Chief operating officer of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), Willington Ngwepe, commenting on the annual report presented to parliament on 21 October, admitted the Authority has problems but insisted it is making the sector work.
“The report presents an overview of the Authority’s performance for the 2014-15 FY,” he stated. “It paints a bleak picture of the Authority’s performance during the past financial period. The organisation is sitting at a desolate performance rate of 29%, meaning of all the targets we have set for ourselves (at least those on which the Auditor-General measures us against) we only achieved 29%. This 29% is understandable when one considers the key findings by the A-G which are, amongst others:
• that we have underspent on our conditional grants,
• that our performance information is inadequate / unreliable,
• that our internal controls are deficient (including SCM processes), and
• that we have not managed National Revenue Fund (NRF) receivables well.”
Ngwepe went on to highlight some notable achievements in the past year, amongst them a third successive unqualified audit. “Obviously the ultimate aspiration is a clean audit,” he said. “However the fact that the organisation’s finances have been unqualified three years in succession means that the organisation is on the right track. This means we have the capacity to improve on our controls as well as our performance.”
He also emphasised the role ICASA paid in facilitating free and fair national elections during the 2014-15 FY by ensuring equitable treatment of political parties by broadcasters; significantly changed pricing behaviour in the cellular market due to wholesale call termination regulations; and the regulatory framework for the licensing of the
International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) spectrum bands now being firmly in place as a result of the promulgation of the IMT Roadmap and the Radio Frequency Spectrum Assignment Plans (RFSAPs).
“Finally, our performance on day-to-day operational activities undertaken by the people in the organisation in service to industry and consumers are not measured by the AG as they are mainly operational activities and not strategic, keeps the sector functioning,” he asserted. “These include the assignment of spectrum not subject to extended procedures, processing of numbering applications, issuing of type approval certificates, administrative processes relating to licence transfers; amendments; etc. I know there is still room for improvement from a service provision and turn-around time perspective. However, this is the one area where we continue (mostly behind the scenes) to make improvements on a day-to-day basis.”
During the briefing to parliament, ICASA promised that its performance for the current financial year (2015-16) will be far better than the past year, and set itself the target of achieving 65% of its regulatory (and other business) targets.
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