Madam Deputy Speaker, it has taken a very long time for this piece of legislation to come before this House. But when one realises that it deals with a highly sensitive issue, it is perhaps understandable that 12 years have passed since the adoption of South Africa's Constitution in 1996, which underpins this legislation.
When I got here in August 2007, one of the first questions I put to the hon Minister of Finance was during the time when he was going to introduce legislation to give effect to section 77(3) of the Constitution, not knowing that it had already been done and that the matter was under consideration by a focus group.
I would consider this piece of legislation as one of the most important pieces of legislation that this House is going to pass. It is common knowledge that those of us who serve on portfolio committees interrogate Budgets that are presented by the hon Minister during appropriation. We question heads of departments as well as Ministers, and there is very little we can do to effect any changes to the amount of money that is allocated to departments.
For the first time now, we, as parliamentarians, sitting in this House, can propose amendments and even withhold funds and certain line items that are related to any particular Vote through our appropriations committees. I think this is a significant step and that it gives this Parliament and us a lot more teeth in ensuring that heads of departments and Ministers spend their money effectively and efficiently.
We do know that when the Joint Budget Committee made recommendations - the hon Mabe made recommendations recently on behalf of the committee - there were a number of departments that were found wanting. This is now going to correct that kind of situation because we can change the way they operate.
But I think the success or failure of this piece of legislation, and its implementation, is going to rest on the output of the parliamentary budget office. Parliament needs to ensure that sufficient funds are allocated to make sure that there are human resources - qualified and skilled personnel - that work within the parliamentary budget office. This is because it is going to be the responsibility of the skilled economist to provide nonpartisan analysis and advice to us as Members of Parliament and to our committees. We do know that National Treasury will be consulted all the way. We also know that it is very difficult to get trained economists and finance people in the South African market. We do hope that there will be no poaching of people working within the department of the hon Minister at this moment in time by the parliamentary budget office.
Having sounded this general note of warning, that the parliamentary budget office needs to support us as parliamentarians all the way, we would like to see the implementation of this piece of legislation as work in progress. As we go along, I think we as Parliament will decide whether we need more skilled staff and how we should function as appropriation committees.
The IFP will certainly support this Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Bill. Thank you.