The ANC has tasked me to come out in support of this budget, and I support this Budget Vote because the ANC supports it.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the entire intelligence community. You have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that you love your country, South Africa. You proved many prophets of doom wrong during the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Fears of insecurity in South Africa were canvassed day and night. Alarm bells were rung by some unpatriotic individuals and institutions in order to discourage visitors from coming to our beautiful country. But you, the intelligence family, worked quietly and fearlessly day and night to restore the integrity of the full independence of the state of the Republic of South Africa.
As your committee, we sometimes got very scared and summoned you to check on whether there was and would be security on our shores. Defence intelligence said: "Fear not." Crime intelligence said: "We have our eyes on the ball; don't panic." And all of you, working together, restored our confidence and indeed delivered the Fifa World Cup to South Africa and Africa. Well done! [Applause.] May God, our Maker, give you grace. We cannot thank you enough. You have indeed served your country with distinction. May God give you more strength.
The ANC, as the true vanguard of the people of our country, is trusted and loved by its citizens because it listens to the people. It is directed by the will of South African citizens. When the people of South Africa spoke in one voice at the Congress of the People in Kliptown on 26 June 1955, they said:
There Shall be Peace and Friendship!
South Africa shall be a fully independent state which respects the sovereignty of all nations;
... Let all people who love their people and their country now say, as we say here: 'These freedoms we will fight for side by side throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty.'
Yes, indeed, government, Parliament and all the people of South Africa, let's stand together and ensure the security of our country, South Africa.
In order to sustain the good work done by government on security issues, Parliament must do its oversight work efficiently and effectively. The Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence will have to demand strict compliance with financial management in the security sector, because a central feature of good governance is maintaining the use of available public resources for efficient service delivery and the creation of public value.
In 1999, South Africa moved from the Exchequer Act to the Public Finance Management Act, Act 1 of 1999. This Parliament, in its wisdom, passed that piece of legislation in order to do two things. The first thing was to allow management to manage and to keep them accountable to this legislature. The second thing is that the Public Finance Management Act insists on timely reports - quarterly reports.
The thinking behind the regulation of reporting on time is to enable the administration to detect challenges in time and to report to Parliament in time. This is so that, at the end of the financial year, this Parliament can have good, accountable and transparent information for the owners of the resources, that is the general public of the Republic of South Africa. For the citizens of South Africa, financial news will only be good news if at the end of the year the Auditor-General can confirm that the audit evidence and financial statements prepared by the accounting officer are sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for his or her audit opinion. It is necessary for the department to co-operate with the work of the Auditor-General in his audit queries. We must always remember that the preparation of financial statements is the responsibility of the department. The audit by the Auditor-General assists in enhancing public confidence in the credibility of the financial statements. In the discipline of accounting, we believe that financial statements are management tools. Therefore, the department should prepare these almost monthly for itself because it can be done. This will assist management to take informed decisions at all times.
Our advice to the department is as follows: respond timeously to the management letters from the Auditor-General's office; give frank explanations to the Auditor-General's queries; remember to come to your committee and explain, and seek opinion and advice for any unforeseen circumstances in the expenditure of your allocated budget. It is better to come before the time, but, if it is not possible, come immediately thereafter. What is more, come at least once per quarter, in line with the Public Finance Management Act's quarterly reporting requirement.
Although the inherent nature and dynamics of the security sector represent a real challenge to effective parliamentary oversight, there is sufficient political will from members of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence to hold the intelligence community to account.
From time immemorial, national sovereignty and security have been considered essential to a viable state. Nowadays, the part that is played by those whose job it is to provide security is undergoing considerable change. Today, effective parliamentary oversight has thus become all the more crucial. Therefore, it is imperative for the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence to be hands-on with issues affecting state security.
We are always combat-ready to do our work. Therefore, when we insist on compliance with the legal framework, it is in good faith. We will always be ready to do our job for which we have been elected and for which we are paid timeously every month by this Parliament. So, we will do our work without fear or favour. Our job is to hold this government to account, because that is what our employers, the voters, want from us. A job is a job, Minister. We will hold you to account. Thank you. [Applause.]