No punishment for govt ministers

Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma has signed performance agreements with specific outputs and targets with all his ministers, but sidestepped the question of what, if any, consequences there will be for poor or non-performance.

Speaking during the presidency’s budget vote speech in parliament, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane explained that these performance agreements would not be used as a stick.

“The primary purpose of the performance agreements is to serve as a management tool and not as a punitive mechanism. The agreements enable the president to provide us with an indication of the key issues that he would want us to focus on, and his expectations of our performance in this regard. 

“The performance agreements commit us to work together with all spheres of government, to better achieve the outcomes,” said Chabane.

These performance agreements would now inform more detailed delivery agreements being hammered out between ministers and their provincial and municipal counterparts.

The agreements, Chabane said, will refine the outputs and targets and include action plans with clear roles and responsibilities.

While Chabane conceded that the state has not “performed as optimally as we desired” since 1994, and while he stressed that the service delivery protests were proof of this, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe used the parliamentary debate to highlight how government performance was being hampered by the fact that parliament was battling to hold the executive to account.

The relationship between MPs and cabinet ministers, he said, was not what it should be.

Motlanthe said that MPs were not always up to speed when it came to holding cabinet ministers to account and ministers had to understand that they needed to treat parliament with more respect.

This, he said was especially the case when it came to answering questions posed by MPs - a crucial tool for the legislature to hold the executive to account.

“I wish to reiterate that parliamentary oversight as provided for in the constitution is crucial and should be rigorously observed. I am aware that as there are new members of parliament and new ministers, challenges have arisen that are perceived to be affecting the relationship between parliament and the executive,” said Motlanthe.

While Motlanthe’s remarks drew applause, he did not address concerns raised by parliamentary committees like the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), which say they are frustrated because action is seldom if ever taken against ministers or senior officials when mismanagement is exposed.

- Fin24.com