The National Development Agency (NDA) appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Social Development today to respond to the committee’s questions on how it will address the Auditor-General’s adverse findings against the NDA.

One question asked why the NDA’s financial report reflected staff increases and R5.3 million in bonuses for the current financial year when it does not have a board nor a chief executive officer. The NDA’s Acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Mr Solomon Shingange, replied that staff increases are due to annual salary adjustments and to cater for the filling of vacancies.

When asked why the NDA staff received bonuses, he responded, “This is a provisional amount for bonuses; they are not yet paid out. They would be when staff performance assessments have been conducted, in line with policy.”

According to the NDA’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr Bongani Magongo, the process of nominating the NDA board and CFO is almost complete, but then he said, “The advert for the CEO would be publicised in few weeks or months from now.”

The committee also wanted to know how the NDA monitors and tracks its targets. Mr Shingange responded by saying that the NDA uses various mechanisms, such as quarterly reports and review sessions and oversight visits to grant recipients.

 When asked how many stakeholders received grants thus far, Chief Operations Officer Ms Susan Khumalo said 88 civil society organisations had received funding from the NDA so far. In response to another question about training and skills development, Ms Khumalo explained that the NDA’s training target was 1 800, but had in fact trained well over 2 500 people in project management, resource mobilisation as well as compliance with regulations around running a non-profit organisation and The Children Act.

On questions about the effectiveness of their turn-around strategy, senior manager Mr Ben Morule responded that the NDA is currently looking for a service provider to reconfigure its annual performance plans and key performance areas to ensure they are in line with the NDA’s mandate. ICT has also been remodelled.

Source: Parliament of the Republic of South Africa