Mr Speaker, a budget deficit of about 7,3% was expected at the end of the 2009-10 financial year. Sars, however, managed to do their trick once more, and a lower budget deficit of 6,8% was in fact achieved. They deserve our congratulations.
In addition, we managed a higher growth rate than expected, inflation was reduced, and a sensible monitoring policy was followed by the Reserve Bank. Although these factors give rise to optimism, outside international factors such as the declining value of the euro, due mainly to financial problems in Greece, could quite easily lead to a second round of recession worldwide.
We should therefore make sure that we are ready for such an eventuality by being absolutely prudent in our spending patterns. This applies even more so in the case of government departments and institutions.
When looking at the spending patterns of departments for the entire 2009-10 financial year, it is disconcerting to note that many departments fail to spend the budget amounts allocated to them, and that they continue to spend as much as possible in the fourth quarter of the financial year so as not to have a reduced allocation made to them in the next financial year.
Equally disconcerting is the continued misappropriation of funds by way of corruption as well as the recurring trend of incurring wasteful and unnecessary expenditure. No wonder the DA's wasteful expenditure monitor exceeds the R1 billion mark already.
Of concern also is the number of jobs lost in the economy and the inability of the Department of Public Works to spend all available Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, funds for job creation in respect of their EPWP incentive schemes. Some R30 million of this incentive programme remained unspent at year-end.
Only 68 municipalities out of a total of 283 received monies from this fund. It is clear therefore that the oversight role of Parliament, particularly by its portfolio and standing committees, will become of utmost importance in the 2010-11 financial year to ensure that money is spent prudently and wisely.
One of the instruments Parliament and its committees will be able to use to good effect to ensure proper oversight is the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, the content of which we have recently explained to hon members in a number of training sessions.
This Act, signed into law by the hon President during April last year, provides the right to Parliament - for the first time - to amend the budgets of departments through the various portfolio committees as well as through the Standing Committees on Finance and Appropriations, provided, however, that such amendments fall within the approved fiscal framework.
The Act provides an opportunity for Parliament to control the unnecessary roll over of funds, and expenditure outside the declared priorities of government; to curb unnecessary and wasteful expenditure and over- and underspending on budgets; as well as to ensure adherence to the Public Finance Management Act for funding roll-overs.
The Act also provides for the establishment of a budget office to give assistance to portfolio committees, but in particular to the Standing Committees on Finance and Appropriations to fulfil their mandate as prescribed by the Act. A director is to be appointed in terms of the Act to head the budget office.
The Act has been law for more than a year now, but a director has not been appointed yet. This is despite the fact that the advertisement for filling the position was approved by a joint sitting of the finance and appropriations committees in February this year.
Despite the fact that the appointment is crucial for proper assistance to committees to provide effective oversight, the ANC instead formed what they call "a political task team" to deal with the matter. This so-called "political task team", consisting of ANC members, only came up with the idea of seconding current parliamentary staff to the budget office before the director of the budget office is appointed.
When asked what the function of these seconded personnel would be and who would supervise them in the interim, the Secretary to Parliament advised that they were to arrange office space, buy furniture and computers, etc, so that the new director would not be bothered with such trivial matters when he assumed office.
Needless to say, there was no organogram for the budget office, and the Act clearly prescribes that the director shall be part of compiling such an organogram. The seconded personnel would therefore have embarked on the procurement of offices, furniture and computers without knowing the number of personnel involved and therefore the quantities required.
Fortunately the joint sitting of the finance and appropriations committees did not agree with this hair-raising scheme. The result, however, is that nothing has happened since and the advertisement to fill the position has still not been inserted a year after having been signed into law by the President.
One wonders whether the proposed secondment of parliamentary personnel was an attempt to create vacancies to which superfluous ANC caucus employees could be deployed, or whether the proposed independence of the budget office provides a threat to centralised political control or maybe even endanger the position of certain parliamentary staff members.
At the time when committees and Parliament consider the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statements, MTBPS, the advice and recommendations of the budget office will be of immense value, and it is a pity that priority attention is not given to the establishment of the said office.
It is at the MTBPS that a major portion of the rollover of funds takes place. It would unfortunately also appear that certain departments are not yet aware of the existence and prescripts of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act.
I make the latter statement based on the fact that the Director-General of Labour wants to increase his budget by a huge R1 billion without reference to anybody and without quite knowing what the purpose of the additional funding would be. When one hears this, the need for parliamentary oversight becomes clearer.
The example quoted is made more serious by the fact that the director- general in question is also the president of the Black Management Forum of South Africa and should therefore be more knowledgeable about management and South African laws than the rest of us.
Although he is supposed to be an apolitical public servant, we regrettably might be forced to pardon him as he is probably so busy with expressing his own political opinions in his capacity as the president of the forum that he has limited time to attend to the poor showing of the Department of Labour!
I thank you and wish Bafana Bafana all the best. [Applause.]