Immigration Service Delivery and Staff Shortages; Qualified Auditor General's Report; Security at Lindela Detention Centre

Meeting report

HOME AFFAIRS PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
13 September 2003
IMMIGRATION SERVICE DELIVERY AND STAFF SHORTAGES; QUALIFIED AUDITOR GENERAL'S REPORT; SECURITY AT LINDELA DETENTION CENTRE

Chairperson: Mr Chauke (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Department of Home Affairs Strategic Plan 2005/06-2009/10 ( available at www.home-affairs.gov.za)
Department of Home Affairs PowerPoint Presentation
Standing Committee on Public Accounts hearing on 25 May 2005

SUMMARY
Members had a briefing from the Department of Home Affairs on its Strategic Plan, the corrective measures it had taken on issues raised by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and security issues at Lindela holding facility. The Department had set up the Border Control Co-ordinating Committee to harmonise relations amongst the Southern Africa Development Community countries on migration matters. Officials had been appointed to deal with the backlog of refugee applications. The Department's Information Technology had embarked on the automation of birth, death and marriage registration and had contracted a service provider for data warehousing purposes. Security issues at Lindela had been addressed by employing more personnel, who would be working full time at Lindela. Compliance with the Public Finance Management Act was one corrective measure taken to address issues raised in the qualified Auditor General's report . The implementation of the Basis Accounting System (BAS) system was another corrective measure.

Members concerns included the lengthy time to resolve the cases of suspended officials, the reason for the lack of mobile units in rural areas, the Department's poor communication lines and inadequate reporting and the long delay in issuing smart cards. The Committee was irritated at the absence of certain departmental officials at the meeting.
 
MINUTES
The meeting was supposed to start at 9am but was delayed due to the non-appearance of SITA and GPW officials. On opening the meeting, the Chairperson commented on the non-presence of these department officials, saying that there had been a need for all departmental delegates to attend this oversight meeting because the issues which were to be discussed were inter-linked. There was a need to identify problematic areas and sort them out for the sake of the country's security. It would be fruitless to continue with the meeting while some of the delegates were not present in the meeting.

Mr Sibande (ANC) suggested the meeting be adjourned. The Standing Committee on Public Accounts had raised serious issues with the Department on 25 May 2005

Ms S Kaylan (DA) said she was disappointed with the lack of respect accorded to the Committee by the Department. There was no reasonable explanation given by the Department for their behaviour. It was unacceptable for the officials to be late. She seconded the motion to adjourn the meeting.

Mr Sikhosana (ANC) suggested that the meeting should continue with those who were present.

Ms N Gxowa (ANC) suggested that the Chairperson should deal accordingly with those who were late or did not come. She seconded Mr Sikhosana's suggestion.

The Chairperson said that the reason these various units had been invited was that they were all invoived in the production of identity documents and the meeting would enable interaction amongst them themselves and the Committee. He had invited immigration officers to demonstrate how documents were faked and exported, the State Information Technology Association (SITA) was responsible for producing Identity Documents (ID) and the Government Printing Works (GPW) was responsible for mass production of the IDs. South Africa was under siege by illegal immigrants, who had acquired false documents. In villages around the country Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and even Russians were running businesses buying "our people out" using false documents. Meanwhile South Africans were trapped in the second economy. In the Northern Cape a Pakistani syndicate was operating an outfit that organised illegal marriages to South Africans. It was absurd for the GPW not to come when invited by the Committee. However the meeting should continue with those who were available.

Department of Home Affairs - Cape Town briefing 
Ms M B Mgxashe Provincial Manager Western Cape, said that illegal activities were committed every day by human traffickers, money launders and drug dealers. Those things happened because of people who had no patriotic love for their country and were prepared to do anything for money The Special Assignment expose on television had significantly reduced the confidence of the Department of Home Affairs in law enforcement officers. There was a need for adequate payment of civil servants so they would not be easy prey to bribery and corruption. Despite the problems, the Department had made significant progress in many areas.
 
