The overspending on Inventories arises from the unexpected demand for printing material for public awareness and the increased usage of stationery as a result of the increase in cases and productivity.

The overspending on External Audit Fees results from the additional audit -related services performed by the Office of the Auditor-General. Such services included technical advice on the preparation of the annual financial statements, attendance at audit committee meetings, consultation with internal auditors, etc. The overspending is supported in view of promoting compliance with the PFMA.

Overall, within the office's only programme, there has been no overspending.

Audit Report

For the previous financial year, 2001/2002, the office received an unqualified audit report, with an emphasis of matter on irregular expenditure incurred during the 2000/2001 financial year.

The office has subsequently received ex-post facto approval for this expenditure.

The office aims at maintaining this standard and obtaining an unqualified audit report for the 2002/2003 financial year.

The office is also awaiting approval from SCOPA in respect of R640 000 in unauthorised expenditure incurred in 2000. Once again, this "unauthorised expenditure" was fully explained in the annual report of 2000/2001. To date, however, this matter remains unresolved at SCOPA.


2. PROGRAMME AND SERVICE DELIVERY


2.1 Expansion of Office

During the 2002/2003 financial year, the three remaining Provincial offices were opened in

Northern Cape (Kimberley)
Free State (Bloemfontein)
Limpopo (Polokwane)

These are modest offices and will increase in size depending on public demand and cases. The staff complement usually comprises:

Provincial Representative
Investigators
Admin Staff


2.2 Public Awareness Campaign

The office received R359 660 from the Royal Danish Embassy (DANIDA) in December 2001. Most of the expenditure was incurred during the 2002/2003 financial year, with the remaining surplus being refunded to the donor in March 2003.

Most of the funding was geared towards training workshops for employees of government departments and of relevant NGOs, and printing of related materials.

This project represents Phase 2 of the Public Awareness Campaign, with Phase 3 representing the evaluating and assessment phase.

The office wishes to use the value derived from the above to undertake major public awareness campaigns in the future.


3. HUMAN RESOURCES

During the 2002/2003 financial year, the office appointed the following members of staff in the various offices:

Investigator Polokwane (Limpopo)
Admin. Clerk Bloemfontein (Free State)
Typist Bloemfontein (Free State)
Provincial Representative Polokwane (Limpopo)
Public Protector Pretoria (Gauteng)
Secretary Bloemfontein (Free State)
Messenger Pretoria (Gauteng)
2 Investigators North West
2 Investigators Cape Town (Western Cape)
Investigator Durban (KwaZulu-Natal)
2 Investigators Bisho (Eastern Cape)


4. CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS

4.1 Appointment of personnel

A work study investigation was conducted by the Department of Public Service and Administration for my office and, based thereon, it was recommended that additional posts be created in the existing establishment in order to manage the backlog and projected increase in investigations. Such recommendation was approved as per the organisation and post establishment blueprint. This blueprint is currently under review.

As a result of the delays experienced in the appointment of the Deputy Public Protector, as well as the delays in securing suitable office accommodation in some of the Provinces, it became necessary to delay the appointment of the much-needed investigative and support staff.

The following personnel could not be appointed, and will now be phased in over the next financial year.

Deputy Public Protector
Finance Manager
Human Resources Manager
Training Officer
Investigators

The services of these key personnel would have contributed to improved service delivery.

4.2 Implementation of IT Infrastructure

The office appointed SITA (State Information Technology Agency) to set up its IT infrastructure. Although much progress has been made towards the establishment of information systems to monitor and control human resource and finance functions, implementation of a Wide Area Network is yet to be completed.

Due to capacity constraints, SITA was unable to implement the systems and this caused delays in the service delivery within the office.

D. STATISTICAL OVERVIEW: 1 April 2002 to
31 March 2003


Number of cases received for investigation

The following is an overview of the workload that the office of the Public Protector has received for the period 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003:

Cases received and finalised:

Cases carried forward from 31 March 2002 3 784
(National office)

Cases carried forward from 31 March 2002 7 141
(North West Provincial office)

Cases carried forward from 31 March 2002 942
(Eastern Cape Provincial office)

Cases carried forward from 31 March 2002 719
(KwaZulu-Natal Provincial office)

Cases carried forward from 31 March 2002 350
(Western Cape Provincial office)

Cases carried forward from 31 March 2002 172
(Mpumalanga provincial office)

Total: 13 108


PERIOD NEW CASES RECEIVED

Grand Total: 15 680

PERIOD CASES FINALISED

Grand Total: 21 707
Cases carried forward to April 2003 2 563
(National office)

Cases carried forward to April 2003 1 817
(North West Provincial office)

Cases carried forward to April 2003 662
(Eastern Cape Provincial office)

Cases carried forward to April 2003 853
(KwaZulu-Natal Provincial office)

Cases carried forward to April 2003 147
(Mpumalanga Provincial office)

Cases carried forward to April 2003 444
(Western Cape Provincial office)

Cases carried forward to April 2003 58
(Northern Cape Provincial office)

Cases carried forward to April 2003-05-07 97
(Free State Provincial office)

Total: 6 641


E. FINANCIAL YEAR 2003/2004


5.1 BUDGET

In the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), the office had requested that a budget of R57 961 000 be made available to undertake all existing and envisaged activities. However, only R47 404 000 (including the R4 000 000) was approved and allocated. This leaves the office with a shortfall of R10 577 000.


