Department of Defence Annual Report 2008-2009

| Department of Defence | Vote 19 |
REPORT OF THE ACCOUNTING OFFICER
for the year ended 31 March 2009 (continued)
06/07 AG
ANNUAL
REPORT
REF
RECOMMENDATIONS MADE
IN SCOPA RESOLUTIONS
DATED 8 FEB 08
DOD PROGRESS ON ACTION PLANS
| Financial Performance |
Page 194 a) management furnishes Parliament with a
comprehensive quarterly progress report
with regard to the status of messes and the
cost to feed a staff member per day;
b) the SA Army starts reducing their catering
costs;
Status of Messes per Service:
SA Army (73 messes)
Conventional = 69
Privatised/outsourced = 4
SAAF (21 messes)
Conventional = 4
Commercialised = 17
SA Navy (26 conventional messes)
SAHMS (8 messes)
Conventional = 6
Privatised/outsourced = 2
Cost to feed a staff member:
The current prices (08/09 FY) as determined by the DOD
Hospitality Workgroup are as follows:
Conventional Messes: R58 per member.
Commercialised Messes: 80% of ruling ration price.
Privatised Messes: Each individual contract will
dictate the cost.
The SA Army is experiencing the following problems to
reduce their catering costs at the 69 militarized messes:
Rations are purchased locally by the Support Bases
at different suppliers – ration prices are not xed per
region.
SA Army militarized messes must procure and
maintain its own equipment e.g. cutlery, crockery and
small equipment.
Suppliers deliver produce to Support Bases who then
have to deliver to the different units – fuel and S&T
contributes to higher catering costs.
Structures for the militarized messes are not
approved yet, thus members from other units have
to be detached – allowances and S&T contributes to
higher catering costs.
c) SAAF and the SA Navy re-evaluate the
possibility to commercialize conventional
messes; and
A SA Army Instruction was issued on 31 March 2009 to
all Army units instructing them to implement measures to
reduce the cost of rations. Progress with these efforts will
be monitored by the Army HQ and assistance will be given
where required.
SAAF. Of the 21 messes in the SAAF only 4 are
conventional messes. The SAAF did conduct feasibility
studies at these four messes and concluded that they cannot
be commercialised given their current unique circumstances.
Should the circumstances change at any of these messes
in the future, feasibility studies will again be conducted to
consider commercialisation.
SA Navy. The nature of the SA Navy’s business requires
of all its personnel (including mess staff) to be able to be
deployed operationally and to operate military unique
hardware and equipment. For this reason catering staff and
catering services are essential and integral to the combat
readiness of the SA Navy and cannot be outsourced,
privatized or commercialised.
Annual Report FY 2008 - 2009 234