Mr Danie Malan, Senior Immigration Officer: Inspector Cape Town, said that there had been a significant increase in the arrest of foreign nationals who were trying to leave South Africa with fake passports. He gave the example of an incident in July when a courier company in Maitland, Cape Town called in the police to investigate a suspicious looking parcel, which was destined for Cameroon. The reason for the suspicion was that the parcel was valued at R2 000. All courier companies were required by law to inspect all parcels of new customers. On Monday the 27 July 2005, TNT official opened the box and there were two pairs of ladies shoes with a price sticker of R199 and one handmade pair of shoes. The overall content of the parcel could not be more than R600. The soles of the handmade shoes was removed and a fake South African passport and an ID for a male were found inside. Both documents were good fakes, with a departure stamp that was post-dated the 30 July 2005. It indicated that the person in the passport had left South Africa. The two Cameroonians who had delivered the parcel were arrested. They were later released on bail of R1000, and were required to report to the Department of Home Affairs every day. The maximum sentence for such an offence was four years without a fine.

Chairperson's comments
The Chairperson reiterated that all units involved with the production of identity documents from the date of application to the issuing of the document had been called to attend this meeting. The Department, SITA and the Government Printing Works were all blaming each other or simply passing the buck. The Committee had to try to find a solution to the problem. . The South African birth certificate did not have a single security feature. Smart cards had been due to be issued from the beginning of July 2005 and the smart card pilot project in KwaZulu-Natal had been due long before that. He could not understand why there was only one immigration officer on duty at Johannesburg Airport while there were up to five plane-loads of people needing to be serviced. Also the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) would have to brief the Committee on issues that were raised by Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA). If those issues were not addressed then the Committee would recommend that the CFO should be fired.

Director General's briefing
Mr Jeff Maqethuka, Director General: Home Affairs, said that he and his delegation could not respond on the presentation made by the Cape Town Immigration Officers because it was not reported to headquarters. The fact that the evidence which was supposed to be in court had been touched by members of the Committee was problematic. He disassociated himself from the comments made by the Department's Provincial Manager who said that "the Department finds it difficult to trust the police". He felt that it was wrong to make such a statement and such issues had to be dealt with by the police. There were clear reporting channels that were supposed to be used by all officials.

The Department had not been aware that SITA was supposed to be part of the meeting. There was no time  for one party to blame the other. It was the collective responsibility of all the parties involved to sort out the problems. Some of the issues the Department had been called to explain were still under police investigation, and discussion of these would jeopardise the investigation. The Department was doing all in its power to solve the problems. Up to 67 Department officials had been suspended in sections such as finance and logistics , plus 15 more officials had been suspended in senior posts. A report would be provided to the Committee at the appropriate time.

The DG replied that he did not attend the previous Committee meeting because was that he was instructed by the Minister to attend a meeting of Southern African Development Community in Gabarone, Botswana. Its purpose was to draft the South African Development Community (SADC) Draft Protocol on the Free Movement of People. The South African delegation had managed to push.

Discussion
The Chairperson said that if the Department had been invited in writing, he expected the Department to respond in writing and explain why they would not be able to attend. Members had travelled from different corners of the country specifically for that meeting.

The DG commented that It had been decided that 2006 would be the year envisaged for the launch of the smart cards. Ministers who travelled a lot had complained that their passports were used up within a very short time. The Department was not sure whether to print a hundred-page passport or issue two to three passports to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Chairperson reminded the departmental delegation that for this meeting the Committee had targeted immigration service delivery and staff shortages. For example, the whole of the Free State provincial department had to rely on only one vehicle. Immigration Officers were afraid to go outside in some cases  because the "intermediaries" for the bribes were threatening their lives. The Committee expected to hear about steps taken to rectify the situation. The Chairperson said he appreciated the confidentiality concerns of the DG on issues which were still under investigation. However it was necessary to brief the Committee without disclosing the details. For example, the Committee had had 70 questions for the former DG, but he had never answered them. Members expected the Department to come up with solutions to the problems.

