[miningmx.com] — PARLIAMENT’S mining portfolio committee said on Tuesday it would summon National Treasury to explain why the Department of Mineral Resources has not been given anywhere near the appropriate amount of money to fill crucial vacancies.
Chairman of the committee, ANC-MP Fred Gona, said the unfilled and unfunded posts were paralysing the department and fuelled notions that government was not doing enough to ensure poor communities were benefitting from the country’s mineral wealth.
“The lack of capacity is the biggest challenge facing the department,’ said Gona. “It is unable to enforce the laws properly, it is only able to react to things.
“We need National Treasury to seriously discuss the matter of capacity.’
In his presentation to MPs on the DMR’s annual report, acting and outgoing Director-General Edson Ragimana said the process of seperating the old Department of Minerals and Energy into two units was difficult and more expensive than originally anticipated.
The department had requested R452m in additional funding for the current financial year. Treasury responded by allocating R10m.
Ragimana said treasury was under pressure to cut spending and reduce debt. This, however, was taking its toll, including a qualified audit from the Auditor General, slow progress on key programmes as well as an inability to fill vacancies.
About 13% of the DMR’s funded posts are vacant, while another 672 posts are vacant and unfunded.
Deputy Director-General Joel Raphaela said unless the department was given additional resources, it would not be able to “evaluate compliance and enforce compliance at appropriate levels’.
Ragimana added that although a structure was in place for a new mines inspection unit, the structure had not yet been filled with “warm bodies’ because there was no money to do so.
“Because of funding challenges we try and use what staff we have to do compliance inspections, but this is not ideal because this impacts on our ability to do other things like finalise and adjudicate applications (for rights and permits),’ said Ragimana.
He said that, for example, the priority given to the setting up of an online rights application system meant the department was not able to develop a revenue management system, as required by the Auditor-General.
