Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy President, hon members, the ANC's expenditure trajectory and focus have always been on eliminating apartheid inequalities. The ANC welcomes the 2012 Adjustments Appropriation Bill, B32-2012, which this year did not necessarily add more money but reallocated declared savings to areas requiring these resources.
We are pleased to know that the Bill's thrust underscores the ANC's historic view, which asserts that expenditure should be directed at systematically addressing the apartheid legacies of inequality and underdevelopment in all their manifestations. In this regard, we are guided by the document Ready to Govern, which declares, amongst other things, that, I quote: "The ANC will direct government expenditure on housing, infrastructure, education, health and social welfare to ensure equality for all South Africans, especially the rural people."
As a result of this statement, the ANC has, amongst other things, introduced programmes like the rural household infrastructure programme and the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, to ensure that rural people also have access to work opportunities.
The ANC continues to strive for an integrated and meaningful implementation of the five government priority programmes over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period, as demonstrated by the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, MTBPS. Some of these programmes are the National Health Insurance, whose pilot grant was introduced earlier this year in 10 districts around the country. A new approach to the provincial infrastructure grant intended to institutionalise proper planning, a new formula for local government's equitable share and a new grant for water infrastructure grants will ensure that municipalities deliver clean drinking water directly to households. This grant will be administered by Water Affairs. We hope that this department has started building the required capacity in order to deliver on these grants.
The committee noted the Human Sciences Research Council's concern about the infrastructure deficits in schools. However, we should take solace in the fact that the ANC-led government is aggressively rolling out school infrastructure of over R20 billion between the Accelerated School's Infrastructure Delivery Initiative, Asidi, administered by the national Department of Education and the education infrastructure grants which are administered by the provincial departments to be rolled over the MTEF period.
The challenge in terms of these infrastructure programmes remains the capacity of government to plan and deliver effectively, efficiently and on time. The committee is of the view that infrastructure delivery should be the responsibility of a department, which has the relevant capacity so that departments like Education and Health can focus on their core mandates as the responsibility of delivering infrastructure resides elsewhere.
The ANC welcomes the different programmes promoting education and skills development that have been implemented across the departments whose focus is on job creation for young people. However, there is room for improvement in this area. Already a number of young people have qualified as artisans. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform will train over 5 000 youth on rural development programmes over the next three years.
The ANC welcomes the achievements that have been realised through strategic appropriations over time, as demonstrated by the shifting of resources from consumption to infrastructure investment. As the ANC, we are the first to admit that we have a long way to go in order to effectively eliminate the apartheid legacy of inequality, poverty and unemployment.
We are, however, encouraged by the significant progress that continues to be made in a number of critical areas of livelihood. Firstly, there has been a considerable increase in the percentage of persons who have completed their higher education from 7% in 1996 to 11,8% in 2011. Secondly, the proportion of households with access to clean running water inside their premises has also increased from 60,7% in 1996 to 73% in 2011. Thirdly, the average annual income for households has doubled from R48 385 in 1996 to over R103 000 in 2011. These figures are drawn from Census 2011.
Census 2011 also reveals huge inequalities between the historically privileged compatriots and their black counterparts. These differences become more evident between the sexes, on the one hand, and between the rural and urban settings, on the other. All spheres of government must work together to deal with the delivery challenges as we confront the issues of social challenges and service delivery, whether they are in education, health care delivery, infrastructure, etc.
Integral to these challenges are section 100 interventions. Currently, these important interventions depend on the co-operation of the other spheres. There needs to be clear legislation that will define, amongst other things, the different roles of all the role-players; the framework for interventions; clear, set timelines; and so forth.
The ANC welcomes the introduction of the central procurement officer so that Parliament and National Treasury can tighten the monitoring and oversight mechanisms on procurement practices in order to boost efficiencies and value for money. The other important issue the national legislature must focus on is the gap between expenditure and predetermined objectives. This, we can monitor by ensuring that the quarterly or section 32 reports, as they are commonly known, of the National Treasury consist of not only financial information but also of nonfinancial information that may include departmental quarterly targets, as they appear on their annual performance plans passed by Parliament during the Adjustments Appropriation Bill.
There has been a lot of discussion in the committee around issues of declared savings, as my colleague the hon Mfulo raised earlier, as some departments felt that they were not properly engaged. But what the departments failed to tell us was that they were, themselves, guilty of underspending. In some instances, the departments seemed to be budgeting for virements. Departments are allowed to shift funds from a nonperforming area to another, but the committee feels this process should not undermine the budgetary process. The process must enhance the credibility of the budget.
The ANC notes that the Public Service Commission, in its endeavours to ensure that its recommendations are implemented introduced legislation that will enforce its recommendations. Whether that action will fall within its jurisdiction will be a point for discussion at another time. The Public Service Commission expressed extreme concern at the failure by senior managers to disclose their business interests. It also found that more managers were doing business with their departments without disclosing their business interests to those departments. The Public Service Commission also raised with the committee the failure by senior managers to sign performance agreements. This is against the law, as this is a requirement. Without performance agreements, it will be difficult to measure the success or the failure of that official. The committee is of the view that the Adjustments Appropriation Bill of 2013 must have a section that will require all departments undertaking infrastructure to submit clear plans to National Treasury by a particular, agreed-to time.
May I take this opportunity to thank the co-operation that we have received from National Treasury during this process of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement and the Adjustments Appropriation Bill, and thank the hon members of the committee and the staff for their sacrifices so that this report could be processed on time. I thank you. [Applause.]