Ms T Cele, Deputy Director General: Service Delivery, replied that the reason that the Free State had only one car was that they had been waiting for a delivery of vehicles. A bottleneck had been caused by unavailability of the Burgundy colour required by the Department. Different car manufacturers had different Burgundy colours. It was the same with uniforms, they were still waiting for the manufacturers to deliver these.

Ms Kaylan said that the excuse of colour did not hold water compered to the problems the Department is facing.

The DG said there was nothing special about the Burgundy colour, it was chosen purely for new image purposes.

Briefing by Department on Service Delivery
Ms T Cele, Deputy Director General: Service Delivery, started the presentation that the department had prepared (see document). She said that the Immigration Amendment Act of 2004 had been promulgated and published on 27 June 2005. The aim of the Act was to correct the most urgent deficiencies as an interim measure pending a complete rewrite of the Act. On the matter of border control, the Department had been chairing the Border Control Co-ordinating Committee (BCOCC). The aim of the BCOCC was to harmonise the legislation within the SADC and individual countries to achieve effective border control. On the matter of effective law enforcement, the Department had been working with the South African Police Services and the National Prosecuting Authority on cases related to offences of the Immigration act.

To solve the management of refugee services, 64 interns had been contracted to deal with administration and the updating of the filing system.  The Department had appointed four researchers and 84 refugee reception officers, 114 Refugee Status Determination Officers, 19 interpreters and four site co-ordinators. The issuing of the new Smart Card for refugees had started in Port Elizabeth in August 2005. The new Incident Reporting System (IRS)  went live on 1 June 2005 for the capturing of all documentation which related to refugees. Its aim was to gather and collate incident data and worked as an early warning system for Immigration Officers. A Draft Counter Xenophobia Strategy had been developed. The aim of the Strategy was to create awareness of practices that project elements of xenophobia. That had been done in conjunction with United Nations High Commission on Refugees, NGOs and local communities.

Discussion
Mr Mashile (ANC) said that there were serious problems with communication between Head Office and the provinces. He wanted to know what steps had been taken fill the vacant posts. The Department would always come up with good budget proposals, but they were unable to spend the money. He wanted to know why the Department needed only four researchers to service the whole country. Also, the Department was not bold enough about communicating their victories to the public hence the negative perceptions.

Ms Cele said she appreciated Mr Mashile's concern and the Department would definitely improve their communication strategy with the public

Ms Kaylan was concerned by the DG's remark that the Maitland fake passport and ID incident had not been reported to Head Office and thus he could not comment on things that had not been reported to him. Also she felt there was nothing wrong with the Committee touching the fake ID and passport circulated by the immigration officers. She asked for the number of vacant posts for Immigration Officers and what had delayed the filling of those posts.

Ms Cele admitted that there was a need to train more immigration officers and their contingency measures were not working according to plan.

Ms Gxowa (ANC) asked the purpose of suspending people on full pay for very long periods. What would be the work of the Xenophobia unit? She was concerned about the appointment of only four researchers. There was a need to build proper border posts for border monitoring.

The DG replied that the borders were a complicated issue. He cited the case of Swazi school children who had been attending school in SA, the learners had to cross the border daily. It was not realistic to require passports every time they crossed the border to attend school. The work of the researchers would be to provide information on countries from where the asylum seekers came.. The four researchers would be deployed in four major centres, the number was used as a pilot maybe later more would be appointed.

Ms Cele said the BCOCC would help in eradicating the capacity and infrastructure problems.

The Chairperson enquired about the length of the suspension period of the Lindela Deputy Director General and others.  He also commented that he was surprised to see some immigration officers still wearing the old uniform.

The DG replied that some staff investigations could sometimes take more than two years, but the ideal time would be a suspension period of 60 days. The leadership of the department would provide capacity to those directorates that had had their leaders suspended.

Ms G Gcina (ANC) said about the mobile one-stop-shop Department offices had launched some time ago. She said that in the rural areas of Eastern Cape people had to travel long distances because the mobile offices were not available to service those areas. She complained that in Port Elizabeth people had to wait for hours while Department officials were in endless meetings.

