According to the regulator’s CEO Mosalanyane Mosala, they can only procure goods and services below R1m. For anything above that, they have to go through the director-general of justice and the procurement committees in the Department of Justice.
Giving an example, Mosala said they had wanted to procure a management system to assist with the resolution of complaints but because it was above R1m, it went through the justice department. There were delays and in the end they couldn’t go ahead with the procurement as the response from the department only came two months before the end of the financial year.
“We then lost the money we had budgeted because we got a decision very late and that impacted on our budget. We had to reprioritise the money for the complaints management system in the new budget,” he said.
The portfolio committee undertook to assist the regulator. Its chair Bulelani Magwanishe said after all these years of raising the issue, the oversight committee has a duty to intervene.
“If you have more than four to five years and this issue of listing is not going anywhere, who would have failed?”
The regulator was not the only institution affected by the listing issue, he said adding that parliament may soon be in contempt of court due to a similar issue with the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services.
In December 2020, the Constitutional Court found that sections of the Correctional Services Act are constitutionally invalid as they undermine the independence of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, an oversight body that investigates the treatment of inmates.
The court said the inspectorate should be structurally and operationally independent from the department to execute its mandate.
Magwanishe said his committee will meet the Department of Justice, the regulator and parliament’s legal services with the intention to draft a committee bill on the listing matter.
“It’s a firm proposal I am putting to members, that we should start preparing for a situation where we are going to have a committee bill that would ensure that these independent institutions we have created are truly independent,” he said.
“They are not accountable to the departments, they are accountable to the National Assembly, and if parliament fails to protect them, then we are failing in our duty.
“We would be developing a bill that will amend the PFMA to the extent that it would allow independent institutions to operate as independent institutions. If we rely on the finance minister we may not have it soon.”
Magwanishe said as a parliament committee it was within their powers to develop a committee bill. “We have asked for meetings but they have not materialised. We need to deal decisively with this issue.”
This is not the first time the contradictions between the PFMA and Popia have led to an administrative deadlock in the regulator. The entity couldn’t appoint staff as government departments had different interpretations of the two laws as it pertained to the institution.
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Information regulator demands recognition of its independence
Image: Freddy Mavunda/Business Day
Parliament’s justice portfolio committee wants to amend the Public Finance Management Act to give independent bodies such as the information regulator true independence from government departments.
The information regulator, a statutory body tasked with the enforcement of the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia) has since its establishment complained about a contradiction between Popia and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Chair of the information regulator advocate Pansy Tlakula told the committee on Wednesday her institution was incorrectly listed and should be an independent institution in terms of the law.
She said the listing issue could be blamed for the regulator not achieving some of its targets especially in finance and procurement.
“We wrote to the minister of finance and made a concrete proposal requesting him to amend the PFMA to include the information regulator in the definition of constitutional institutions. We did not receive any response,” said Tlakula.
A meeting of officials from the regulator’s office and National Treasury didn’t go well as “they took us back to the discussions that we had in 2016, that the information regulator must be listed as a national entity in terms of schedule 3 A of the PFMA ...”
Tlakula said this goes “totally” against Popia , the provisions of which state the regulator is independent and reports to the National Assembly.
She said the listing was impacting the institution “in many ways that affect our efficiency”.
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According to the regulator’s CEO Mosalanyane Mosala, they can only procure goods and services below R1m. For anything above that, they have to go through the director-general of justice and the procurement committees in the Department of Justice.
Giving an example, Mosala said they had wanted to procure a management system to assist with the resolution of complaints but because it was above R1m, it went through the justice department. There were delays and in the end they couldn’t go ahead with the procurement as the response from the department only came two months before the end of the financial year.
“We then lost the money we had budgeted because we got a decision very late and that impacted on our budget. We had to reprioritise the money for the complaints management system in the new budget,” he said.
The portfolio committee undertook to assist the regulator. Its chair Bulelani Magwanishe said after all these years of raising the issue, the oversight committee has a duty to intervene.
“If you have more than four to five years and this issue of listing is not going anywhere, who would have failed?”
The regulator was not the only institution affected by the listing issue, he said adding that parliament may soon be in contempt of court due to a similar issue with the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services.
In December 2020, the Constitutional Court found that sections of the Correctional Services Act are constitutionally invalid as they undermine the independence of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, an oversight body that investigates the treatment of inmates.
The court said the inspectorate should be structurally and operationally independent from the department to execute its mandate.
Magwanishe said his committee will meet the Department of Justice, the regulator and parliament’s legal services with the intention to draft a committee bill on the listing matter.
“It’s a firm proposal I am putting to members, that we should start preparing for a situation where we are going to have a committee bill that would ensure that these independent institutions we have created are truly independent,” he said.
“They are not accountable to the departments, they are accountable to the National Assembly, and if parliament fails to protect them, then we are failing in our duty.
“We would be developing a bill that will amend the PFMA to the extent that it would allow independent institutions to operate as independent institutions. If we rely on the finance minister we may not have it soon.”
Magwanishe said as a parliament committee it was within their powers to develop a committee bill. “We have asked for meetings but they have not materialised. We need to deal decisively with this issue.”
This is not the first time the contradictions between the PFMA and Popia have led to an administrative deadlock in the regulator. The entity couldn’t appoint staff as government departments had different interpretations of the two laws as it pertained to the institution.
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