Department continues to fail our military veterans

The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by the DA’s Shadow Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Shahid Esau MP, during the Budget Vote on Defence and Military Veterans.
The Department of Military Veterans (DMV) consistently fails to deliver benefits and services to the majority of Military Veterans (MVs).
The Department has spent 85% of its budget for the 2016/17 financial year. It spent 100% of its Administration budget but only 78% on Socio-Economic Services and 83% on Empowerment and Stakeholders Management – the actual benefits and services to veterans.
This amounted to underspending of R91 million. The previous financial year, the DMV underspent by more than R233.6 million, money that could have been used for MVs.
The Department also achieved only 10 out of 19 performance targets – a miserable 53% in comparison to the 100% achieved on salaries.
Yet, one of the Department’s shortcomings, is its inadequately skilled employees. It is a known fact that the Department’s employees lack the requisite skills, experience and qualifications.
Only 133 out of 169 posts in the Department are filled. However, this Department employs 77 additional staff as interns and contract posts – a total of 210 employees.
Yet, it fails to deliver on its mandate. In fact, the Recruitment Policy and a Skills Audit are only now being considered for approval. In addition, a new organogram is under consideration with a permanent staff complement of more than 200. Yet, the DMV is already overspending on salaries by 0.6% and this increases year on year.
How do you reconcile these matters?
This Department did not deliver on its committed items as planned, with due consideration to the Adjustment Budget. Consequently, there was a lot of over and underspending, particularly in Education, where 4000 bursaries increased to 7212 in the 2016/17 financial year.
The target for Education bursaries is 4500 in 2017/18 financial year, according to Estimated National Expenditure (ENE). However, this target is recorded as 8700 in the Annual Performance Plan (APP) for the current financial year. How will this be sustained when education, generally, is achieved over the medium to long term? The Department’s response is to “take it upon itself to reprioritise”. Do you expect fiscal discipline from this Department?
How does this Department reconcile the provision of healthcare when it “will have a negative influence in order for the Department to fulfil its mandate to the fullest” and the amendment of the Military Veterans Act 18 of 2011 “will play a significant and critical role with inclusion of the dependants of Military Veterans in all benefits”?
This, while by its own admission, the Department’s budget “remains insufficient to fully fund Education Support and Healthcare Services”.
The Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) described the Department of Military Veterans as the worst performer in the 2012/13 financial year.
This is now described as a new indicator.
The Internal Audit has been reduced by 37% for this financial year. This is a critical component in addressing the issues of Governance, Compliance and Risks (GRC).
Issues of fraud are currently being investigated and the previous Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who was the whistle blower in irregular matters, left under a cloud of suspicion.
However, this Department placed a target of Level 3 or Key Performance Area (KPA) 3 for its MPAT. Under these circumstances, it is totally unrealistic. We anxiously await the outcome of the MPAT Report.
Do you know that the Supply Chain Management (SCM) Deputy Director and the Supply Chain Management (SCM) Contract Director will only be appointed this year? The Department admits that Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) are non-existent (decreased by 26%).
The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis by the DMV is much appreciated. The only problem is a number of contradictions in the analysis, like “Information to the Public” as a Strength and “Public Communication” and “Lack of Public Knowledge about Military Veterans” as a Weakness and Threat respectively.
This is further corroborated by one of the DMV’s main concerns of “inability to implement governance of information, communication and technology”. This High Impact Communication and Marketing Strategy continues to be elusive.
A number of contradictions also exist between the Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) and APP in terms of amounts and targets. An example is the Compensation of Employees, where the ENE states R13.8 million whilst the APP records R12.8.
Targets of the National Military Veterans Database have been adjusted for previous financial years, as compared to those targets in the actual APP’s for those years. This is inaccurate, inconsistent and misleading.
The verification of Database set at 90% is a serious challenge with the number of concerns that require being resolved in order to achieve integrity, validity, reliability and accuracy of data, including the demographics of the Military Veterans, as reported in the APP. These demographics include “unknown”, “undeclared” and “foreign” categories and 3 989 as under the age of 35 years.
The Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) remain a challenge, as well as Housing, Burial Support, Transport, Military Pension, Skills Development and ICT.
We anxiously await the effects of the Turnaround Strategy Initiative (TSI) and the Improvement Plan. Otherwise, a sound, effective and efficient DA administration will certainly ensure freedom, fairness and opportunity to all Military Veterans.