1. The budget review of the Ministry and Department of Social Development was undertaken on 28 and 31 May 2004. It took a form of two briefing sessions by the Department of Social Development. Prior to the briefings, the Committee had the privilege of looking through the Department’s budget document, the recently tabled strategic plans and annual reports. Over and above those the Committee had also had a budget analysis report from the Research Unit prepared for it. This was all done as part of a concerted effort by the committee to meaningfully engage the Department on its budget vote. That objective could however not be realized owing to the following disadvantaging factors:

• Shortly after Parliament’s official opening the Committee was notified that budget vote 19 debate was scheduled for June 03, 2004. That left the Committee with limited time at its disposal to meaningfully scrutinize the budget before the scheduled debate.
• Attempts by the Committee to secure a couple of briefing sessions with the officials from the Department of Social Development on budget vote 19 prior to 28 May 2004 did not bear sufficient fruit as the Department could only avail itself as from 28 May 2004 and thenceforth. In its defense, the department attributed that to the fact that it had, over and above briefing the Committee, also needed enough time to prepare itself for the upcoming June 03’s budget debate.

In the light of the reported limiting factors the Committee would like to call on all concerned to respect the integrity of the budget review process.

The Department reported an increased budget in excess of R40 billion due to the following pressures:

• Envisaged Social Security Agency due to start operating as from 01 April 2005.
• Increased compliance responsibilities for the Department.
• Increased monitoring and evaluation responsibilities for both the line function and finance.
• Increased Audit exposure for the Department.
• Social Workers Retention Strategy.
• Increasing personnel budget.
• Increased focus on Youth development.
• Acceleration of Gender equality.
• Increased International obligations.
• Comprehensive and integrated Management Information Systems.
• Comprehensive strategy and service delivery model for welfare services.
• Capacity for costing new policies and legislation.
• Capacity to monitoring and impact assessment.
• Capacity on social and economic analysis.

3. DEPARTMENT’S OPERATIONAL BUDGET GROWTH

5. DEPARTMENT’S MTEF ALLOCATION BY PROGRAMME

• Discussion document on the policy on financial awards to service providers approved by MINMEC.
• Salaries of social workers in government reviewed and approved by MINMEC.
• Capacity development programme for social service professionals developed and due for implementation.
• Preliminary costing of NGOs’ funded by the department completed.

• Audit of old age homes finalised.
• Proposed legislation on older persons has been introduced to Parliament.
• Recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Committee have been integrated in the legislation.
• Preliminary costing of the legislation has been done.
• Internal investigation done on Frail Care services.

• An audit on existing services has been completed and a draft resource directory is being developed.
• Consultation with other departments initiated.

• Policy framework developed and consulted upon.
• Draft minimum standards for in-patient treatment centres developed and consulted in all provinces.
• A best practice model for a youth treatment centre has been documented.
• Ke Moja awareness campaign was launched in Cape Town and will be rolled out in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
• Central Drug Authority secretariat is in place and functional.

• Numbers of people benefiting per objective of the Poverty Alleviation Programme since 2001/2 to date have increased as follows:

1. The improvement in the case of HIV and AIDS projects was from 2 667 to 12 263.
2. The improvement in the number of young people participating in youth development projects was from 1 045 to 2 471.
3. The improvement in the number of people participating in women’s development co-operatives was from 1 279 to 2 788.
4. Community based dual purpose centres improved the number of the people benefiting from 3 413 to 13 604.
5. Food security projects also improved by increasing the number of people benefiting from projects from 10 692 to 13 604.

• The Programme has been very successful with its targeting mechanisms. At the beginning of the three-year programme approach for poverty relief, the programme successfully identified projects to be funded in the country and met the minimum target of having 30% projects in the nodes of the ISRDP. The Department has allocated over 60% of funds to the three provinces with the most severe levels of poverty i.e. Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpompo.
• An amount of R71 million was allocated to the Deaprtment in the 2003/4 financial year as the final allocation of this programme.
• R43 million of the above allocation is in the process of disbursement to the 416 projects, which will be completed during the 2004/5 financial year.

