USEFULL INFORMATION ON THE DECLARATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF DISASTERS AND FUNDING PROCESSES. Kosie van Zyl: Agri SA

Transcription

1 USEFULL INFORMATION ON THE DECLARATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF DISASTERS AND FUNDING PROCESSES Kosie van Zyl: Agri SA INTRODUCTION During the last few months we saw a number of incidents like drought in the provinces of North West, Northern Cape, Freestate and even frost in the Lower Orange River, after a period of 127 years. These resulted in heavy losses to crop and livestock totalling billions of rand. The Disaster Management Act, 2002 (called the Act) was the tool that Government could use to address the plight of the citizens, by a range of steps the Act provided for. This article thus endeavour to address certain issues, in another fashion to the readers of the Agri, although the broader concept of disaster management is administered within the provisions of legislation, which includes but is not limited to the Disaster Management Act, 2002 and the National Disaster Management Framework, However, this Act refers to the Government is constitutional responsibility for Disaster Management, it is in line with the three tier and intergovernmental nature placed within the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC) and the Municipal Disaster Management Centre (MDMC), playing a planning and coordinating role, not line function, including formalised relations and outlining roles and responsibilities between the spheres of government and the private sector, amongst others. The underlining focus of legislation is on prevention and mitigation but it also emphasises rapid and effective response. Like every aspect of live it starts with a plan and for disaster management it is also true. Sections 25, 38, 52 and 53 specify that those organs of state, must each prepare a disaster management plan setting out amongst others its roles and responsibilities regarding emergency response, post disaster recovery and rehabilitation, as well as an outline of the capacity to fulfil these roles and responsibilities and contingency strategies and emergency procedures in the event of a disaster, including measures to finance these strategies. DECLARATION OF DISASTERS Declaration of a disaster is the ultimate fact or step. This means that if a province or a municipality is unable to deal with an occurrence, whether progressive of sudden, wide

2 spread, localised, natural or human caused, which causes or threatened to cause death, injury or disease, damage to property, infrastructure or the environment or disruption of the life of a community, it can therefore exercise its powers and duties in terms of section 41(2) and 55 (2) of the Act respectively, and can therefore declare a disaster. Although it is a myth that if a disaster has been declares, Government will automatically provide funds, however a contribution in the form of funding of disasters must be requested via a separate process, which will be discussed later on. The burning question is always when do we declare a disaster? The following criteria are important: Firstly, if the contingency arrangements of the municipality or the province do not adequately provide to deal effectively with an occurrence. Contingency arrangements refer to mechanisms to deal with the occurrence through the resources of the municipality or province, affected sectors donations and other extraordinary measures. Secondly, if the occurrence or threatening occurrence is off such nature that those affected are unable to cope with its effects using their own resources. Thirdly, other factors such as the magnitude and severity of the occurrence. This criteria are also of importance in the process of the classification of a disaster by the NDMC. Finally the existence of other legislation already applied in the area of jurisdiction of the municipality or the province, other than the Act, section 2 (1)(b), must be observed (i.e. the Animal Health Act, 1983), WHO DECLARES A DISASTER? The question in all cases is where does the buck stops? The council of a municipality must take a resolution to declare a local state of disaster and the decision must be published in the provincial gazette. A metropolitan or a district municipal council have the power to declare, co-ordinate and manage a local state of disaster. A local municipal council have the power to declare, co-ordinate and manage a local state of disaster if it has an agreement in place (resolutions from both councils) with the concerned district municipality. The premier of a province in consultation with MECs of a province declares a provincial state of disaster. The decision must be published in the provincial gazette. CLASSIFICATION OF DISASTERS Section 23 of the Act authorises the NDMC to classifies and may reclassify any state of disaster in order to:

3 Designate primary responsibility for the co-ordination and management of a disaster to a particular sphere of government; Ensure accountability in the management of a disaster; Ensure appropriate intervention and support can be provided to the relevant sphere of government. Spheres of government have the responsibility to advice the NDMC on the classification of disasters. Classification by the NDMC does not prohibit a sphere of government from dealing with the effects of a disaster As in the case of declaration of disasters, the classification a state of disaster does not automatically translate to a government contribution (funding) to alleviate the effects of a disaster occurring. Funding of disasters is a separate process with its own conditions. FUNDING FOR DISASTER RESPONSE Disaster relief grants The National Treasury, through the NDMC has a funding mechanism called Provincial Disaster Grants (PDG) and Municipal Disaster Grants (MDG) in place. The grant is allocated solely for the purpose of responding to the immediate needs after a disaster has occurred and with the aim to alleviate the immediate consequences of a disaster. These are conditional grants that can be accessed for funding of immediate and critical disaster needs in line with the framework, while funding for reconstruction and rehabilitation are dealt with through adjustment or annual budget. These grants, may as per written request, only be used to fund critical infra structure as a result of damage caused by the disaster, such as temporary structures and/or shelters that can be fully assembled within three months after the disaster has been declared and which are required to ensure continued services by that provinces who are responsible for providing and maintaining These grants can be utilised for large scale humanitarian and other relief measures, services, as well as temporary repairs to roads to ensure that communities are not cut off from services, required by the national Departments of Social Development, Health and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who are not responsible for or unable to provide the service. Proof must be obtained from the relevant department. The PDG is administered by the NDMC in consultation with National Treasury. Requests for PDG and MDG funding must be made in line with the frameworks in line with the Division of Revenue Act (DORA) and guidelines issued by the NDMC. It is, however, important to note that the PDG and MDG funding can only be accessed when a state of

4 disaster has been declared, as set out above and requests for the PDG and MDG funding are processed up to a period of 90 days following the declaration of a disaster. These grants can be accessed by provinces upon the submission of the following documents:- A business plan (signed by the Head of Department). Copy of the classification letter and the declaration in terms of the Disaster Management Act, An initial assessment, which includes the number of people affected (in the case of the agricultural sector, commercial farmers, small scale farmers and communal farmers) and details of infrastructure damaged. The PDMC and/or the provincial sector departments must indicate funds spent or contribution towards dealing with the disaster. Items to be purchased and funds required for disaster response. Support that has been received from NGOs and businesses. A report which includes an initial assessment of the incident/disaster. PDG allocation over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) The MTEF allocations for provincial grants funding may only be requested from the NDMC. Reconstruction and rehabilitation (r and r) allocations This allocation is specifically for the purposes of reconstruction and rehabilitation. A state of disaster must have been declared by the relevant municipality/province and published in the provincial gazette. The NDMC must classify the event. The affected municipality and/or province must formally request for a national contribution. Requests must include: A detailed incident report (including amongst others the nature of the incident, list of infrastructure affected and amounts) - the PSPS verify this information Copy of the declaration Copy of the classification Contribution of province/municipalities (response) - these will, in future be extended to include copies of disaster management plans Formal request signed by the Municipal Manager and Head of Department of the municipality and province respectively An independent verification assessment must be conducted by the NDMC This is done to verify all funding requests made by the affected province/municipality as well as to meet National Treasury requirements for the release of r and r funds

5 An application is made by the NDMC to National Treasury on behalf of affected provinces and municipalities (based on the outcomes of the independent assessment) Applications must be approved by cabinet Allocations flow through normal Treasury budgetary processes Availability of funds in the national fiscus as well as the expenditure trends of sectors may impact upon the allocations Funds may be allocated over the MTEF Post disaster funding responsibilities of Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reconstruction allocations Business plans for the allocated disaster funds must be in line with the post disaster verification assessment reports and must be submitted to the NDMC Disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation funds may only be utilised for approved projects as listed in the post disaster verification assessment reports and approved business plans Quarterly performance reports on disaster allocations must be submitted to the NDMC through the relevant PDMC RECOMMENDATIONS Prioritise disaster risk reduction Consultation with national department on disaster response challenges Participation in PDMC meetings, Joint Operation Centres, and assessment verification processes Develop and submit of plans at provincial level Adherence to submission time frames & framework conditions to prevent delays disaster relief request Monthly reporting for PDG allocations Quarterly performance and financial reports on funds allocated (post disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation) CONCLUSION Disaster Risk Management is Everybody s Business By acknowledgement: Lindokuhle Ngubane National Disaster Management Centre Pretoria