Hon Deputy Speaker, the Presidency's appropriation process is severely undermined by the absence of a portfolio committee to oversee its activities as well as the absence of the President today. As a result, Parliament is denied the opportunity to properly interrogate the performance and activities of the Presidency, which has a significant impact on its ability to make an informed appraisal of this Budget.
Minister, on what grounds has the National Youth Development Agency been granted an additional R29 million, given that in the last financial year it failed to meet two thirds of its targets while still pouring R11 million of state funds into salaries for members of its operations executive committee?
How much of the additional R17 million of funds allocated to support services to the Presidency has been earmarked for the spousal support office?
Why has the state-owned enterprises review committee been allocated such a sizeable budget of R10 million, which is in fact equivalent to virtually half of the budget of the entire National Planning Commission?
Lastly, what are the details of the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation's expanded mandate for which an additional R20 million has been allocated?
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY - PERFORMANCE MONITORING, EVALUATION AND ADMINISTRATION: Hon Deputy Speaker, in answer to the first question, the R29 million to the NYDA is meant as seed funding for an international conference which the NYDA will be hosting from 13 to 21 December this year. [Interjections.] That amount of money is meant to assist in hosting a conference which will bring together young people from more than 153 countries to South Africa to deliberate on youth matters, the resolutions of which will be passed on to various multilateral institutions internationally to assist in the development of the youth worldwide.
In reply to the second question, with regard to the additional budget to the Presidency, as you know, the Presidency has various functions to perform. Some of them have been expanded, as you said. This money is meant to assist in the performance of the functions of both the President and Deputy President and the running of the administration of the Presidency.
On the question of the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, the expanded mandate of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation includes, among other things, the capacity for us to be able to deal with the municipalities, provincial governments and other state entities, because in the initial Budget we had only focused on setting up capacity at the head office to deal with issues relating to the national departments alone. Thank you.