The Constitution requires that budgets and budgetary processes must promote accountability. In line with this constitutional principle, the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) requires each government department and public entity to prepare reports (performance and financial) to account on their activities. The scrutiny of such reports is very important to the oversight work of Parliament, as it provides Members of Parliament with a holistic overview of the actual performance against plans. This section analyses the expenditure performance of the National Treasury.