Chair, as you know, the main cost driver in Parliament's budget is the compensation of employees. Parliament has a total staff of 1 548; 1 277 filled posts and 271 vacancies. A total of 102 vacancies exist in the Legislation and Oversight Division and 96 in the Office of the Secretary to Parliament. Surely Parliament needs to fill these vacancies if we hope to improve our oversight capacity to ensure sound governance and effective service delivery.
Parliament plans to improve its oversight role by increasing the number of oversight visits undertaken by committee members each year. While we wholeheartedly agree, committees increasingly appear to be having the hardest time getting oversight trips off the ground. Over and over again, things are still in the air at the last minute or cancelled because no authority or payment comes from the Speaker's Office.
On occasion, I have had to go to the airport with no confirmation of flights and stand at the reservations desk an hour before flying, waiting for confirmation of payment from your office, Mr Speaker. Yesterday an overseas oversight and study trip, leaving on Friday, was cancelled as the Speaker's Office could not confirm before Wednesday, resulting in the trip being postponed. Africa Day celebrations were also compromised by delayed approvals, again appearing to emanate from the Speaker's Office. Mr Speaker, I don't know what the problems are or who is dropping the ball, but something seems to be wrong, and it is reflecting badly on you, sir.
Upgrading the information technology system and increasing public participation are also priorities for Parliament. To ensure public involvement, understanding and full participation in legislative and other processes, more frequent parliamentary broadcasts and education on public participation will be necessary.
Parliament's intention to increase public participation and involvement in its work is supported by the constituency support subprogramme, which gets a substantial portion of the budget, followed by political-party support and party-leadership support, but while all three subprogrammes experience nominal increases, none is inflation related.
Because Parliament is not required to return unspent funds to the National Revenue Fund, unspent funds from previous years accumulate as retained earnings, and this surplus will be used to fund IT projects to upgrade the audiovisual system in both Houses of Parliament, not a minute too soon.
We all know the National Assembly is limping along in this regard, but Extended Public Committees this year were full of frustrating moments for members and Ministers as microphones played havoc with budget speeches and time allocations. Talking about EPCs, the cockroaches in the Old Assembly were a bit off-putting, too.
The budget reflects an increase of 4,8% this year, but in real terms it has decreased, casting a shadow over Parliament's chances of meeting its objectives. Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your straight assessment. The ACDP will be supporting this Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]