Chairperson, comrade Minister, comrades and hon members, the APC affirms its support for this Budget Vote. We would also like to congratulate the new accounting officer, Mr Fuzile. We wish him well and hope that he will sustain and advance the cordial working relations between National Treasury and Parliament, especially those committees charged with oversight on compliance with the Public Financial Management Act, PFMA, and Treasury regulations.
Comrade Minister, the APC believes that the long-awaited and much-spoken- about amendments to the PFMA should happen sooner rather than later. This important tool or financial management has been in operation for years and it might be time to sum up experiences from its implementation.
On public-private partnership, we believe that there is a need to fast- track the development of government-wide policy, because the bruising encounter we had last week about the building of four new prisons for correctional services raised the question of the role of National Treasury and whether it is one of advocacy or an advisory one. We were left unconvinced that it was the appropriate approach, supported by the political and administrative leadership of correctional services.
We have just come from the local government elections and the immediate questions that the APC believe the National Treasury should be able to attend to are the issues around the grants that are given to municipalities. The issues include what mechanisms are in place to ensure that money is not just sent as a yearly routine, even though it is not spent, and also the oversight structure and capacities on financial expenditure.
As things stand, there is no consistency on the composition, powers and functions of municipal public accounts committees. Without capacity at municipal level to properly monitor financial expenditure, wastage, abuse, corruption and primitive accumulation will persist.
The APC wishes to salute you, comrade Minister, for consistently calling for responsibility in the management of public resources. The fight against the abuse, misuse, corruption and theft of public funds must be intensified. Corruption is counterrevolutionary. The call must be consistently made for the observance of a revolutionary morality.
Before I sit down, I think I would be amiss if I did not also acknowledge the good work done at the Land Bank, especially by the CEO, Mr Phakamani Hadebe. It's worthy of note that in the past the Land Bank was a constant visitor to the public accounts committee, but since he took over they are conspicuous in their absence.