Chairperson, delegates, our guests in the gallery, I rise to support the budget of Parliament as presented by the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces. It is now a year since this House was established in May 2009. This gives us an opportunity to reflect on the road we have travelled since then.
I would like to start by emphasising that the process of contributing to the development of the budget before us does not start and end with this debate. Parliament has a governance structure for considering issues throughout the year.
Our governance model provides for a Parliamentary Oversight Authority, which is co-chaired by the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces. The Parliamentary Oversight Authority is responsible for formulating policy directives in respect of the various services and facilities of Parliament.
Its mandate is to ensure an effective and efficient Parliament by putting in place an appropriate system of governance by means of which Parliament is managed and controlled in support and furtherance of its strategies and policies. The Parliamentary Oversight Authority is accountable directly to the two Houses of Parliament.
Members of Parliament make inputs to Parliament's budget via two primary structures. These are the Quarterly Consultative Forum and the Parliamentary Budget Forum. The Quarterly Consultative Forum is a forum that facilitates the input of Members of Parliament on matters related to members' facilities. The Parliamentary Budget Forum is the forum that prepares the parliamentary budget and reports on it. The composition of these structures is explained in the governance model document.
House Chairperson, one of the important tasks of the Fourth Parliament is the implementation of the oversight and accountability model. The impact of the model on the parliamentary programme is significant. For example, a complete oversight process would require additional time for constituency work to ensure sharper focus on oversight matters, greater public participation in parliamentary activities and the consideration of reports of committees, as well as private members' business. The programme framework to be proposed to the Joint Rules Committee, the Joint Programming Committee and the Programming Committees of both Houses must take into account these requirements.
The model identified potential mechanisms that could further strengthen oversight and accountability. Therefore, the Rules had to be reviewed to provide for regulatory frameworks in respect of the following: the processing of reports from sectoral parliaments; oversight of international agreements; executive compliance; joint reporting by committees; and referral of matters arising from reports of international bodies. The model recommends, among other things, the establishment and/or development of sufficient human resource capacity to enable committees to conduct effective oversight. We are responding to this by increasing support capacity in areas such as research and content analysis.
Also under consideration is the joint parliamentary oversight and assurance committee. This committee is proposed for the purposes of governing the work and function of committees in Parliament.
On the other hand, the implementation of the new Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, Act 9 of 2009, presents new challenges for Parliament. The Act provides Parliament with a procedure to amend money Bills, as well as norms and standards for amending money Bills before provincial legislatures and related matters.
While much progress has been made to facilitate the implementation of this Act, such as the establishment of the Finance and Appropriations committees in each House, a lot still needs to be done. This includes, for example, processing and adoption of the Division of Revenue Bill. The provisions of the Act were implemented to process the Division of Revenue Bill. However, the time allocated for this process is too limited to invoke the provisions of the Mandating Procedures of Provinces Act to allow the provinces adequate time to process the Bill and provide mandates to their delegates in this House. With regard to the establishment of the parliamentary budget office, it is under consideration. We need to find a common and shared view of how this office should operate. A number of issues have still to be ironed out regarding, among others, the accounting responsibilities of the director and the roles of other structures within Parliament.
On legislative work, our focus has been the review of the legislation that has been passed and rectifying areas of weakness through amendments. However, there is a need for Parliament to ascertain the impact of the laws we pass. Through its committees, this House can start by focusing on section 76 legislation.
Hon members, we are aware of the expressed need to capacitate our committees. As I have indicated, work is being done to ensure that committees have the necessary capacity to carry out their responsibilities. This must include the capacity to ensure value for money and proper spending.
As you are aware, our financial environment is now regulated by the Financial Management of Parliament Act. The Act, which came into operation in April last year in accordance with the transitional arrangements as set out in Schedule 4, will help to ensure transparency, accountability and sound management of the revenue, expenditure, assets and liabilities of Parliament. It reinforces the constitutional status of Parliament in that it ensures a consultative relationship between Parliament and the National Treasury.
It is worth noting that the role of Parliament and the provincial legislatures is located within the broader scope of the legislative sector in South Africa. Through the Speakers' Forum, we continue to oversee the management and co-ordination of the legislative sector programmes as determined by the South African Legislative Sector Policy and Strategic Framework. This is important because we have one government, which is unitary but with regional features.
House Chairperson, I started by making reference to the work we do through the provincial week because it is important that we maintain the link with provinces. At this point, I am reminded of what former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi once said:
My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition there.
Let us be part of the first group of people who do the work. Twelve months after the establishment of this House, allow me to raise certain questions to establish whether we have done what we were supposed to do.
The questions are as follows: What have we done to advance the mandate of this House? What have we done to respond to the priorities we set ourselves in August last year, which are contained in the NCOP Strategic Framework Plan? What have we done to promote intergovernmental relations and co- operative government in the conduct of our business? How have we followed up on service delivery matters that were the subject of consideration by this House? I would like the chairpersons of the committees and the Whippery to consider and respond to these questions before recess. Their responses will give us an opportunity to do an analysis in order to develop our first report, which should be ready after the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.
The legacy of Mandela requires that we work hard to uplift our people and to destroy the remains of the legacy of apartheid. With these words, I would like to thank the officials for the support they continue to give us under the leadership of the Secretary to Parliament. Their role is indispensable as Members of Parliament rely on technical support to be able to do their work. Thank you. [Applause.]