Parliament, Saturday, 25 March 2023 – The Select Committee on Appropriations adopted its report on the Second Adjustments Appropriation Bill for the 2022/23 financial year yesterday. The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) referred the Bill to the committee after the Bill was referred to the NCOP by the National Assembly for concurrence.
The Bill proposes to appropriate additional funding allocations for expenditures approved in the 2022/23 financial year to address some of the spending pressures while continuing to stabilise public finances.
As part of the committees' processes, interested stakeholders made written submissions and comments on the Bill followed by public hearings. Institutions such as the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC), and the Parliamentary Budget Office made comments while the Congress of South African Trade Unions participated in the public hearings in line with section 72 of the Constitution.
During deliberations, the committee expressed a view that the Bill could have been tabled together with the 2022 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement or included in the 2023 Appropriation Bill. The committee remained concerned with the lack of innovation and risk to the fiscus posed by the South African Post Office (SAPO); South African Airways and Eskom despite being recipients of numerous bailout packages in previous years.
The committee noted concerns raised by the FFC regarding the R3.8 billion of the Social Relief of Distress Grant funds due to stringent means test which led to fewer people accessing the grant. Whilst the committee supported measures to fight corruption and maladministration in the social grant space, it is of the view that the stringent conditions of the grant should not have negative effect to the most vulnerable, the needy and potential beneficiaries of the grant.
The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Dikeledi Mahlangu, emphasised the fact that SAPO and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies must address challenges facing the entity together as well as issues affecting workers at SAPO.
The committee further called for all funds disbursed for bailouts to be fully accounted for and turnaround strategies effectively implemented and conditions attached to bailouts to be fully complied with and concrete mechanisms to be put in place for consequence management where non-compliance exists.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, MS DIKELEDI MAHLANGU
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Jabulani Majozi (Mr)
Parliamentary Communication Services
Cell: 083 358 5224
E-mail: jamajozi@parliament.gov.za
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