Plans to ensure financial viability of the IDT

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) had made the Independent Development Trust (IDT) redundant. This was the view expressed by the Portfolio Committee Chairperson during the deliberations in Parliament after the IDT had unveiled its turnaround strategy to ensure its financial viability in the short to medium term, and going forward. The Chairperson said Members of the Committee were not surprised by what had transpired in the meeting. The Department appeared to have no confidence in the presentation made to the Committee because it did not want to be seen to be encroaching on the territory of the ministry or the IDT. There was no reason to engage with the IDT because it was not functional and quorating, and it was not going to be able to discuss what had been raised by Members of Parliament because it was answerable to no one. She said IDT should not even have appeared before the Committee. She questioned if the Department had done anything to assist the IDT in ensuring it was getting its money from clients before telling Parliament about the matter. She felt the DPWI was not doing its best, and was of the opinion the Minister had been misled and Members would realise this later. What the IDT had presented to the Committee was contradictory to the negative comments that were coming from the public about the entity. The Department said it had assisted the IDT with a R334m budget, and had been asking the entity to make financial projections. Unfortunately, it could not assist the entity with its projected budget in this current financial year because there were no savings from the Department to assist it. It also indicated that the vacancies that had arisen on the board had caused friction between the IDT and the Department in dealing with the matter, and this had been brought to the attention of the Minister because the tenure of the board was coming to an end at the end of July this year. The Chairperson of the IDT board said the board was not quorate and had not been able to meet and discharge its duties because of the member who had resigned last October. A letter had been written to the Minister for guidance. The board had to have 12 members, two of which were ministerial appointees. The other ten trustees were appointed through government processes that had to be followed. Now there were seven trustees remaining. The proposal was that the Minister should make ministerial appointments to fill the vacancies so that the entity could do its work. He indicated they were worried about the allegations levelled against the IDT, and suggested there should be an investigation into its internal control processes. The IDT presented its turnaround strategy for the 2024/25 financial period to address interventions for short-term financial shortfalls and its medium-term financial viability. Among current challenges, it said project planning and project funding were affected by major factors such as misalignment between project budget requirements and approved allocations; poor or insufficient feasibility assessments; project cancellations/terminations after budget allocation; budget cuts; delays in funds transfer; and re-prioritisation of projects by client departments when an instruction had already been issued to the IDT to implement. Debtors were owing the entity R537m, while R54m of management fees were due to it. The entity was in the process of submitting old debtor listings to the Minister as part of the intergovernmental dispute resolution mechanism. Members commented that there were contradictions between the Department and IDT regarding the submission of its financial statements, which were the subject of a dispute with the Auditor-General. They wondered why the Minister was said to be requiring legal advice on board members appointed by the previous Minister, because he had the power to ensure the board remained functional instead of letting it become inquorate and not able to do its work; asked if the quarterly review and performance meeting had actually taken place; and enquired about its financial resources and how the IDT was planning to do its work. They also remarked that it was strange that the DPWI was one of the departments that owed the IDT money, and suggested it should be the first client of the IDT to be named and shamed for not servicing its debt.