Hon Deputy Chairperson
Hon Members of the Council
Guests of Parliament in the gallery
We appreciate the opportunity to present the budget of Parliament under this year’s theme Socio-economic Development through Oversight and Public Participation.
We do so a few days shy of June 19, a day that will mark the centenary of the passage of the Natives Land Act of 1913. It is about two weeks after we celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Organisation of African Unity (now called the African Union (AU)). As the first verse of the AU Anthem states:
“Let us all unite and celebrate together
The victories won for our liberation
Let us dedicate ourselves to rise together
To defend our liberty and unity”
Given that we are nearing the end of the fourth Parliament, I will look at what we set out to do at the beginning of the term, what we have actually done so far, the priorities for the current financial year and future challenges.
What we set out to do in 2009
The key role of Parliament is to consider and pass legislation, oversee government action, ensure public involvement and participate in international relations.
In response to the work outlined for the mandating period of the fourth Parliament, we developed the Strategic Plan with five strategic objectives. Under the umbrella of an “activist” people’s Parliament, we subdivided these objectives into concrete and manageable outputs.
Strategic Objective 1: Strengthen the oversight function and establish a strong culture of overseeing executive action
Under this objective there are two projects which are:
1) to develop oversight monitoring and evaluation system, and
2) to implement the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act
The Oversight Monitoring and Evaluation system is aimed at bringing information to Members and Committees and to enhance monitoring and tracking. The project has commenced with an assessment of information flows.
To support implementation of the Money Bills Act the Parliamentary Budget Office was launched in February this year and Prof Mohammed Jahed has, since June 4, been appointed as the Director of the office on a five-year performance-based renewable contract. The office will specialise in producing high-quality research and analysis of fiscal policy and provide independent, objective and professional advice to Parliament on fiscal matters.
We continued to pay attention to oversight and public participation mandates of Parliament. For example, the NCOP introduced the Oversight Week as a mechanism to follow up on matters emanating from the “Taking Parliament to the People” and “Provincial Week” programmes.
In regard to questions to the Executive, since 2010 there has been a decline in the number of unanswered questions. For the past financial year the NCOP put a total of 843 questions to the Executive. A total of 827 responses were received. We aim to achieve zero unanswered questions.
We have also seen an increase in the number of thematic debates. During the last financial year a total of 20 resolutions emanating from recommendations captured in reports of Select Committees were adopted by the House and communicated to government departments. However Members have raised the need to improve monitoring of our resolutions.
Strategic Objective 2: Increase public involvement and participation, building a responsive people’s Parliament.
Five priority projects were designed to achieve this strategic objective and are all underway. These are to:
1) Develop Public Participation Model
2) Expand the reach of broadcasting through upgrade of broadcast infrastructure in Chambers and Committee Rooms
3) Integrate and implement electronic publishing systems
4) Develop transcription system
5) Develop Parliamentary Constituency Mechanism and offices
The House Chairpersons will deal with the detail of these projects.
To fulfil the constitutional injunction of facilitating public involvement in our processes, our people have participated in legislative processes. Sectoral parliaments were also held.
However, some of the sectoral parliaments (i.e. the Youth Parliament and People’s Assembly) had some undesirable outcomes and were mired in avoidable controversy. We hope to learn from the reports and recommendations we requested in respect of these public involvement initiatives. These should be submitted soon.
Since the beginning of the fourth Parliament the Taking Parliament to the People programme has been remodelled to make it more effective. The improvements to the programme included intense preparatory work prior to the actual visit and dedicated follow-up. The new approach has been very successful leading to clear and measurable targets in the five provinces we visited. The last programme is scheduled for later this year and work will begin tomorrow.
As part of the 15th Anniversary programme we organised the following initiatives:
1. a Child Rights Seminar in 2012
2. a public lecture on the role of Parliament in general and the NCOP in particular (hosted by the University of the Western Cape) earlier this year.
It is my view that we need to engage more with civil society organisations.
Strategic Objective 3: Strengthening co-operative government
Since 2009 the NCOP has been involved in 32 interventions in terms of section 139, and two interventions in terms of section 100 of the Constitution. I am however concerned at the increasing number of section 139 interventions. My view is that we need to strengthen implementation of the provisions of section 154 (1) of the Constitution, which demands of the national and provincial spheres to support and strengthen municipalities.
Since establishing the portfolio of Intergovernmental Relations and Cooperative Government in 2010, in the office of the Chairperson, we have sought to promote co-ordination, co-operative governance and facilitate sound intergovernmental relations regime within and across the three spheres of government and organs of state.
Last year we held the first Local Government Week focusing on matters affecting the local government sphere. The second Local Government Week will be in two months’ time, continuing our partnership with the South African Local Government Association. The focus this year should be on feedback and resolution of issues.
On the other hand we continue to strengthen our relations with the provinces.
Strategic Objective 4: Improve and widen the role of Parliament in international co-operation and participation
Parliament has been actively involved in bilateral and multilateral relations activities since the beginning of the term. Key multilateral structures in which we participate include the SADC-PF, PAP, IPU, CPA, ASSECAA, AC-PEU and the SA-EU.
The hosting of the Globe Chapter in preparation for the COP17 Conference as well as the IPU-COP17 Climate Change Meeting that Parliament successfully co-hosted on the margins of the United Nations’ COP17 Climate Change Conference in Durban, in December 2011, provided a platform for the voice of Parliament on matters pertaining to climate change.
