8. Consideration of Reports of Standing Committee on Appropriations The Standing Committee on Appropriations (SCOA) was established in terms of section 4(3) of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, No.9 of 2009. The Act requires SCOA to consider and report on spending issues, and on actual expenditure published by the National Treasury. SCOA has adopted a tradition of inviting both the National Treasury and the affected departments to account on government spending. This consultative approach gives SCOA an opportunity to interrogate departments on their spending with a view to identify and strengthen gaps in public spending. SCOA is established as a strategic centre to flag issues which might impact negatively on service delivery through scrutiny of government spending. As such, it agreed during its business planning session to move swiftly towards balancing its expenditure monitoring with actual performance.