The critical impact the Community Works Programme (CWP) has on the lives of many unemployed South Africans cannot be overemphasised. As such, it is critical that the department addresses the shortcomings hindering it from flourishing. These were the words uttered by the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Mr Richard Mdakane, during today’s briefing on the plans the department has in addressing challenges associated with the implementation of this programme.
The CWP is government’s employment safety net which provides two to 100 days of work annually to unemployed and under-employed people. It was piloted between 2007 and 2008 and only became fully operation in 2010 as a full government programme within the Department of CoGTA. The programme has about 25 2000 workers across the country, on a stipend ranging from R86 to R113 per month. It intends to have assisted one million participants by 2019.
The comments of Mr Mdakane came as the implementation of this programme had been found to have deficiencies in areas such as financial and compliance management; as well as procurement and contract management, among other things. The Department’s Director-General, Mr Charles Nwaila, says some of the issues the Auditor-General (A-G) found during the 2014/15 financial year involved huge amounts of irregular expenditure incurred and possible fraud. The A-G also found that there was no adherence to government procurement prescripts as it relates to compliance to administrative procedures on bid evaluation and adjudication.
Mr Nwaila assured the Committee that the department was turning the tide. “Immediately after the A-G’s opinion, we commissioned an audit in September of the same year in respect of possible tender and procurement irregularities within the CWP,” said Mr Nwaila.
With regard to the cases of allegations of fraud and corruption by whistle-blowers and management, the department has instituted disciplinary processes against the alleged perpetrators, and has reported some of these cases to the South African Police Service.
The department further said that all matters pertaining to irregular, fruitless, wasteful expenditure and non-compliance to prescripts are currently being investigated to ensure that all the liable people are held accountable – and where disciplinary action is required, it will be taken.
Another issue the A-G found was that the CWP had inappropriate design as a result of the evolvement of the programme since its inception, and related systemic as well as capacity challenges. To this end, Mr Nwaila said that the department was exploring different implementation options and funding mechanisms to address the current design and systematic challenges.
The Committee said it would call the department before the end of the year to assess whether the turnaround action plan and associated time frames were being adhered to. “We are pleased that you have developed a plan to improve the situation. Ours will be to ensure that you stick to this plan, so that this programme and its beneficiaries are not disadvantaged by issues that can be sorted out through effective mechanisms,” said Mr Mdakane.
By Temba Gubula
7 March 2017
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