The North West Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs has in its endeavor to align itself with the best practices around budgeting organised a workshop to capacitate its employees.
The objective of the workshop was to provide clarity to all budget holders and controllers on the design and use of the budget programmes in departmental budgetary and management systems, and also specify roles of programme and sub-programme managers in the budget process and requirements to ensure adherence in the compilation of budgets.
The Director Finance, Ms. Tshegofatso Sewedi emphasised that a need to align the budget programme structure to organisational structure particularly at programme and sub-programme level was to ensure that there exists a single channel of reporting where appropriate accountability for funds is defined and attainment of results is achieved and that creating or amending the Budget Programme Structure should always be in consultation with National Treasury and should normally be established in the context of the preparation of a strategic plan.
The purpose of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) Provincial Budget Guidelines was also brought into sharp focus.
Amongst others the purpose of MTEF Provincial Budget Guideline is to provide the basis for requirements that departments and public entities should adhere to in the compilation of budgets, to serve as a tool for provincial departments & public entities to implement budget reforms, to serve as a planning tool for provincial departments & public entities on deciding and agreeing on the best allocation of scarce resources to fund government goals or objectives, focuses of resource allocations and to capture the main outputs to be acquired and the emphasis on the integration of strategic planning, budgeting and the monitoring of service delivery performance (non-financial performance) coupled with effective financial information.
MEC, Manketsi Tlhape applauded the directorate finance for this initiative stating that it is critical to impart such information to staff members as we should lead by example for municipalities to follow suit, she also re iterated that some recurring problems in the MTEF provincial budget guideline are due to the fact that programme managers are sometimes not involved in budget processes early enough, the planning process, particularly the reprioritization and identification of new initiatives and this results in the non-alignment between budgeting and planning.
In conclusion, Ms Sewedi reiterated that the main focus of the 2014 / 15 budget process should be that the expenditure be kept within overall ceiling established by budget 2014 as indicated in 2014 MTEF allocation letters spending pressures, strengthening of existing programmes, and new priorities must be evaluated from within the aggregate spending baseline; and the baseline analysis, should be broadly informed by government’s priorities, expressed in the objectives of the NDP, Medium Term Strategic Framework, New Growth Path, with the aim of identifying efficiency gains, among others and composition of spending must shift away from current consumption to service delivery.
Consultation schedule per programme has been distributed for preparation of the budget adjustments and processes for 2014 / 2015.
