Parliament, Wednesday, 07 March 2018 – The Standing Committee on Appropriations undertook to enforce the alignment of Local, Provincial and National Department’s Annual Performance Plans (APPs) with the targets of the Medium Term Strategy Framework (MTFS) and National Development Plan (NDP).
Briefed by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) on the alignment of outcomes 6 to 14 of the MTFS with department’s standard planning processes, the Committee raised its concerns with the fact that departments have only included between 16 and 62 percent of MTFS performance indicators in their Annual Performance Plans (APPs). Programme structures that requires urgent revision to allow for the incorporation of the MTFS performance indicators and to provide a suitable environment for the implementation of the NDP goals include Basic Education, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Committee heard.
The Committee was told that Special Integrated Projects (SIPs) follow a process outside of the standard reporting systems in Government, which makes it difficult to monitor as information is only provided on an annual basis during the tabling of the National Budget.
The Committee resolved to take the following action:
- Advise and recommend that departments align their APP’s with the MTFS, NDP goals and budget to be achieved by the 2019/20 financial year.
- Monitoring on progress made to the alignment of MTSF, NDP goals and budget will be carried out by Standing Committee on Appropriations, by August 2018 during the budget review process.
- Refer the PBO report to the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), the Chairpersons’ Panel and the Chairpersons of the various Committees in Parliament, who would be able to monitor the progress of departments in their Committee oversight work.
Chairperson of the Committee, Ms Yvonne Phosa said that “We need to strengthen the alignment of the South African Budget, The MTFS and the NDP. As the committee found in its recent 2018 budget hearings, Medium Term Framing expenditure planning tools and mechanisms are still not sufficiently embedded in the work of departments and public entities; which poses a significant risk to the attainment of the MTFS and NDP targets”.
ISSUED BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, MRS YVONNE PHOSA.
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