NCOP debates parliament’s budget vote

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Polity

Published: 28 May 2003

NCOP debates parliament’s budget vote

With the Constitution making Parliament the primary democratic institution in the country, it was imperative that Parliament properly review the national budget, said National Council of Provinces (NCOP) chairperson Naledi Pandor yesterday.

"It is vital for Parliament to remain true to the trust the people have given us. This trust requires us to ensure scrupulously at every point that we engage in our work with certainty of purpose and clarity on approach and process," said Pandor during the NCOP's debate on Parliament's budget vote.

Naledi said Parliament was now in a better position than ever before to understand and contribute to the budget process, but still needed to set down clear criteria in some areas such as whether priorities were achieved and what funds were voted in the financial year under review.

She said in the financial year 2002/2003 Parliament was voted R480,2-million, which was allocated to: -personnel at R117,5-million;
-administrative expenditure at R97,5-million;
-inventories at R7,7-million;
-equipment at R7,5-million;
-professional services at R6,2-million;
-transfer payments, such as constituency support allowances, at R62,6-million;
-miscellaneous payments at R12,8-million; and -members' salaries and pension contribution at R168,1-million.

"By the end of the past financial year Parliament had spent R502,7-million.

As is clear, we exceeded our allocation by R22,5-million," Pandor said.

Parliament's chief financial officer, Harry Charlton, was conducting interviews and could not indicate where the excess expenditure went.

While lauding the work that parliamentary committees performed, Pandor said it was disconcerting that last year's committee budget of R12,6-million had been underspent by R7,4-million.

"In order to prevent this in future... we have introduced performance budgeting that will allow committees to manage their own budgets".

The budget for committees this year has been increased to R14-million.

She said the European Union support programme, which paid R115-million over six years, ended in May 2003 but discussions were underway to renew the programme, which was aimed at good governance and strengthening democracy.

Saying that Parliament's budget has been increased in the new financial year to R627,9-million, Pandor said the money would be used to strengthen committee support.” We also plan to increase public participation, to enhance the use of technology in Parliament and especially in the NCOP as an important part of ensuring provincial participation in national matters, as well as improving oversight and accountability capacity".

Pandor also noted the return of an "old and inefficient" method of introducing 76 bills in the National Assembly and none in the NCOP.

"... If all legislation is placed before one house, delays in legislation occur... and in such cases the scrutiny and review of laws is rendered inadequate and we pass 'bad' law".

She also highlighted the urgent need to improve the NCOP's relations with the executive. – Sapa.