Chapter 2 - P rogramme 1 - Department of Defence

| Chapter 2 - Programme 1: Administration |
BankServ: The payment requirement as prescribed
by the Payment Association of South Africa resulted
in the Department developing an electronic link
between Defence and BankServ.
Public Finance Management Bill: The Financial
Management Division actively participated in
evaluating, and directed changes to, the Public
Finance Management Bill.
Defence Special Account Act: The repeal of the
Defence Special Account Act, 1974 (Act No. 6 of
1974), is under consideration.
Safety Net: Additional requirements in the
Safety Net project to eliminate fraud in the
bank management environment necessitated an
enhancement to the departmental policy on bank
management.
Revenue Management: The revenue management
policy has been subjected to extensive revision and
will be promulgated during FY 2008/09.
Function Transfers and Tariff Management: A
policy on function transfers and tariff management
has been completed and will be implemented during
FY 2008/09.
SUBPROGRAMME ACQUISITION
SERVICES (DEFENCE MATÉRIEL)
Overview
The mandate of the Acquisition and Procurement
Division, which is referred to as the “Defence
Matériel Division” (DMD), is to acquire both defence
and commercial matériel and services for the DOD.
Defence matériel and services are acquired through
Armscor as prescribed by the Armscor Act, 2003
(Act 51 of 2003), DOD policies and procedures.
The DMD directs and manages the acquisition
and procurement of DOD-specified matériel and
technological requirements, guides strategic defence
industrial capability development and maintenance
as well as international defence matériel cooperation
initiatives, in accordance with the laws, national
prescripts and objectives.
The Defence Matériel Division is committed to
satisfying the day-to-day requirements of the
Department of Defence. General Defence Account
(GDA) funds are spent according to corporate
priorities to ensure cost-effective solutions to
requirements.
Annual Report FY 2007 - 2008
| Department of Defence |
46
The vision, mission and corporate values of the
DOD as well as the broad strategies, programmes
and objectives of governance guide the Division in
the execution of its mandate. The plan is also a subset
of the Defence Matériel Division Strategic Business
Plan (SBP) and forms part of the Department of
Defence (DOD) Level 1 Strategic Plan.
The principal task of the Defence Acquisition
Management Chief Directorate is to satisfy the
Category 1 armament requirements according to the
force design of the Department of Defence through
its acquisition agency, the Armaments Corporation
of South Africa (Armscor), as prescribed in DOD
policies and the Defence Review. The Defence
Acquisition Management Chief Directorate reports
directly to, and is accountable to, the Chief of
Defence Matériel (C Def Mat) in the Defence
Secretariat. To at all times ensure that it supports
the task of Accounting Officer of the DOD, the
Def Mat Div was assigned as the nodal point for all
interaction between the DOD and Armscor.
In support of the abovementioned functions, the
South African National Defence Force (SANDF)
must ensure its future in armament and armament
support capability through meaningful technology
development. The ability to do local design
development must be maintained to ensure that
the Defence Matériel Division and Armscor remain
knowledgeable buyers in the weapon system fields. A
minimum capacity to do systems integration should
also be maintained in local industry. Furthermore,
the Division must ensure a strategic local industrial
capability whilst it is ultimately responsible to the
Services/Divisions for the functionality of systems
that are delivered.
Well-qualified personnel (military and non-military),
formal procedures, integrity as well as a sincere
client orientation are the cornerstones of success for
the Division. As mandated by the White Paper on
Defence and the Defence Review, the Division has
ensured good governance in the DOD procurement
system by rolling out the E-Proc System, which
made the bidding and pricing system user-friendly
and transparent. This has remarkably improved the
service delivery as required.
The Division has made tremendous strides in
fulfilling its mandate of supporting Defence-Related
Industry; in the year under review it undertook four
trips to two different countries with representatives
of the industry and even solicited the assistance of
the Minister and Secretary for Defence, who both