Africa-Press – South-Africa. Further budget cuts would place the functioning of Parliament at risk, warned outgoing acting Secretary to Parliament Baby Tyawa.
On Friday, Tyawa and her team presented Parliament’s performance report for the fourth quarter to the Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament.
Parliament reached all its targets for this quarter, from January to March 2022.
However, during this quarter, a fire razed the National Assembly wing and damaged the Old Assembly wing.
Parliament spent 76% of its budget of R873.4 million for the quarter, amounting to R660 million.
“The budget was augmented by R40 439 million from savings to assist with the fire disaster, and this funding was used to fund expenditure for repairs related to the fire incident that occurred on 2 January 2022,” read the presentation to the committee.
“At the end of March, there is an underspending of R213 320million. The underspending will be available for allocation in the next financial year in line with section 16(2) of the FMPPLA. This applies to all under expenditure as indicated in the paragraphs hereunder. Details of the spending patterns per main division are provided under programme performances below.”
Concluding her presentation, Tyawa said:
She added that the legislature is not immune to the financial pressures faced by the rest of the country.
DA MP Tim Brauteseth asked about the magnitude of the budget cuts and which parliamentary programmes would have to be cut.
The acting chief financial officer, Ruby November, said National Treasury reduced Parliament’s budget by R256.7 million for the 2021-2022 financial. She said it would not impact Parliament’s programmes because the money Parliament underspent due to Covid-19 will be used to fund the shortfall.
Parliament’s budget slashed, despite having to exercise oversight over R600bn with only R2bn
She said Parliament doesn’t have to give its savings back to Treasury. It is retained.
Furthermore, the retained funds will not be used to rebuild Parliament. Treasury will assist in that regard.
Meanwhile, MPs are getting impatient to return to physical meetings.
Brauteseth, supported by the EFF’s Nazier Paulsen, asked why the National Council of Provinces’ building, which wasn’t severely damaged by Parliament, isn’t in use six months after the fire or why committee rooms aren’t available.
Tyawa said the buildings are antiquated – some date back to the 1880s. This complicates upgrades.
Secretary to the National Assembly Masibulelo Xaso told the committee that Parliament was looking to house physical meetings of the National Assembly in a “modular structure”.
A procurement process to obtain engineering expertise to assess how these modular structures would work has started. Parliament’s administration had looked at other options to house the National Assembly and found it unsuitable.
They intend to start construction of the modular structures at the end of the year, if approval is granted, and it will be finished “before the end of next year”.
Xaso couldn’t provide further details at this stage.
Brauteseth said that, to his estimation, oversight work is only 60% effective with the use of virtual meetings, compared to when MPs can square off face-to-face with members of the executive.
He asked for an urgent return to physical committee meetings.
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Tyawa said they need to provide information on the capacity and available committee rooms, and work with the committees’ schedules to develop a plan.
She said that, if it was needed, they would have to work with the Department of Public works and Infrastructure to lease venues outside Parliament for committee work.
The committee’s co-chairperson, the ANC’s Peace Mabe, wasn’t keen on leasing venues outside Parliament due to the financial implications.
Several MPs thank Tyawa for her work as acting Secretary to Parliament over the past five years.
On Wednesday, both Houses of Parliament adopted a resolution to appoint Salga CEO Xolile George as Secretary to Parliament. He will start on 15 June.
While being constitutionally obligated to exercise oversight over the executive, Parliament gets its budget from the very same executive.
The National Assembly will debate Parliament’s budget vote for 2022-2023 on Tuesday.
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