Deputy Chairperson, hon members, delegates and everybody who is in the House, because of time I am not going to be able to finish my speech. However, I will request Hansard to print the entire speech so that people can have the opportunity to read it from the Hansard. Our time does not allow us; I have only 12 minutes.
You will understand that our theme this year is: Celebrating the legacy of freedom through strengthening the link between Parliament and the people. This year's budget is tabled just over a month after our people exercised their right to vote in a free society - that is in the local government elections.
Our budget has been drafted in terms of what we call policy imperatives. Those policy imperatives are: strengthening the oversight function; increasing public involvement and participation; strengthening co-operative government; improving and widening the role of Parliament in international co-operation and participation; and building an effective and efficient institution.
An Australian psychoanalyst once said that most people do not really want freedom because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are afraid of responsibility. I want us to analyse this, as members representing the public, as to whether we are responsible and accountable to the people that we represent.
Let me quickly come to the budget that we are talking about. We were allocated R1,59 billion to support the work of Parliament in general, not the NCOP. Administration was allocated R346,2 million to provide strategic leadership, institutional policy, administration and corporate services to support Members of Parliament.
Members' Facilities was given R168,6 million to provide for, amongst other things, the continuation of Parmed medical aid contributions for members, former MPs and the legislatures. Legislation and Oversight was given R300 million to enable Parliament to carry out its core functions. Public and International Participation was allocated R79,4 million to carry out public participation projects and participate in international relations activities. Associated Services, which provides financial support to political parties, was given R281,9 million.
Parliament spent 98,1% of its budget. This is a marked improvement when compared to the previous financial years. However, it must be noted that the underspending on the budget relates to underspending on the statutory appropriation for members' compensation. This amount is returned to Treasury as per the law.
Parliament also utilised R45,5 million of retained funds during the 2010-11 financial year to fund upgrading and improvements to committee rooms, offices, information and technology equipment and systems. These funds represent underspending of prior years and the interest earned on them. They have decreased significantly - from R322,3 million in the 2006-07 financial year to R126,6 million in the 2010-11 financial year.
These funds will further decrease in the 2011-12 financial year as Parliament continues to upgrade and improve the resources which are being utilised. The effect of all of this is that the balance of retained funds will soon be depleted. This is a good sign, as Parliament should not necessarily carry these types of funds, but rather ensure that all voted funds are spent in the year as planned.
In terms of the implementation of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, Act 9 of 2009, the important issue that I want to raise is that we have agreed, in terms of the law, that we should establish a budget office. The budget office will assist Parliament to run its budgetary matters very efficiently and effectively. That process is under way.
We have had two study tours - I led one, and the Speaker led the other - to different international countries, as well as those on the African continent. Two workshops have already been completed. We are in the process of establishing this budget office so that we can capacitate it in order for it to assist Parliament in terms of budgetary matters.
With regard to strengthening the International Relations Section, the section has now been upgraded from a section to a division. In other words, it has been upgraded to a higher level so that it is not a section but a division. We have just completed employing a divisional head who was appointed on 1 April 2011. This divisional head is already coming up with matters of content in the international relations division, not just logistical issues that have been taking place all these years.
With regard to the implementation of the Financial Management of Parliament Act, Act 10 of 2009, we have introduced measures to support and enhance the financial management function and ensure that a financial management culture, consistent with the values of Parliament and the Act, is entrenched. We have begun to implement this Act. We are very happy that it is functioning very well currently. However, we think that there are some sections that we will have to visit or possibly amend in the future so that the Act can correlate with the work that we are doing in Parliament.
In terms of the review of the parliamentary service structure, members raised concerns regarding the service they get from the parliamentary administration. These related to, among other things, the nature of the support, its location, the role of the chairpersons of committees in securing this support, and so forth. We are reviewing the structure of the parliamentary service and the nature of support provided to members. We will, in due course, engage political parties regarding this process. The review must also ensure that the executive authority of Parliament is properly capacitated to discharge its duties as required by law.
Another very important issue is the upgrading of the NA Chamber and the NCOP Chamber. You will remember that we have been told that the acoustics and the information, communication and technology, ICT, in the NCOP and NA Chambers are not up to standard; hence the upgrading of these two Chambers to the standard required for debate. The upgrading will also assist us in enabling television coverage when we have our debates and in reporting regularly to our constituencies. The NCOP Chamber will be completed very soon; that is why we are holding all our sittings in the Old Assembly Chamber, as you are here today.
The other question is the issue of questions to the executive in the NCOP. As at the end of March this year, 540 questions for written reply and 88 for oral reply were put to the executive. In total there were 628 questions to the executive. Out of the 628, 62 questions were not replied to. While we continue to encourage the executive to answer all the questions from members of this House, it is encouraging that 566 questions were replied to during the year under review.
With regard to legislation, we passed a total of 23 Bills. Fifteen of those are section 75 Bills, five are section 76 Bills; and three are section 77 Bills.
With regard to the Provincial Week programme, this happened last year in September and the report was tabled in Parliament. We debated the report and could see the wonderful work that the permanent delegates did in their provinces. In November, as you might remember, we sat in Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality in the Free State for the Taking Parliament to the People programme. The report has been also tabled to Parliament. We have identified quite a number of issues that we need to follow up, and the House Chairperson of Committees is now beginning to initiate a programme that we should go back there towards the end of this year.
With regard to co-operative government or what you might call the intergovernmental relations, IGR, portfolio, you will also remember that last year the NCOP formed a new department within its House Chairpersons to get to the core of co-operative governance. We did this because we think that for the past few years we have not been doing very well in terms of dealing with integrated work of the departments, right from national government to provincial government and municipalities. Therefore, hon Mrs Magadla is in charge of that.
In terms of the communication strategy, we have completed the project. The project has been tabled before the presiding officers. What is remaining is that we should share it now with chairpersons of committees and all the Whips. This will enable the Whips to have an input and check how we can improve our communication strategy.
Within my remaining minutes, let me quickly deal with the budget of the 2011-12 financial year. We have been given R1,674 billion for the 2011-12 financial year. This allocation represents a 5,3% increase on the allocation of the 2010-11 financial year. You might be aware that it is divided according to the core functions of Parliament, which are as follows: The allocation for Legislation and Oversight, R296 million. Of this, R50 million - Tau, you must listen carefully - goes to committees, which represents a R5 million increase for this financial year. It's for you to spend, and spend correctly. [Applause.] The allocation for Public and International Participation is R109 million; the allocation for members' facilities is R222 million; the allocation for financial support to political parties is R288 million; and the allocation for members' remuneration, your salaries, is R410 million. The 2011-12 budget will be used to further pursue the strategic objectives of Parliament.
Let me come to space utilisation. You are aware that Parliament is short of space. There are no committee rooms, no boardrooms for you to use, and no facilities and offices for the staff. One of the important tasks going forward is to address the challenge of space and lack of adequate facilities for the proper functioning of Parliament.
We have started demolitions across Roeland Street - I'm sure you have seen that - and we are using our retained funds. However, Public Works has also promised that they will assist us. The first phase of this project will constitute offices for Members of Parliament and members of staff, of course. Later on we will continue with the second phase of this project.