Parliament, Thursday, 11 July 2019 – Parliament’s appropriations committees this week met with the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) and the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) to deliberate on the 2019 Appropriations Bill.
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Appropriations and the National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP’s) Select Committee on Appropriations jointly had meetings with the two institutions for an independent analysis of the Appropriations Bill.
Both the FFC and PBO briefed the committees on areas that need attention, like under-spending in some areas and emphasised the need to ensure that the budget talks to the priorities of our country as defined by the President in his State of the Nation Address.
The committees understand the difficult economic conditions under which the budget is set, with many challenges to deal with low economic growth, high rate of unemployment, high poverty levels and inequality.
The continued targeting of priority areas like social grants, education, health, and others, is welcome. The Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Appropriations, Mr Sfiso Buthelezi, raised a concern about the efficiency of spending.
“Throwing money into a problem is not a panacea to problems. It may be a necessary condition, but definitely not a sufficient one,” said Mr Buthelezi.
The committees further advised that going forward, sectors like tourism and agriculture should get more allocations because of higher multiplier effects in terms of job creation and economic growth impact.
The committees noted with concern comments from the FFC that South Africa’s economy was on “survival mode”, a situation which some Members of Parliament described as worrying and painting a grim picture of what was going on in the country.
The committees were also briefed about possible risks that impacted on the Appropriations Bill, which include the poor performance of the economy, poor infrastructure, poor project planning, as well as the huge public sector wage bill, among other things.
Ms Dikeledi Mahlangu, the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Appropriations, emphasized the need to roll out the proposed National Health Insurance, saying the delay disadvantaged citizens who did not have access to quality health care.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, MR SFISO BUTHELEZI AND THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, MS DIKELEDI MAHLANGU
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