National Treasury BRRR

Meeting report

Chairperson Mawanganyi welcomed everyone in attendance and announced the agenda of the meeting.
Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report of the Standing Committee on Finance
Co-Chairperson Abraham announced that Members would do a line-by-line consideration of the report from section 12, the Committee observations and recommendations.

Mr Zakhele Hlophe, Committee Content Advisor, pointed the Committee to the recommendation in section 12.6, requiring the Minister of Finance to provide a written report on vacancies, within 30 days after the adoption of this report. He asked Members if the timeframe should be changed to 60 days or remain as 30 days.

Co-Chairperson Abraham and Ms M Mabiletsa (ANC) agreed that 30 days was enough.

Dr D George (DA) suggested that the wording in section 12.7 should be stronger. He proposed the replacement of the word “regrettable” with “it is unacceptable and action should be taken”.

Co-Chairperson Abraham stated that the lack of a timeframe for the Public Procurement Bill to be introduced in section 12.16 could be problematic.

Mr Hlophe replied that setting a timeframe would be difficult given National Treasury (NT) has been promising to present the Bill to the Committee since 2014. 

Co-Chairperson Abraham suggested the inclusion of NT having to report on its progress on the Bill within seven days.

Mr W Wessels (FF+) agreed with the suggestion. 

Dr George warned that the Committee should not be commenting on what the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) should be doing with interest rates, as it is an independent institution. He suggested leaving out the last line in section 12.28.

Mr Wessels agreed with Dr George’s suggestion. 

Co-Chairperson Abraham proposed the adoption of the report with the amendments

Dr George stated that the DA reserves its position on the report. 

Ms Mabiletsa moved for the adoption of the report.

Chairperson Mawanganyi seconded the motion

The Committee adopted the report with amendments.

Chairperson Mawanganyi shared closing remarks and thanked everyone in attendance.

The meeting was adjourned.