6. HIV/AIDS

• Provision of child and family welfare services, psychosocial support and statutory services.
• Provision of different options of alternative care for children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
• Provision of nutritional support and addressing other material and psychosocial needs of people living with AIDS.
• Strengthening and supporting the network of community based and not-for-profit organizations to facilitate the rollout of home community based care and support.
• Monitor, evaluate and undertake research to explore successful methods of care and support to people who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
• For the past three years the focus of the Department as far as this programme is concerned has been the protection of children who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. An amount of R6.8 million from the National Integrated Plan Strategy was allocated to the Department of Social Development for implementation of community home based care and support in 2000/1. R13.3 million in 2001/2 and R48 million in 2002/3. The implementation started with establishment of six sites in 2000 and these were increased to 314 in 2002/3.
• The Directorate for HIV and AIDS became fully operational during 2002/3 and has been elevated to a Chief Directorate level from 2003/4. This has facilitated the improved management of scaling up of the home community based care and support programme in the provinces and proper management of the amounts allocated to this programme.
• Increase in the number of identified children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS:

1. 61 582 orphaned and vulnerable children were identified and received appropriate services.
2. 9 787 child headed households were identified and received appropriate services.

• Provision of essential material assistance to identified children and families:

1. 144 703 families were provided with food parcels and 20 945 families were provided with special protein products.

• Provision of alternative care to vulnerable children:

1. 6 375 children were referred for foster care placement.

• 50 per cent of care givers identified from communities, NGOs, CBOs and FBOs, families and volunteers to be capacitated through training and support:

1. 4 215 caregivers were trained on Home Community Based Care and Support programme.
2. 5 988 caregivers are receiving stipend.

• Provision of counseling and support services to children and families:

1. 144 703 were assisted with counseling, care and support.
2. 144 support groups were established and supported.
3. 550 families received bereavement support and burials.

• Increase in the number of co-ordinating structures and partnership for management and maintenance of social welfare to children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS:

1. 169 income-generating projects were linked to home community based care.
2. 212 childcare forums were established.
3. 421 NGOs, CBOs, FBOs and sites were strengthened.

• As part of first pilot project (2002/3 allocation/R230 million), 244 000 households were reached.
• 506 978 households were reached, 31 586 nutrient supplements were supplied and funding to 40 drop-in-centres were provided from the 2003/4 allocation (R388 million).

• The Children’s Bill was approved by Cabinet and introduced in parliament, which subsequently requested the Bill to be split into sections 75 (national competencies) and 76 (provincial competencies). Both sections will be considered in parliament, but section 75 will be promulgated by the President and later amended to incorporate section 76.
• The draft policy framework was developed from the Strategy on the Prevention and Management of Child, Neglect and Exploitation and aligned with Children’s Bill as well as the draft Family Policy document. The draft policy framework will be consulted upon with all relevant stakeholders before implementation.
• The Child Protection Register (CPR) was implemented in nine provinces, good progress has been made with computerization of CPR and negotiations are underway with the national Department of Justice, Health, Education and SAPS on the reporting function of CPR.

• During 2003 the Registrar of Adoptions registered 2207 nationally 200 inter-country adoptions were handled.
• The Department ratified the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoptions. The interim Central Authority for Inter-country Adoptions is being established.
• Child Protection Week mainstreamed into Department of Social Development and broader government processes. The week was co-ordinated and celebrated in 2003 with great success.
• A workshop on ECD was held and refined Guideline document drafted. The latter is ready to go through final approval processes.
• The research on the costing of children’s homes was completed. The research document will help the department and other stakeholders in reviewing policy, planning and budgeting for children’s homes.

