Madam Deputy Speaker, Deputy Minister, hon members, during this debate last year we complained about the proportional speaking formula in Parliament. We believe that the formula does not provide parliamentary opposition parties, especially the smaller ones, with enough opportunity to add maximum value to parliamentary debates. Our argument was based on the fact that we believe that the complexity of the work of this institution should be reflected in the proportional formula that is applied to speaking times. Since then, there has been an improvement and we commend Parliament for this. However, we believe that there is still more room for improvement in this regard.
Over the past few years, Parliament has invested resources in educating the public about the importance of its work and has taken steps to improve public access to it. We commend this important step as an increasing number of South Africans now understand the role and work of this institution. There was a big brouhaha, that is, a loud noise, in the media last month about the fact that Parliament spent R16 million on food and beverages last year. Some went to the extent of describing this expenditure as a complete waste of money. However, if the reports that a major share of this budget went into catering during Taking Parliament to the People programmes are indeed true, then the expenditure is justified.
It is only people who do not understand the plight of the poor, the majority of citizens of this country, who can find fault with Parliament when it spends its financial resources on the needs of the people. That being said, nothing stops this institution from scrutinising the expenditure in order to root out inefficiencies, if there are any, in order to ensure that everything is above board.
In conclusion, we call on Parliament to look into the issue of study tours and their value. Some of the study tours seem nothing other than expensive holiday trips for MPs at the taxpayers' expense. Parliament needs to look into this matter. In addition, there is no clarity about which committees can go on study tours and why. This also needs to be addressed. The UDM supports this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]