Robben Island Museum Annual Report presentation 2010/2011

The Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) report that Robben Island Museum to delivered a presentation on its 2010/2011 annual performance to the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture.

Summary:

The purpose of the meeting was to allow the Robben Island Museum (RIM) to deliver its presentation on its annual performance. It was noted that RIM had in the past year appointed a new CEO and a new Council. The new management was appointed to turn around the misfortunes of the Museum. It was stated that in the past the Museum had been plagued with mismanagement and irregular expenditure. However, in the first year under the new management RIM had received an unqualified Audit Report from the Auditor-General.

However the CEO of RIM noted that there were still many irregularities that needed to be addressed. Some of these included: no monitoring of performance against predetermined objectives, a weak control environment prevailed which was worsened by the absence of a supply chain management unit; critical business units were occupied by acting senior managers and a company culture not conducive to fiscal discipline. In addition, the CEO had produced his own report in which he highlighted challenges with regard to funding, performance reporting, maintenance of the island and compliance with conventions which govern World Heritage Sites.

The CEO outlined the income and expenditure for the 2010 and 2011. RIM’s total expenditure was approximately R121 million with a deficit of R1.6 million in 2010/11. Ticket Sales revenue was increased by 35% from R 37 million in 2010 to just over R50million during the 2010/11 financial year. At the same time the operating expenditure increased by 38% for the period under consideration. This was mainly attributed to significant increases in expenditure incurred with regard to Boat Repairs, Boat Hire Expenditure and Compensation of Employees.

To meet all the challenges RIM had implemented several measures including supply chain management practices had been improved and capacity was being progressively strengthened to ensure non recurrence of irregular expenditure. Finally, the executive leadership had since been appointed and capacity was being built to enable RIM to be responsive to the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury Regulations as they related to performance information. The Internal Auditors had been co-opted to review and monitor performance information.

The Members were concerned about the aging tour guides and who was going to replace them. They also wanted to know if there was a timeline for completing all the plans stated during the presentation. Had feasibility studies been done on the proposed programmes and how was the Museum going to manage the overdraft and deficit?

The Members instructed RIM to work closely with other departments to improve services on the Island and to develop a marketing strategy that would increase the revenue streams for the Museum.

The CEO of RIM along with a Council Member stated that they had been at RIM for only one year and they were already making progress. They urged the Portfolio Committee to be patient with the Museum while it implemented its new structure.

To read the full minutes of the meeting, listen to an audio recording, or to view the presentation, see the PMG website
Source: Parliamentary Monitoring Group website.

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