of dedicated capacity to implement project at National & Provinces• Lack of required birth certificates for registration of children

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Social Security AchievementsGrants Information and Payments Systems Process to replace system deferred pending finalisation of

the transformation processes incl Agency establishment Maintenance of IT systems not sufficiently improved as

limited capacity resides in the department Implementation of data clean-up initiated Socpen enhancements being carried out on an ongoing basis System accessibility and availability significantly increased

through technology roll out

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Social Security AchievementsService Delivery Infrastructure- A spatial distribution model for pay points

completed, implication is that the department now has a plan for the set up of pay points,

- Shift occurred in use of financial institutions from target of 20% exceeded by 1%. The cost saving is significant as 2 million people now use banks and Post Office, saving millions of Rands per annum

- Over 30% of pay points meet all the norms and standards – this could be more as the audit was a sample

- Next phase in the office distribution model

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Disaster Relief Time taken to assess disasters within 48 hrs 70% of applications processed within 3 months and

payments Blue prints developed for processing applications to reduce

time taken Institutional reform necessary for disaster relief given the

matters of accountability- Draft Bill has been developed - awaiting inputs and tabling In the meantime the Department has developed policies

for distribution of emergency relief provision

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Social Security AchievementsAgency establishment Cabinet approved implementation plan and blue print of the shape and

form of the institution Legislation in place and institution now a legal entity Staff employed in support functions & national imple-mentation

coordinating body set-up as Guiding coalition Enhanced strategic management capacity in the

Department A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the

Minister and the MEC’s towards the end of financial year In terms of the targets, the Department is on course

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Service Monitoring and Evaluation The Department has a fully fledged M&E system with

extensive measuring system covering over 10 Key Performance Areas and 110 Key Performance Indicators

A comprehensive report on the quality of service delivery at a national and provincial was compiled, as well as monthly and quarterly monitoring reports are produced.

Value for money was assessed through assessing the impact of Social Security grants on the lives of the beneficiaries.

Work was undertaken to establish evidence base for the development of pro-poor social policy in partnership with DFID with donor funding of over R40 million

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Compliance: Fraud Prevention and detection Capacity greatly enhanced in the Compliance Unit Data interrogation done in 9 provinces and detected fraud, including

that of over 41 000 civil servants. Fraud hotline was launched, reporting over 15 000 cases. Indemnity offer made to the public with over 86 000

responding, savings estimated at over R400 million Department partnered with SIU to deploy over 200

investigation experts over next two years Reviewed 150 000 cases of temporary disability saving R200 million

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Overall Social Security Gains Setting up the Agency limited our efforts to ensure

implementation of all commitments made Within social security policies, good work has been done

despite some targets not achieved Within grants administration, delivery targets achieved,

especially on registration of those eligible for grants On service assurance objectives significant gains were

made in monitoring and evaluation, but more especially within the area of detection and reduction of fraud

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Integrated Development Achievements The SA Council for Social Services Professions as well as

the Professional Boards for Social Work and Child and Youth Care have been reconstituted and are now representative of the demographics of the country.

The national conference for Social Services Professions was held in partnership with the Council.

Ke Moja Project which is a drug abuse prevention programme targeting the youth was launched in the Western Cape

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Integrated Development Achievements Service Providers in two provinces trained on management of

substance abuse Youth best practice treatment model for substance abuse developed

and consulted in the provinces Guidelines for transformation of services to older persons have been

finalised and are being printed for distribution. Frail Care guidelines developed and consulted awaiting approval. A SA Plan of Action on Ageing is currently being developed. The department jointly with SAMDI has developed a capacity

building programme on disability issues for managers

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Integrated Development Achievements The Department participated in the development of a draft

integrated ECD strategy in collaboration with the DOE and DOH.

124 Inter-country adoptions registered The department is implementing the Probation Services Act

No 116 of 1991 as amended. 1000 children have benefited from the home-based

supervision programs 750 Probation Officers received training in restorative

justice and probation principles 76 Assistant Probation officers received in-service training

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Integrated Development Achievements New Secure care facilities in GP, WC, EC and KZN

completed to be operational during 2005/6 Standard Generating Body has been gazetted and will

begin its work in 2005/5 A curriculum for the 2 year Assistant Probation Officers’

training course – first of its kind in SA- completed in October 2004

More than 30 000 children diverted from the criminal justice system.

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Integrated Development AchievementsService Delivery Implementation The Department’s participation in the Integrated Justice

System Program resulted in the removal of 300 children from DCS, SAPS and DOSD facilities into alternative care programmes

Various youth development initiatives and outreach programmes implemented by the dept. These include Youth Month roundtable discussions, Youth Day Commemorations, National Volunteer Week, take a girl child to work campaign

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Integrated Development Achievements Commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the international year of the

family. Research on families in South Africa completed in Dec 2004 VEP minimum standards for Integrated Service Delivery approved and

distributed to stakeholders A National Resource Directory on Services for victims of violence has

been distributed to provinces and other role players 16 Days of no violence against women launched in Bizana 150 Soc Dev Professionals trained on SA Charter for victims of violence 3rd draft of the integrated strategy on Victim Empowerment has been

developed An impact assessment of Victim Empowerment was carried out and a

tool to monitor the projects was also developed.

