Technical Assistance - TAU - National Treasury

Case Studies of The National Treasury’s Technical Assistance Unit 21
Solly Maluleke, Assistant Director for Sustainable Food Production of the NSNP, commented:
“The programme is aimed at eradicating hunger as a barrier to learning in the schools. Many
children suffer the side effects of malnutrition, such as poor vision. Through the NSNP, these kinds
of issues, as well as nutritional deficiencies are addressed.”
The programme provides a healthy, well-balanced meal to the children, in line with the menu
options as set out by the Department of Health (DoH). The learners should be fed before 10am
on designated days. One of the limitations of the programme is that it serves meals on school
days only and not on weekends or during the school holidays.
Discussion
In 2002, resulting from a cabinet decision, the PSNP was transferred from the DoH to the
Department of Education (DoE). The DoE was given the responsibility to continue with the
operations and implementation of the programme, while the DoH held the responsibility
of monitoring the nutritional standards of the programme. This process entailed shifting
the function from DoH to DoE. The function shift process involved shifting personnel, assets
and funds from one department to the other. According to the cabinet memo, the shift was
expected to be complete and fully functional within the DoE by 1 April 2004.
The National Treasury’s Directorate: Social Services within the Public Finance Division,
requested that the TAU support this process, especially the DoE, in order to prepare for a full
implementation of the programme within the department. The TAU team supported this
process in the following three ways:
• The TAU supported the DoE and DoH in the shifting of the function. The focus was on
working with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and the
National Treasury
• Budget Office. DPSA was expected to shift the personnel from the DoH to DoE, whilst the
• National Treasury was expected to shift the fund allocation from the DoH’s budget to
the DoE’s budget. The funds were provided through a funding instrument, namely, a
conditional grant.
• The TAU supported the DoE to meet the conditions set by the funding instrument, namely,
the conditional grants. The focus was on supporting provinces to develop business plans
for the programme, in order to guide the implementation, monitoring and reporting on
the programme progress across all nine provinces. Each province was expected to present
a business plan for the programme, which is one of the programme’s funding conditions.
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