Last year, our Parliament hosted the President of India in an attempt to encourage robust parliament-to-parliament relations in the spirit of the IBSA and BRICS initiatives. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, HE Dr Goodluck Jonathan, addressed the Joint Sitting of Parliament this year and highlighted the important role that our democracies need to play in the continent.
Early last year a delegation of the Parliamentary Oversight Authority, led by the Presiding Officers, undertook a benchmarking visit to the European Parliament to exchange experiences in the field of parliamentary governance and institutional oversight. This also assisted in the elevation of relations between the two parliaments. During the visit the Presiding Officers had an occasion to meet the Vice-President of the European Parliament. As Members may recall, Parliament hosted the President of the European Parliament, Mr Martin Schulz, last month during the International Consultative Seminar here in Cape Town as part of this relationship.
Importantly, later this year we will host the 59th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Strategic objective 5: Build an effective and efficient institution
Eight projects were designed to achieve this strategic objective and these are:
1) Review of organisational structure
2) Organisational culture and change
3) NA Chamber upgrade
4) Integrated planning, budgeting, performance and reporting
5) Enhance library services
6) IT Infrastructure upgrade
7) Develop Members’ leave and attendance system, and
8) Establish the five Democratic Parliament
These projects are in progress. In respect of the organisational structure, we have attended to current challenges by filling a number of senior management positions that became vacant. This work is continuing. However our overall aim is to develop a structure that is responsive to the needs of Members.
We are improving accessibility of Parliament to the people. The new mobile version of our website, which takes advantage of the high number of South Africans who access the Internet via their mobile phones, will make it easy for anyone, wherever they may be, to easily access parliamentary information. The Integrated Digital Library Management System will help capture, catalogue, store and circulate information through different delivery methods.
Challenges
This term has seen a high number of litigation cases involving Parliament since 1994. In total we had 22 cases where we were cited and some of them are still on-going. These varied from cases regarding labour-related issues to disputes concerning our Rules of Procedure.
To address matters relating to the quality of the legislation we pass, Members would be pleased that steps have been taken to remedy this situation, including the establishment of the Legislative Drafting Unit in the Constitutional and Legal Services Office. In respect of our home-grown legislation, we are in the process of amending the Financial Management of Parliament Act and the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act.
Another challenge is ensuring that our oversight, public participation and the laws we pass have the desired impact. Hence our theme for this year. It is therefore important to conduct an empirical assessment of our business in these areas in the same manner we did with regard to the “Taking Parliament to the People” programme in the previous Parliament.
The expenditure trends for the term
The focal point of our expenditure since the term began has been on:
1. improving oversight between the three spheres of government,
2. increasing participation in international forums,
3. increasing the level of services rendered to Members,
4. improving and upgrading the IT system,
5. increasing activities aimed at improving public participation through the dissemination of educational information to increase public access to Parliament, and,
6. improving Parliament’s oversight role by increasing the number of site visits undertaken by committees each year.
Parliament’s overall spending increase between 2009/10 and 2012/13 was mainly due to the initiatives undertaken to improve public participation. These involved the dissemination of educational information to increase public access to Parliament, as well as building content development capacity.
Over the same period, the increase of 18.4 per cent in the Legislation and Oversight programme and the 21 per cent increase in the Public and International Participation programme were due to the upgrading of information systems, the establishing of a parliamentary budget office, the development of a tracking system for improved oversight changes, and the improvement of conditions of service. The spending increase over the medium term will be within the inflationary rate, with the bulk of spending in the Administration and Legislation and Oversight programmes.
Parliament makes transfer payments to political parties in terms of section 57(2)(c) of the Constitution to allow them to carry out their legislative mandate. The spending increases in the Associated Services programme between 2009/10 and 2012/13 and over the medium term are mainly to provide for inflation-related adjustments.
This year’s budget (2013/14)
For the current financial year Parliament has been allocated a total of R1 873.1 billion, which includes R453.7 million direct charge against the National Revenue Fund for Members’ remuneration. This does not include the retained funds amounting to R141 million that have been approved for funding of priority projects.
The budget represents increases of 8 per cent for Legislation and Oversight programme, and 6 per cent for each of the programmes: Administration, Public and International Participation, Members’ Facilities and Associated Services.
This budget will be utilised to further implement the work before Parliament for the current financial year which include to:
1) Develop and implement knowledge management strategy and Institute
2) Assess impact of legislation passed
3) Develop protocols and mechanisms for co-operative government
4) Develop programme to deepen and entrench democracy (including awareness surveys)
5) Assess state organs and development of reporting mechanism for public-funded bodies
6) Develop mechanism to improve nation building and heritage
7) Enhance services for Members
8) Improve Enterprise Resource Planning, and lastly;
9) Space Utilisation
There is more detail to support this budget than time allows. But I have given a high-level perspective to illustrate that we are indeed on course in capacitating Parliament in order to promote nation building and multiparty democracy.
Certainly we have scored some victories amidst challenges. I thank the Members of Parliament for their hardwork, the Secretary to Parliament and the entire administration for their support. We are confident that we will have a capable institution that carries its constitutional mandate effectively and efficiently as one of the arms of the state.
I wish to conclude by citing another verse from the Anthem of the AU:
“Let us all unite and toil together
To give the best we have to Africa
The cradle of mankind and fount of culture
Our pride and hope at break of dawn”
Without doubt, our Parliament has a great contribution to make towards realising not only the dream of South Africans, but also that of Africa and its diverse people. Africa must rise and its entire people prosper.
I thank you
