Question One
Ms NN Sibhidla (ANC) to ask the Deputy President:
1. What steps will the Government implement in the next five years to:
(a) eliminate the fiscal x-inefficiencies in departments and
(b) improve the operational efficiencies of the state to accelerate the service-delivery process?
Reply:
Honourable Members, our country like the rest of the world has been affected by the economic downturn. We are going through a recession for the first time in 17 years. As a result of this, tax revenues, after adjusting for inflation, are expected to decline significantly. Our government finds itself having to meet its commitments to the people of South Africa with fewer resources than before.
We are taking steps to ensure that government works better and uses public resources to deliver services to the people.
The overarching goal of the steps we have taken is to make sure that departments operate better and serve our people with speed and effectiveness.
The two ministers in the Presidency, Ministers Chabane and Manuel, will be tabling Green Papers on Planning and Performance Monitoring and Evaluation respectively in the near future, which will outline clear and concrete steps on how we plan to improve the way government does business.
Cabinet has also appointed a three-person Ministerial Task Team consisting of Ministers Gordhan, Chabane and Baloyi to make proposals on reprioritizing spending to increase the impact of the budget. The assignment of this Task Team is not to cut public spending but to make proposals on how to reduce wastage and direct spending to new high impact areas. They will be presenting their proposals to Cabinet in due course.
Beyond the immediate work of the Ministerial Task Team, Government is undertaking a detailed and comprehensive expenditure review to identify whether there are programmes which should be scaled down and their funding redirected to high impact priorities.
National Treasury is looking into how Government procurement is managed as well as investigating cases of impropriety in the awarding of tenders.
Let me say, in conclusion, that this government is taking all these steps because the challenges facing our society demand that we work better. It also has to be stated that Cabinet and the national sphere of government will work in concert with the other two spheres to give effect to these steps.
Issued by: The Presidency
19 August 2009
