The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) claims it is expected to complete R400 million worth of work with a budget of less than R300 million.
Meanwhile, politicians are sceptical whether the country is getting value for money from the telecommunications regulator.
Late yesterday, ICASA appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for a second time to present its budget for the 2010 to 2013 expenditure period. It had been stopped on the first occasion, because proper procedure had not been followed.
The members of the oversight committee received ICASA's presentation in a warmer manner than last week. Chairman Ismail Vadi (ANC) concluded the meeting by saying: “This is far better than ever seen by the committee before. I have a sense that there is a small dim light at the end of the tunnel for ICASA and I have no doubt that the committee will approve this budget.”
When ICASA first attempted to present its budget, Vadi threatened that, if the committee did not approve it, then ICASA's staff would not be paid in April.
However, the sense of unease over ICASA's, and especially the council's performance, permeated the question and answer session, with politicians from all parties questioning various items of expenditure, and querying how to judge the authority's, and especially the council's, overall performance.
ICASA chairman Paris Mashile responded: “Regulating the cellular companies is a very time-consuming process. They have big legal departments with some of the best minds in this area. They also bring in big international consultants to deal with us.”
The performance management system for the councillors was also briefly discussed, with Mashile and other councillors saying it was a good document, and they should be signing it with the Department of Communications towards the end of this month.
However, Johnny de Lange (ANC) expressed his doubts about it. “My gut feeling is that this is not a performance management system, but a salary increase mechanism... it adds on points for various objectives that when combined you get bonuses, when this is work that you are being paid a salary for anyway.”
The politicians also questioned ICASA on its focus and how it planned to reduce the cost of telecommunications and connectivity. The answer was that the authority firmly believes competition was the best way to do so, but it admitted that a framework to encourage this was not in place yet.
ICASA councillors also bemoaned that, while the authority was expected to deliver on its objectives, it did not have the resources in terms of staff and money to do so.
“When the ECA [Electronic Communications Act] was drafted, this house rightfully increased the number of councillors from seven to nine; however, it did not give us an increase in the number of staff,” said Marcia Socikwa, one of the councillors.
She said that, for instance, the authority had one staff member dealing with 40 telecommunications licence applications.
The politicians did praise ICASA for some of the austerity measures it had put in place, such as slashing its travel budget by R3 million, to R6 million, through eliminating overseas trips.
However, ICASA CEO Karabo Motlana pointed out that the requirements for these trips would not go away, as there are certain international conferences where it is expected that the country's regulator would be in attendance.
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