5.2 ALLOCATION OF FUNDS

The allocated budget of R47 404 000 will be utilised as follows:

Personnel Expenditure R35 114 809
Administrative Expenditure R 7 682 858
Inventories R 1 264 500
Equipment R 1 266 000
Professional and Special Services R 2 025 800
Miscellaneous R 50 033

Total R47 404 000

(Refer to Annexure "2")


5.3 PROGRAMME FOR THE CURRENT FINANCIAL YEAR

5.3.1 Expansion of Service Delivery

The office will concentrate on resolving cases more quickly, whilst maintaining quality. Furthermore, it will concentrate on outreach programmes, with the assistance of donor funding.

It also plans on filling the mentioned vacancies in terms of its approved establishment blue print.


5.3.2 Information Systems

State Information and Technology Agency (SITA) will continue with the implementation of the Wide Area Network for the office. In addition hereto, SITA will also be tasked to re-write the current case file database to enhance overall efficiency. The office is also in the process of launching its own website with the assistance of SITA. With the planned expansions, the information system of the office must be improved to meet the needs and ensure service delivery.

SITA will be contracted to ensure the necessary resources are available.

5.3.3 Public Awareness Campaign

The office is attempting to secure donor funding to ensure a large scale national public awareness campaign is undertaken. It also wishes to ensure that continued sustainability is maintained and that the changing needs of the public are addressed.

Should donor funding not be obtained, the office will continue with minor, ad-hoc, campaigns, provided that the existing caseload is not prejudiced.

5.3.4 Rural Outreach Programme

The office of the Public Protector is relatively unknown to a large sector of our population. The Public Protector Act enjoins that the office of the Public Protector must be accessible to everybody. While all provinces now have provincial offices, people in the rural areas still remain in the dark, and the poorest of the poor have no full access to the office of the Public Protector.

A robust and extensive outreach programme will be embarked upon in the following manner:

(a) Appointment of Provincial Co-ordinator

A Provincial Co-ordinator, based at head office, will be appointed to co-ordinate all activities of Provincial offices, including rural outreach programmes. The post has already been advertised and an appointment is due to be made within two months. The post is at the level of director. Ideally, the post should have been at that of Chief Director, however budgetary constraints do not permit creation of such a rank at this stage.


(b) Every Regional / District Council area will have a minimum of one visiting point /clinic. (See Annexure "3")

(c) Statistics will be collated during such visits and, where possible and feasible, District/Regional Offices, similar to those in the North West will be established over a period.

(d) Paralegals will be appointed at Provincial offices to undertake visits to clinics. Employment contracts will be for one year, renewable for the next three years.

(e) Negotiations are at an advanced stage with the European Union for a sponsorship of about R30m over a period of three (3) years to fund this programme. The office budget will gradually be amended and adapted to take over funding of this programme after three (3) years.

(f) Identified Traditional Offices, churches and schools will be utilized to disseminate information about the office of the Public Protector and the services it renders.

(g) Each Provincial Representative will designate an individual investigator to co-ordinate the rural outreach programme within the province.

5.3.5 Employment Equity Act: Implementation

(a) The Employment Equity Act has not yet been fully implemented in the office of the Public Protector. Notices for failure to comply have already been served in the Eastern Cape and North West Provincial Offices of the Public Protector. There appears to be no tangible reason why this Act was not implemented.

(b) Two investigators have been appointed to drive the process of implementation of the Employment Equity Act and they are now at an advanced stage of fully implementing the Act. The slight delay is due to the lack of office policies as set out hereunder.

(c) Office policies in the main are not in place and thus make it impossible to implement the Employment Equity Act. It is intended that where there is no office policy on a particular matter or issue, the Public Service policy in place will take precedence in order to bridge the gap until such time as our own policy is formulated.


5.3.6 Skills Development Act

(a) This Act has also not been implemented in this office. Once again, no tangible reasons have been advanced for this failure.

(b) There is therefore no training policy in the office. Staff are not undergoing, and have not undergone any form of training and, if it happened, it must have been long in the past and on ad hoc basis.

(c) With such a lot of poorly qualified administrative staff in the office, training has become urgent and imperative.

(d) A post of the Skills Development Officer will soon be advertised and filled before the end of the current financial year.