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Integrated Development Achievements Draft community development contextual document

promoting the understanding of the concept and facilitating the process of mainstreaming the community development approach has been completed.

The Department with technical assistance from DFID and EU has developed the social sector plan for the institutionalization of EPWP.

Curriculum for the National Certificate in development practice was developed in partnership with DPLG.

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The Department facilitated the collation of the country report on the Copenhagen report which served as guidelines for discussion in the 43rd Session of the Commission for Social Development in New York.

The study on the assessment of the impact of the NPO Act on the sector was undertaken and completed.

6 830 NPOs registered and issued certificates during the year under review

11 169 new applications received and processed

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Integrated Development Achievements Capacity building programme for NGOs an CBO

responsible for HCBC and support has been established with support from DFID

LoveLife Groundbreaker partnership programme has been expanded to include farms and the informal settlements and it has been linked to the EPWP in relation to HCBC and Support. 80 groundbreakers trained and placed in community based centres.

HIV and AIDS training programme for govt policy makers and planners reviewed and implemented

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Integrated Development Achievements 57 community based multipurpose centres have been

established and funded 352 organizations have been funded during the

year under review 6976 care givers have been trained 107 child care forums established Research on the monitoring of the HCBC projects,

in collaboration with the DOH has been finalized

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Integrated Development: Challenges Delay in the finalization of the NFES tender process and

the decision on the continuity of the programme impacted negatively on the implementation of the programme

Backlog of the registration of the NPOs Capacity to do Monitoring and evaluation of programmes Lack of service standards/norms standards which results

in lack of uniformity in the delivery of services. Limited human resource capacity

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Financial Performance Department continues to put effective controls to improve

financial management Implemented the new supply chain management (SCM) policy Restructured the finance unit in response to social assistance

function shift & SCM In-year monitoring instruments developed for conditional grants

Audit Committee & Internal Audit Unit continue to add value towards achievement of objectives

Department spent 98% (R4, 513 billion of the total adjusted allocation of R4, 598 billion

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Financial Performance Major underspending was on Programme 3: Grant

Administration mainly due to:Funds for social security improvement received only in

November 2004 in the adjustment budget and limited period available for provinces to put up plans to implement “Operation Isidima” as it is called.

The phasing out of the establishment of the Agency over 3 years as opposed to fully operational entity by 1 April 2005

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Findings of the Auditor-General Once again department received an unqualified audit

opinion Emphasis of matter on the following:

Non- compliance with DoRA Underspending on conditional grants Insufficient project management controls on Poverty Alleviation

funds held at IDT Non-compliance with NPO Act, 1997 Short-comings in the SOCPEN system

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Management responses to AG Non- compliance with DoRA

The capacity of the Department is being enhanced starting with finance unit

Conditional grants put on the agenda of HSD and CFO meetings

Agreed to give regular quarterly feedback to MINMECQuarterly reports now submitted to Treasury & Select

Committee in NCOPOverall capacity in provinces remains a big challenge

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Management responses to AG Underspending on conditional grants

Major underspending was in EC & Free State on CSG National targets set are being reviewed in line with 2001 census data Collaboration with Home Affairs & Justice is beginning to show

improvements Other underspending in Food Emergency Grant

Tender processes finalised in 6 provinces before year-end and EC, KZN & WC now finalised in new year

Programme terminated due to non-sustainability & complexity

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Management responses to AG Insufficient project management controls on Poverty

Alleviation funds held at IDT Discussions held with IDT and agreed on exit plan which will

ensure, amongst others, the spending of remaining funds Financially & economically viable projects will be migrated to

SMME projects, in collaboration with DTI Impact assessment to be finalised before end of the year

Non-compliance with NPO Act, 1997 Research study done on impact of the Act Future strategy to manage NPOs will be recommended to Minister

soon

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Management responses to AG Short-comings in the SOCPEN system

Department is already, as part of the SOCPEN enhancement strategy, working with SITA to deal with the shortcomings identified by the Auditor-General, including the development of a disaster recovery plan

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CONCLUSION Poverty and HIV & AIDS continue impose challenges for

the sector Integrated approach with other departments & other

stakeholders, especially NGOs & FBOs is critical Proactive and preventative steps are very critical in dealing

with these challenges Capacity of the government to respond to social challenges

need to be given priority attention Partnerships with private sector and NGOs are critical

success factors

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THANK YOU

HEARINGS ON ANNUAL REPORT

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