The Standing Committee on Appropriations (the Committee) was established in terms of section 4(3) of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act,No.9 of 2009. The Act requires the Committee to consider and report on spending issues, and on actual expenditure published by the National Treasury. The Committee has adopted a tradition of inviting both National Treasury and the affected departments to account on government spending. This consultative approach gives the Committee an opportunity to interrogate departments on their spending with a view to identify and strengthen gaps in public spending. The Committee is established as a strategic centre to flag issues which might impact negatively on service delivery through scrutiny of government spending. As such, the Committee has taken a decision to move swiftly towards balancing its expenditure monitoring with actual performance.