Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister and members, it's a privilege to participate in this debate. On 27 October 2009, the Minister of Finance complied with section 28 of the Public Finance Management Act, which requires the Ministry and the Department of Finance to present to Parliament the multiyear budget projections and also to set out the Budget framework, fiscal policy, revenue projections, spending estimates, borrowing requirements and assumptions concerning debt interest cuts over the period.
The relevant committees of Parliament were assigned to process the Medium- Term Budget Policy Statement, MTBPS, and the Adjustments Appropriation and to present their recommendations and responses, in this case, to the NCOP today. The committee had to perform its duties within a very short space of time, given the parliamentary schedule. Joint meetings were held with the Standing Committee on Finance in the National Assembly. Substantive comments and useful inputs were received from business, organised labour and respected economists.
The committee reflected on the following: the state of the economy, economic policy outlook, fiscal and monetary policies, spending priorities and the Budget deficit. The MTBPS was tabled in the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression. It is an environment that is hostile to the poor and the emerging economies - and it is not their fault.
The economic downturn has required a co-ordinated global response that focuses on new approaches to governance, regulation and greater recognition of all role-players, including developing countries.
The closure of factories, small farms that fail, people who struggle to get by on reduced incomes - all of these sometimes lead to hunger. When hunger knocks at the door, then human dignity and survival are at risk.
As we speak, the economy is very slow in recovering, but it will take a long time and a tiresome process to come to where we want it. We must do things differently with less money to address our people's needs. This also means taking tough decisions that will sometimes be unpopular.
We must commend the Minister of Finance and also the Deputy Minister on the fact that the country's national framework response to the global crisis is indeed yielding positive results. Economic recovery can only be realised if proper and sound economic policies, with better co-ordination between all spheres of government, are implemented and monitored.
The committee commends the Minister and the Finance team for protecting key priority areas as outlined in the state of the nation address.
With regard to corporate South Africa, a few lessons can be learned about, firstly, unsustainable banking practices to maximise profit and huge bonuses to executives; and secondly, overvalued corporate assets and stock market shares. This led to high levels of debt and more unsustainable transactions in the world economy.
Goethe wrote, and I quote:
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
And what must we do? We accept the MTBPS as printed and submitted to the committee and to Parliament by the Minister. But what do we do now?
The first thing is the creation of decent jobs. There must be a balance between welfare and work; we are not a welfare state. Do not abandon the inflation targeting now. Get consensus on the fight against corruption. As we sit here, from different political parties and backgrounds, let's fight corruption.
We need qualified and quality teachers, doctors, engineers, chief financial officers and policemen - the people who form the frontline. We need a smaller administration and more operational people. We need to address the structure of the economy and address it seriously - the legacy of the economy we inherited. Progressive thinkers in the world and in South Africa must have a battle of ideas so that they can think and do things differently.
We must be bold and decisive in what we want to do and where we want to go. We must invest in fast-tracking public finance management skills. As parliamentarians, we must, through our various committees, vigorously monitor expenditure patterns in government departments and parastatals, and support Operation Clean Audit.
We should also do our oversight in our constituencies more seriously and thoroughly and address, as a matter of urgency, the mismatch between billions of rands being pumped into provincial coffers and the impact of this on the quality of people's lives.
The focus must be on the core functions. A comprehensive expenditure and service delivery review per department must be done, specifically on education and health, to determine gaps and inefficiencies that must be addressed. We need to strengthen oversight roles and responsibilities through improved planning and tighter monitoring and evaluation.
It is important that interventions improve the performance of provinces as they relate to planning, monitoring and evaluation; and feed into the National Planning Commission and the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit in the Presidency.
Having considered the 2009 MTBPS and also conducted public hearings with the Standing Committee on Finance, the Select Committee on Finance made the following projections and recommendations: Firstly, the setting up of the Parliamentary budget office in the next term in order to support the work of the Finance and Appropriations committees, especially during a value-for- money oversight and accountability exercise. It would therefore be ideal for the director of the parliamentary budget office to be appointed in January 2010.
Secondly, we recommend the strengthening of the working relationship amongst parliament's committees and Statistics SA, the newly established Ministry for performance monitoring and evaluation and the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs department in order to design and implement a co-ordinated approach to value-for-money oversight and accountability.
The committees should be provided with sufficient capacity in terms of administrative, content and research support in order to fulfil their legislative and oversight function.
The parliamentary programme should allow adequate time for parliamentary committees to engage with the MTBPS. The NA and the NCOP should expedite the process of reviewing the current Southern Africa Customs Union, or Sacu, revenue formula. The distribution and transfer of revenue to other member states forms a critical part in terms of the amount of revenue the economy generates.
The new money bills amendment Act requires that members of this House, as a matter of urgency, take a keen interest in the Budget process as it gives Parliament more powers and clarity on how best we can perform our oversight and responsibilities.
Chairperson, I take the opportunity to ask this House to approve and adopt this report in the NCOP. I thank you. [Applause.]