Parliament, Wednesday, 18 September 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture received briefings from the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Agricultural Research Council (ARC), Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), and the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) on their service delivery and financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2023/24 and the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.
The committee welcomed the reports it received from the department and entities yesterday. The reports focused on their performance on specific programmes, highlighting targets and financial expenditures in the first quarter of the financial year. The committee heard that budget cuts have been a challenge, resulting in high staff turnover and the loss of skilled and knowledgeable officials, especially at ARC and OBP, where scientific knowledge and technical equipment are required.
During the engagements, the committee welcomed progress where targets were met but bemoaned areas where there was less or no progress. The committee was also unhappy about the lack of consequences when officials who are implicated or under investigation for financial irregularities and other fraudulent activities simply resign and manage to get employment at other government departments or entities.
The committee called for stringent measures to ensure implicated officials face the law and where monies have been lost, such are recovered. The Director-General (DG) of the department told the committee that although the former Minister of Finance pronounced in the budget speech in 2021 the employment of 10 000 additional extension officers, no appropriation of money was made to implement this. He was responding to concerns over the department’s failure to absorb the assistant agricultural practitioners.
He said agriculture is a concurrent function, meaning that it is also a provincial competency. However, provinces don’t have enough budget for the appointments, which requires R2.4 billion.
On the lack of market access by historically disadvantaged farmers, the committee heard from the NAMC that the problem is insufficient coordination between roleplayers in the sector. The NAMC envisaged that the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan would provide a platform for better coordination and ensuring previously disadvantaged farmers access markets.
Minister of Agriculture, Mr John Steenhuisen, told the committee that a meeting was held between the department and OBP. He assured the committee that the ministry is committed to taking action against errant officials and has requested the department for reports on all investigations. He said the department is also committed to working with OBP to help the entity regain its former glory and be on the cutting edge in combating animal diseases. The Minister made an undertaking that the ministry, the department, and the OBP would meet to discuss the issues raised by the Auditor-General and develop a comprehensive plan for a way forward and monthly reports with timelines.
The committee Chairperson, Ms Dina Pule, appreciated the Minister’s commitment to consequence management and the good reports the committee received from the department and its entities. She said the committee wishes the Minister and the OBP Board good luck in ensuring that the entity is positioned on a new trajectory to meet its mandate.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, MS DINA PULE.
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