Border agency wrinkles nearly all ironed out, says Home Affairs

Source: Business Day, 20/09/2016

HOME Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni told Parliament`s home
affairs committee on Tuesday that the department was close to ironing
out its differences with other departments over the contentious Border
Management Authority Bill.


The bill envisages the establishment of a border management authority
to take responsibility for the country`s various ports of entry,
complete with customs function and armed, uniformed personnel.


Other departments, namely Police and National Treasury, have pointed
out the overlap in function the authority could create.


Treasury came out to defend the position of the South African Revenue
Service (SARS) as the collector of revenue from customs, while the
South African Police Service (SAPS) sought clarity on how personnel
would work with SAPS personnel at borders, if at all.


ANC-aligned labour federation Cosatu raised concern about the
potential ramifications of placing employees of the authority outside
the public service, and demanded that there be no outsourcing of the
authority`s functions.


Business Unity SA (Busa) was concerned about the cost of setting up a
completely new entity under the Department of Home Affairs at an
unfavourable time for the country`s economy, when revenue streams are
dwindling and the threat of sovereign credit rating downgrades looms,
with implications for the country`s ability to borrow.


Apleni said discussions with Treasury had clarified the key concern
about SARS`s functions in customs once the authority is
established.


He echoed Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba`s sentiments from last
week. Gigaba said his department had no desire to take over SARS`s
role of collecting revenue.


"SARS and Home Affairs are still engaging on the bill. We have found
points of agreement. There will be a split of the customs law
enforcement for Home Affairs and the revenue collection will remain
with SARS. This is still under discussion with SARS," Apleni
said.


He pointed out that the bill was subjected to a Nedlac consultation
process, where many of the areas of concern that departments had
recently brought before the committee were not even raised as points
of disagreement.


Apleni said that when considering the structure of the authority, the
department considered various models of state-aligned bodies and
eventually settled on the "public entity" model for the
authority.


This means the authority would be a government vehicle without a
board, functioning under the minister`s authority and accounting to
Parliament about its strategic targets and annual reports.


"It will not be owned by someone externally. It must be located under
a single executive authority. It is not going to be under the control
of someone from outside the state. We feel this should be sufficient
to put Cosatu`s concerns to rest," he said.


Portfolio committee chairman Lemias Mashile said the department still
needed to hold further engagements, especially with Treasury and SAPS.
He said synchronising the functions of various agents managing borders
was critical to mending the state of the country`s "porous"
borders.


Apleni said the department had conducted international study tours on
three other continents to investigate international best practice
models for border management.