5.3.7 Human Resource

(a) The human resource division within the office of the Public Protector is not fully capacitated and does not function to its full potential. It is for this reason that there are no office policies in place, performance contracts for managers are not in place and no training programme is in place at all. In some instances, poorly qualified staff have been employed and no training programmes have been put in place to address this shortcoming. In some instances, cleaners earn more than some secretaries. Some secretaries earn much more than some investigators.

(b) A much more senior post at a level of a Deputy Director or Director must be urgently advertised to harmonise staffing problems in the office of the Public Protector.

5.3.8 Communication

Communication strategy is central to the office of the Public Protector. The outreach programme referred to above will fail if it is not underpinned by a sound communication strategy. Presently there is no communications officer. An assessment is being conducted as to the appropriate level of this post. It is envisaged that this post will be filled at the latest by the beginning of the 2004/5 financial year.


5.3.9 Library

(a) A library is at its elementary stages of growth and is located at the head office of the office of the Public Protector. It is envisaged that, once the library is fully equipped, a fully qualified librarian will be appointed. A library is an essential ingredient to speed up research and investigation of complaints, particularly in order to assist provincial offices that have no library facilities at all.

(b) Presently, the office relies on the library in the Department of Justice. It is, however, imperative that the library in the office of the Public Protector be fully equipped to meet the increasing demand from provincial offices.

5.3.10 Investigations

(a) Investigations constitute the core function of the office of the Public Protector. Investigators in the office of the Public Protector are spread and constituted as in annexure "4".

(b) There is an unprecedented delay in investigations of cases. Some investigations have been concluded many years later when everybody has forgotten about them. Findings and recommendations are thus of no value or use in such circumstances. The adage ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ is of equal importance in the office of the Public Protector. The office rises and falls on these core functions.

(c) To ensure that this core function is carried out optimally, the following steps are envisaged and will be implemented:

A specialised investigative task team will be appointed from amongst investigators to carry our specific investigations in high profile matters, complicated matters and, in certain circumstances, matters of an urgent nature.

A team leader will be appointed from amongst such investigators.


All investigations will be consolidated and co-ordinated by the present assistant Public Protector / Assistant to the Public Protector as Principal Investigator. The latter will ensure that all investigations are carried out with the necessary expertise and within acceptable timeframes. The approval and passing of legislation for the appointment of a Deputy Public Protector makes the position of assistant Public Protector redundant.

A Think Tank consisting of Chief Investigators, the Provincial Co-ordinator, the individual investigator dealing with a matter being debated, two investigators from Head Office and the Public Protector, sits to scrutinise and verify investigations before a final report is drawn up and, of course, before the Public Protector make his/her final decision on a matter. The purpose of the exercise is to ensure accuracy of decisions and reporting by the Public Protector.

There are other matters and issues requiring attention. However, only the more serious and urgent one's have been included in this report.


6. CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS

6.1 Appointment of personnel

The office has embarked on a process to fill the following vacancies (in terms of the approved establishment blueprint) in phases between 2003 and 2006. Some of the vacancies have already been advertised and the interviews are to be conducted in due course.

2003/2004

Deputy Public Protector
Provincial Co-ordinator
Provincial Representative: Northern Cape
9 Investigative staff
5 Administrative staff


2004/2005

13 Investigative staff
4 Administrative staff


2005/2006

14 Investigative staff
1 Chief Investigator

By adopting this phased approach, the office has been able to sustain the carry through costs for these posts.

6.2 Proposed Salary Adjustment

On 27 May 2003, I met with Minister of Finance, Mr Manuel, to resolve this long-outstanding matter. However, this matter remains partially unresolved and is the subject of further negotiations. It has, however, been agreed that the funds that were initially earmarked and committed to effect back pay on salaries would now be re-prioritised and utilised to promote and expand service delivery in the current financial year.


F. CONCLUSION



Although the office of the Public Protector has grown substantially, it remains a priority to achieve accessibility for South Africa’s still largely illiterate, indigent and rural community.

The impact of the work of the office extends beyond ensuring the rights of particular individuals. Rooting out the legacy in government of the apartheid years of arrogance, secrecy and corruption is a task still to be completed. It is in this regard that the office of the Public Protector is of critical importance in the transformation of the Public Service into one that is worthy of the name – one that is dedicated to, and effective in, implementing the democratic mandate of better governance.

For all these reasons, one is conscious of the enormous responsibility that finds itself in the office of the Public Protector.

It must be stressed that the office is careful not to take on any investigation that does not fall within its area of jurisdiction. It is however not in a position to choose its projects in the sense that it cannot turn away a citizen with a complaint. It has to deal with all matters received.

In conclusion, I wish to thank the Honourable Chairperson and all of the committee members for their unconditional and valuable support in recognising the importance of my office and assisting it in its quest to enhance service delivery to the people of South Africa.