• Progress has been made in improving the capacity for the Youth Development and Social Crime Prevention activities of the Department.
• The Department has started engaging stakeholders on the process of developing the Youth Development Strategy. The first draft Strategy will be presented before all stakeholders at a conference, which will be held in November 2004.

• 600 assistant probation officers and probation officers were trained.
• The South African Council for Social Services Professions has accepted the formal application for the establishment of a Professional Board for Probation officers. The first regulations for the establishment thereof have been Gazetted for comments.
• The Application for the establishment of a Standard Generating Body for Probation Officers has been accepted and the Department is in the process of nominating a board to drive the process.
• R20 million donor funding from the Royal Netherlands Embassy was secured for the Department of Social Development’s contribution towards the Child Justice System.
• The Department’s crime prevention programmes have been included in the IJS business plan and this will require regular progress reporting on our indicators.

• A costed strategy to guide the establishment and the management of shelters for women and their children who are victims of domestic violence and who need to move out of the violent home environment.
• A One-Stop Centre for the provision of immediate services to victims of domestic violence was launched in Upington in the Northern Cape.
• An impact assessment of Victim Empowerment was carried out and a tool to monitor the projects was also developed.

• In preparing the nation for the 10^th Anniversary of International Year of the Family, a pre-launch was held in October 2003.
• A plan of action for the International Year of the Family has been developed with stakeholders.
• The research of families in South Africa was commissioned to HSRC, the findings of which are being utilized to draft a family policy with the intent to launch it during 2004.

• A larger volume of research was undertaken on key issues relating to families, ageing, child abuse, fertility trends, reproductive health, especially HIV/AIDS and community development to support policy development and programme monitoring and evaluation.
• The second Country Programme of the United Nations Population Fund, which was launched in 2002 was implemented in ten nodal District Municipalities in the three priority Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpompo. The programme seeks to integrate and align population concerns of various areas within the integrated plans of district municipalities.
• Primary HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Course for government planners was launched and a total of 1628 officials from all spheres of government were trained. An evaluation exercise, assessing the impact of the course was completed and recommendation will be incorporated in the revised courses. The course is implemented in partnership with SAMDI.
• The Advocacy and communication activities included the annual Joint Population Conference (on urban and rural sustainable development) and provincial and national youth workshops on population and development priorities.
• World Population Day was commemorated and a poster competition was held jointly with the UN Population Fund.
• The report on the five-year review of the implementation of the population policy was completed and presented to the Heads of Social Development for discussion.
• Provinces and other stakeholders participated in the development of the country report for ICPD +10, which was presented at the UN Commission on Population and Development in March 2004.
• Meetings of the Southern African Forum on Population and Development were held with the view to revive the forum and prepare resolutions for the next Southern African Ministers Conference on Population and Development.

• The Social Assistance Bill and the South African Social Security Agency Bill were introduced in Parliament during 2003.
• An assessment tool for establishing eligibility for disability grants and care dependency grants was developed.
• During 2003 a demographic and financial model for social security grants was designed.

• The department is proceeding with replacing SOCPEN, the current payment and information system. A transaction advisor was recently appointed to assist in the procurement of a new system. In the meantime the process of enhancing the current system is continuing.
• The department established two additional functions; namely Service Delivery Networks and Institutional Reform.
• The process of designing a service delivery model for social grants is currently under way.

• Negotiations were finalised with DFID for funding.
• DFID SA - R3.8 million, approved proposal. Awaiting sign off by National Treasury.
• The following projects have already started from 01 October 2003:

1. Translation of research into policy.
2. Indicators for social exclusion.
3. Administrative data analysis – Beneficiary mobility and grant take-up.
4. Social policy research capacity review in Government.
5. HDI development programme.
6. KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamic Study (KIDS 3)
7. Social Policy in the context of HIV/AIDS.

1. Service delivery Monitoring

• Development of a social security service delivery monitoring tool:

1. Implementation on National, Provincial, Pay point and beneficiary level.
2. Draft report produced on status of service delivery as a baseline.

