Hon Speaker and hon members, thank you for an exciting debate. Normally appropriation debates are very boring. I want to remind one of the hon members about what was said here on the platform. In the Budget we said that we are living in dangerous times. Well, six or four months later we are living in even more dangerous times. So issues of budgeting, appropriation, how we spend our money and how we prioritise for things that we want to prioritise are becoming even more important than they were during the time of the budget.
It is important for us as hon members, regardless of the political parties that we belong to, to understand very carefully and very clearly the developments that are unfolding around us, particularly in Europe and what potential impact they could have on our economy, job situation, growth prospects and indeed on the fiscal balances and frameworks that we have been trying to sustain going forward.
We might choose to play political football with these issues, but let me appeal that there must be some space created somewhere for us on a nonpartisan basis to understand these challenges and begin to act in the national interest outside of the political battles that we want to fight.
In the South African context we must continually ask these questions, as the appropriations committee has asked: What are our priorities; are we spending money on those priorities; are we spending that money effectively; and are we in the public sector, as the Public Service Commission asks, having a management cadre that both understands those priorities and has the capabilities to deliver and use the R1 trillion that we speak of as effectively as they should?
Mr Speaker, in the Budget we made it very clear that we want to change the composition of spending in South Africa. We've started that process, but there is a long way to go. Investment in infrastructure and in other capital projects still doesn't get as much money as it requires, and even where we do have that money, regrettably we don't spend it as effectively as we should.
Secondly, we've said that, given the crisis and our own structural constraints, we need to restructure our economy to overcome as quickly as possible the constraints that our economy faces and, more importantly, utilise our own creativity to take advantage of the opportunities that we have around us. But we are not doing remarkably well on that front, although there is some progress to be noted. We've taken measures in the Budget to support the competitiveness of our economy and the manufacturing sector in particular and we have begun to see progress in terms of the allocation of those funds and the setting out of criteria.
As many hon members have pointed out, the essence of spending this money is to ensure that the appropriate level of service delivery occurs and that millions of South Africans are the beneficiaries of this service delivery. I am sure that a lot of that is happening effectively, but there is room for improvement, as all of us would acknowledge.
I want to thank the hon Sogoni and his team for the excellent work that they have done in preparing Parliament for this particular process. Their job becomes even more important as we go forward, as they are beginning to ask tougher questions to the departments. Are you actually creating jobs as a result of what you do? Are you delivering on a value-for-money basis? Are you ensuring that procurement happens in the right way? Is capital investment happening as it should happen and as many hon members pointed out, and as the Public Service Commission did? Are we able to reconcile expenditure with performance outputs? Clearly, there is progress in this particular regard, but we need to be tougher on ourselves to ensure that we do deliver what we promised to deliver in our plans.
Most importantly, the key focus, as I said earlier, needs to be an evaluation, as some of the hon members have pointed out, as to whether our spending of money results in a change in people's lives for the better. That should be the sole criterion in terms of evaluating our performance. Secondly, whether we are adequately restructuring our economy, both in terms of infrastructure delivery and removing the bottlenecks in our economy and, more importantly, restructuring our economy so that we overcome our own history and lack of employment within our economy. Here again, the role of the appropriations committee and the various portfolio committees is an extremely important one.
I would certainly support all of you who indicated that we need to hold departments and officials to account on a much more rigorous basis than we do. We need to stop fiscal dumping and senseless spending just because we want to show that we have 100% spending taking place.
There is an interesting shift that happened over the last year or two in as much as we used to focus on the quantum of spending. We need to start asking questions about the quality of spending and what it is that we are actually achieving.
Again, all of us, regardless of our interests, need to ask some tougher questions about ourselves, particularly in an economic context where there could be further negative impacts on revenue collection in the coming year if Europe does not sort out its problems, as it is giving no evidence that it is doing so faster than it has been able to do up to this point in time.
We appeal to all of us in Parliament, various departments, to my colleagues and the executive as well to keep a more watchful eye on how money is being spent and on how we undertake more rigorous exercises to save more money and redirect our money in the best possible way.
We need to, of course, constantly remind ourselves that this is taxpayers' money that we are talking about and that taxpayers are becoming impatient with the fact that we are not adequately providing value for money.
The criticism that is made of the private sector during the course of this debate is also a valid one. There is ample evidence that there are two sides to any transaction and that the business sector in South Africa needs to up its game. They need to come to the party in terms of the way in which costing takes place in relation to services and goods provided to government. Higher levels of integrity are required if we are going to meet some of the challenges that we face.
A number of hon members have talked about looking at the baseline budgets of new departments. We will certainly have a look at some of them in the new budget cycle. But I also think we have to get used to the idea that Europe and the European crisis, and the fact that there are lower growth patterns throughout the world today, does mean that we must have lower expectations about what our budgets could look like and how effectively we spend the money that we actually have available to us at this particular point in time. Several hon members have pointed out various leakage points in our fiscal system, and those are issues that we will certainly look at.
As far as changes in the composition of expenditure and the wage bill are concerned, as you know the negotiations are ongoing in the relevant chamber at this point in time and all we hope for is that we find the right balance between ensuring changes in composition and rewarding public servants in an appropriate way.
Hon Singh made reference to vacancies in the Limpopo Treasury. There is a very good turnaround process in Limpopo and certainly in Treasury. I cannot speak for the other departments, but those vacancies will certainly be filled in the near future.
Hon Gelderblom gave us an important reminder by quoting Amlcar Cabral that the masses are not fighting for ideas, they are fighting for material benefits. Our task as government, whether local, provincial or national, is to ensure that on a continuous basis this R1 trillion Budget is spent in a way in which ordinary folk on the ground can see a meaningful change in their lives as a result of the kind of service delivery that we undertake.
We would certainly take up hon Yengeni's point that there needs to be a better alignment between spending on the one hand and performance targets on the other.
Let me conclude by thanking all the parties for their support for this Bill and for the various contributions that they have made to improve the way in which we spend funds within government. I thank the hon Sogoni and his team for their contribution as well.
Thank you, hon Speaker.
Debate concluded.
Bill read a first time (Democratic Alliance dissenting).
Business suspended at 12:24 and resumed at 14:04.