Ms I Mars wanted to know the progress on Smart Cards.

Ms M Maunye said that the citizens of Lesotho who wanted to cross the border to South Africa were required to produce identity papers which could be easily faked by anyone. She wanted to know whether the Department was interacting with the Department of Justice to sort out that problem.

The Chairperson suggested the introduction of immigration courts that could deal specifically with such problems. Some of the personnel in courts were not competent enough to deal with immigration law. He cited a case where a magistrate had had to read directly from a textbook in court.

The DG said that any cases that went to court were supposed to be reported to Head Office. Sometimes magistrates would dismiss cases on the grounds that they were not prosecutable, other time the magistrates did not have adequate knowledge of immigration law.

Mr P Sibande asked what was done to deal with workers who had done overtime voluntarily with the aim of doing acts of corruption. The DG replied that the police were monitoring crime and corruption in immigration offices. Another strategy envisaged by the Department was to regularly rotate personnel to different areas.

SITA Briefing
Mr K Hlahla, DDG Government Information Technology Officer (GITO), said the department was faced with capacity problems of filling eight critical posts. They agency been involved in the citizen registration campaign. Other critical issues included promotion of national security and protecting the rights of the citizens. SITA had completed the automation process around births, marriages and deaths. The Department had contracted a service provider for data warehousing. A joint tender between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department had been awarded for the connectivity of foreign offices. SITA would be contracted to deliver certain aspects of that solution.

Discussion
The Chairperson said that they would still invite SITA for a further meeting in the next session. He asked why the Department staff did not regularly wear their name tags. The mobile units should reach out to the rural areas and correct the incorrect information on the IDs. Contract employees should either be employed full time or be trained to be integrated.  The re-deployment of officials did not always work, citing an example of a Pietermaritzburg senior official who said he was working for the Department of Foreign Affairs and therefore was not happy to be working for the Department of Home Affairs. That impacted heavily on service delivery. About 5 million people in Soweto were dependent on one small office.

Ms Cele said that name tags had been issued to officials, but some officials were refusing to wear them regularly.

Ms O Diseko, DDG Corporate Services, replied that the Department was in the process of filling all the vacant posts which had been advertised. All managers would undergo training.

Mr Sibande said that it would be useful to bring services closer to the people, not only in Soweto and Khayelitsha.

Mr Skhosana wondered what could be done to solve the problem of people who had five fraudulent birth certificates and were drawing child support grant on each from the Department of Social Development.

The Chair asked about the difference between the call centre and client service centre.

Ms Cele replied that a call centre was usually a telephone number that one could call 24 hours a day. The client centre worked for certain hours and you could visit the consultants who manned them.

Security Issues and the Issuing of Contracts
The Chief Financial Officer, Mr Pat Nkambule said that the contract issued by the Department for the running of the Lindela Holding facility would expire in November. Bosasa was the current service provider. The tendering process for a new contract had been undertaken and it was supposed to be finished by the end of September 2005.

The Chairperson noted that some religious leaders had criticised the conditions at Lindela without basis. The Department should make people apply before they could inspect the holding facility. When the Committee had visited Lindela, the facility was functioning smoothly. The committee members had enjoyed the food that was served to the people waiting to be repatriated.

The CFO said that they had even invited the Human Rights Commission to inspect Lindela.

Issues Raised By Auditor General
The CFO, Mr Pat Nkambule said that SCOPA had issued a warning based on the qualified report of the Auditor General for two years in a row. The Department and Bosasa the service provider at Lindela had not been co-operating adequately. The Department had then started to operate at Lindela 24 hours a day. This enabled illegal immigrants who arrived late to be processed.

He acknowledged that there had not been a dedicated internal audit component. However corrective measures had been taken and they were compliant with the Public Finance Management Act. The Department had also implemented the Basic Accounting system (BAS) systems in all targeted 146 offices on 31 July 2005

In concluding the meeting, the Chairperson said the Committee wanted to work with the Department in a meaningful way.