Deputy Speaker, let me just say, on behalf of Cope, that we will take up the challenge, together with the Minister, to fight corruption. We won't be found wanting. We will join that campaign to fight corruption. Whenever corruption is unveiled, it is me talking. Whenever we see and unravel that, we believe that the Ministers will take action on it. So, we take that call very seriously, and we will bring it to your attention.
Deputy Speaker, dealing with the Appropriation Budget is basically to deal with the Budget and also address departments on unforeseen expenditure which departments have to budget for and the shifting of programmes. But what we have seen in this Adjustments Appropriation Bill is basically a new trend, on a scale that has not been seen before, of departments using the words "unforeseen expenditure" and "unavoidable expenditure" when talking about huge amounts of money. This, actually, isn't necessarily due to "unforeseen expenditure", but bad planning.
The second thing that we are worried about is a trend that we have seen in this department of a shift towards and building up of top-heavy Ministries. We wonder whether this is not the necessary management of political divergence and the management of various political interests in the party. Actually, we are worried about the bloating and top-heavy structures. We are worried about the fact that some of these shifts are creating top-heavy structures - the shift of money from functions. The last thing that we want to say, Minister, is that it is not everything about the shift and the creation of the new departments or the unbundling thereof is wrong. For example, one can look at education. It is good that in education the issue of post-school skills is going to be transferred. The 23 Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas, are going to be transferred from the Department of Labour to the Department of Higher Education and Training. That's good. We need to support that, because it is about addressing the challenges that we have.
Then, the period ahead of us is going to be bumpy, because we are going to make sure that there is accountability. In heeding the call of the Minister, there will be oversight to ensure that the department actually sticks to its plans, sticks to its programmes and that Ministers be held accountable, by appearing before the committees when they are called and not hide behind the Public Finance Management Act. The Public Finance Management Act afforded us the presence of department officials or accounting officers, not Ministers. Accountability means you appear; you take political responsibility, because the buck stops with the Minister.
Therefore, as Cope, we want to say we are going to stand up and rise to those particular challenges, Minister. We want to come to your committee. I am sure you are going to listen to that. Thank you. [Applause.]