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4874 [Tuesday, 29 October 2013Board as a Chairperson of the Audit and Risk Committee and this isagainst the King Report recommendations and contravenes goodgovernance principles.The Committee acknowledges that the Department has institutedsome forensic investigations and some cases have been referred tocourts with regard to Implementing Agents and staff members thatwere allegedly involved in fraudulent activities with regard to SRIprojects. However, there is a lack of information on the progress ofthese cases and how much the Department has incurred ininstituting such legal matters.7.3 Service delivery performanceThe Department has set specific service delivery targets in theNational Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS) and the NationalDevelopment Plan (NDP), particularly, that the tourism sector isexpected to contribute 225 000 new jobs and R499 Billion to theGross Domestic Product by 2020. The performance of theDepartment and South African Tourism in the period under reviewindicates that the Department might not be able to reach the settargets by 2020. The Financial and Fiscal Commission reported thatthe total contribution of tourism to GDP in 2012 was R309 billion(i.e. 11% of GDP) and that if it grows at current rate of 1.52 % p.a.,will fall short by R150 billion of NDP target of R499 billion by 2020.The growth rate should be increased to a higher pace to allow theDepartment to meet its 2020 targets.The Department should conduct regular service deliveryassessments, particularly with regard to tracking the achievement oftargets set in NTSS. The Department also needs to apply therecently developed tourism jobs calculation models to determinehow far the sector has gone in developing targeted jobs figures. Thejob figures need to be reported to the Committee regularly to ensurethat Parliament can track achievement of the set job targets.Despite meeting its full-time-Equivalent jobs in the period underreview the department is not doing well in ensuring that sustainablejobs are created. A major departmental programme that could haveyielded more sustainable permanent jobs in the sector is theExpanded Public Works programme. However, most of theseprojects throughout the country are generally not operational andcreation of permanent jobs has been delayed. Non-completion ofthese projects has delayed inclusive tourism growth, particularly forpreviously disadvantaged communities and thus affects livelihood ofcommunities.The Committee notes with appreciation that the Department wasable to comply with the 30-day period of paying service providers.This assists service providers, particularly small business, with theircash flow and to sustain their businesses.ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS NO 147─2013