• Quarterly trend reports:

1. Trends on take-up conditions of pay points, spending of Provincial budgets etc.
2. SOCPEN data used for trend reports.
3. Mainly used as Management Information.
4. 4 reports were produced.

• Monitoring of back pay project.

1. Detailed monitoring and audit exercise on 2 billion rand back pay project.
2. National and provincial level.
3. Comprehensive report delivered covering audit outcomes and lessons learned for future projects.

• Fraud Hotline Register

1. Development and launch of hotline and register.
2. Calls are reported and are monitored through the register.
3. Register will be rolled out to all provincial departments.

• Auditor Interrogation

1. Data interrogation project on SOCPEN data completed.
2. Vast number of exception reports produced.
3. SOCPEN data matching with other sets such as Home Affairs data, Government Pension Fund etc in process.

• Extent of fraud in Social Security

1. Analysis of known fraud cases in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Limpompo and KwaZulu-Natal.
2. Information from analysis provided an estimated percentage of fraud in the National Social Security System – about R1.8 billion per annum.
3. Report was produced on outcome.

E. REPORTED SECTOR CHALLENGES

• Overriding challenges of poverty.
• Realization of socio-economic rights – putting children first and prioritizing the vulnerable groups.
• Demographic challenges.
• Improving social assistance – limited coverage.
• Pressures on other welfare services.
• Capacity constraints.
• Infrastructure needs.
• Fragmented legal framework.

F. ISSUES ARISING OUT OF THE BUDGET VOTE 19 BRIEFING BY THE DEPARTMENT THAT WARRANT FURTHER FOLLOW UP BY THE COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT:

• EC, KZN & Limpompo Poverty Alleviation Programmes.
• National Food Emergency Programme – follow-up on progress made
• Social Relief of Distress Policy.
• Family Policy Document.
• Child Protection Register - follow-up on progress made
• Procedures to be followed for Inter-country Adoptions. NB. Few SA children are being adopted outside the country and the opposite is true.
• The envisaged Youth Development Strategy - progress made
• The results of the impact assessment of Victim Empowerment - follow-up on progress made
• One Stop Centre for victims of domestic violence that was launched in Upington.
• Plan of action for this year as the Year of the Family (YIF).
• The drafting of a Family Policy Document - follow-up on progress made
• The findings of the Ten Year Review Research report on Population and Development
• The findings of the Report on the Five Year Review of the Implementation of the Population Policy.
• The assessment tool for establishing eligibility for disability grants and care dependency grants – NB. This may also warrant public hearings.
• The findings of the Case Study Report on systems and processes used in Mpumalanga Province for determining the eligibility for disability grants – NB. The Report is due in August 2004.
• The process of designing a service delivery model for social grants - follow-up on progress made
• The development and finalization of an impact-monitoring tool for Social Security - follow-up on progress made
• The finalization of the service delivery model, which includes development of an organizational structure and appointment of personnel - follow-up on progress made
• The finalization of the design and implementation of a service delivery improvement plan - follow-up on progress made
• The finalization of the design of policies, processes and procedures in respect of HR, Finance, IT etc for the South African Social Security Agency - follow-up on progress made
• Financial Policy for NGOs doing welfare service related work - follow-up on progress made

The Committee also expressed its frustration with the Department’s slow pace when it came to finalizing policy on financial awards for NGOs funded by the Department.

In wrapping up the briefing proceedings, the Committee expressed its appreciation and admiration for the way the department officials had conducted themselves notwithstanding the time constraints. In the same vein, it also expressed its displeasure with the fact that after the briefings it still did not know what it had not been exposed to in relation to the budget information. It made a strong appeal to the powers that be, that in future, consideration should be given to giving the Committee enough time and space so as to meaningfully engage the department budget in sharp contrast to the status quo. It decried the continuous disadvantaging pattern of always being expected to be ready and finished with its budget vote program within a matter of days immediately after Parliament’s opening.