Parliament, Friday, 22 November 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Women Youth and Persons With Disabilities engaged the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) today on its handover report as the current NYDA Board's term comes to an end, and on the appointment of an interim Board by the Minister of the Department of Women, Youth and Persons With Disabilities.
During the engagement, the Chairperson of the committee, Ms Liezl van der Merwe, expressed concern about the late submission of the handover report, which runs over 350 pages.
She said: "It really impedes oversight for us as a committee and I don't think it is proper to expect Members of the committee to interact with a report with 365 pages long that they received this morning. I think we will have to defer the report to a later date."
Ms van der Merwe noted that the committee was not informed about the vacancies of the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer at the NYDA, and it was not informed about plans to appoint an interim Board.
She added: "We were not brought into confidence and I want to alert the committee or remind members of the committee about the fact that we met with the department in October and we were not brought into confidence about the vacancies nor about the plans for an interim Board to be put in place."
On the appointment of the interim Board, Ms van der Merwe said: "I think we need to be brought on board on when the decision was taken to put in place an interim Board, and the communication of that to the President,” emphasised Ms van der Merwe.
The committee resolved to wait for a legal opinion on the process followed by the Minister on the appointment of the interim Board. The committee noted with concern conflicting information it received from the NYDA and the parliamentary legal advisor regarding communication to the Office of Institutions Supporting Democracy about the impending end of the current board's term.
Regarding the audit findings for the 2023/24 financial year, the committee wanted to get an update around the issue of the qualified audit findings and it wanted to establish measures that were put in place to address these audit findings. The committee asked the NYDA to provide audited financial statements on its performance and impact, particularly in rural areas and for people living with a disabilities.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON WOMEN YOUTH AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, MS LIEZL VAN DER MERWE
For media inquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Yoliswa Landu (Ms)
Cell: 081 4974694
E-mail: ylandu@parliament.gov.za
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