COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT

JANUARY– NOVEMBER 2003

 

  1. Name of the Committee: Joint Budget Committee (JBC)
  2. Mandate of the Committee (vision, mission etc)

The JBC’s mandate is found in its Terms of Reference as gazzetted on 28 October 2002. These Terms of Reference are very broad and the Committee intends holding a series of workshops in order to unpack them and then formulates its vision/mission. One workshop was held in June 2003 which resulted in the Committee producing a conceptual paper which is now a Committee’s working document.

    1. List of Entities Reporting to the Committee

The Committee monitors monthly expenditure by all Government

Departments and reports to Parliament quarterly.

  1. Chairperson’s overview (summary for the year)

    2. The year 2003 was challenging for the Joint Budget Committee. Firstly, as a new Committee it had to "carve its own niche." It had to ensure that it puts in place structures and a programme that was relevant for it to perform its tasks. One of the critical issues facing the Committee was to motivate its members to prioritise its work. To address this issue we had to approach the Whips and Chairpersons of Committee Chairpersons to highlight the crisis of membership of the Committee.

    The Whips and Chairpersons of Committee Chairpersons gave recognition to the problem by appointing fulltime members to the Committee, particularly those from the National Assembly (NA) component. The fact that the Committee is a joint committee raises problems with attendance by members of both Houses who may have overlapping membership of Committees, as is frequently the case with the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

    The Committee had to carefully analyze the role envisaged for it by Parliament. The Committee also had to strike a balance between capacity building, which is ongoing, and doing its work. We were able to produce our quarterly reports as required even though our deadlines were hampered by delays in availability of information.

    We have been able to convene a workshop which produced our working document. A major challenge for this Committee highlighted during this workshop is the need to make proposals on how the budget must be processed in accordance with Section 77(2) of the Constitution.

    One of the important interactions has been with the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC), firstly to introduce ourselves as a new Committee and most importantly to deliberate on how best the Committee can involve them in its work.

    We have observed that Parliament in some instances is not alive to the existence of the Joint Budget Committee, particularly when referring Bills and other documents to the Committees.

  2. Core objectives (responsibilities)

    3. The Committee monitors monthly published actual revenue and expenditure per department and ascertains whether they are in line with budget projections. To this end the Committee adopted and reported to Parliament three quarterly reports in 2003.

    1. Legislation

(Highlight briefly the main provisions of the Bills referred to the Committee, submission received and indicate any amendments made)

Item 2 of the Committee’s Terms of Reference stipulates, amongst other, that the JBC must consider the Appropriation Bill. However, according to the current Parliamentary arrangement this Bill is still the competency of the Finance Portfolio and Select Committees and the JBC attended their hearings on the Bill.

Although the Adjustments Appropriation Bill was formally considered by the Finance Committee, the Joint Budget Committee played a leading role during hearings on Bill.

The Committee also took part during the hearings on the Division

of Revenue Bill held by the Select Committee on Finance.

 

 

      1. Matters other than mandated legislation:

        1. International agreements

          2. None

        2. Hearings on matters of national interest, if any…

- Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS)

The MTBPS is aimed at providing a pre-budget view on the macro-economic context, assumptions and projections underlying the Budget, the medium term fiscal policy framework, and the main divisions of revenue between functions and spheres of government.

The JBC Committee held hearings on the MTBPS between 14 and 19 November 2003 and reported to Parliament on 24 November 2003.

- Inter-governmental Fiscal Review

The JBC attended the hearings of the Select Committee on the Inter-governmental Fiscal Review.

    1. Oversight

(Briefly indicate places where the committee conducted oversight, its findings and recommendations on the visit/s)

      1. Annual Reports

None

      1. Implementation of legislation

None

      1. Institutional Oversight

None

4.2.4 International / national visits (capacity building)

As part of capacity building, the Committee held a workshop in

Parliament where the National Treasury briefed the Committee on

the Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) document which is a

detailed analysis of the budget.

The Committee did not undertake any visits during 2003. However, it is the Committee’s intention to undertake an international study tour of a country where the Budget Committee has been fully operational for a long time.
  1. Committee activities

5.1 Invitations for Co-Chairpersons – Any invitation received on behalf of the Committee and not in his/her individual capacity.

With the mandate of the Committee, the Co-Chairpersons attended three meetings of the Budget Council in Pretoria and one Budget Council Lekgotla in Kleinmond (Western Cape).

The Budget Council consists of the Minister of Finance and all the MECs of Finance. Its main function is to co-ordinate the different interests of national and provincial governments and to make sure that agreement is reached on how to share revenue.
    1. Conferences

None

6. Financial statements

Amount allocated for 2003/4 = R200 000

Less: Total Expenditure = R170 600

---------------------------

- Catering = R 19 229

- Attendance of Budget Council meetings = R 36 011

- Workshop on Terms of Reference (Facilitator) = R 9 000

- Hearings on MTBPS = R106 360

-----------------------------------

- Newspaper Adverts = R71 160

- Consultants/Report drafters =R35 200

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Balance (as at 25 November 2003) R29 400

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Appendices

  1. COMPOSITION OF COMMITTEE

MEMBERSHIP:

MEMBER

DATE APPOINTED

(in current Parliament)

DATE DISCHARGED

African National Congress

Baloyi, Mr M R * (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Hanekom, Mr D A (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Hlangwana, Ms N L (NA)

04/02/2003

15/05/2003

Hogan, Ms B A * (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Koornhof, Dr G W * (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Kgwele, Mr L M (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Lucas, Mr G A (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Mahlangu, Ms Q D (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Masutha, Adv M T (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Mohlala, Mr R J P (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Moloto, Mr K A * (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Mtsweni, Ms N S (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Nene, Mr N M (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Ralane, Mr T (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Ratsoma, Ms M M (NA)

15/05/2003

  

Schneemann, Mr G D * (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Sikakane, Mr M R * (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Sithole, Mr D J * (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Taabe, Mr B T (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Themba, Ms M P (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Thompson, Ms B (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Tsheole, Ms N M (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Zita, Mr L (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  
     

Democratic Alliance

Botha, Ms C-S (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Rabie, Dr P J (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Taljaard, Ms R * (NA)

29/10/2002

  

Theron, Mr J L (NA)

18/03/2003

  
     

Inkatha Freedom Party

Bhengu, Mr M J (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Seaton, Ms S A * (NA)

14/05/2003

  

Smith, Mr P F * (NA)

14/05/2003

  

Woods, Dr G G (NA)

29/10/2002

  
     

New National Party

Conroy, Dr E A (NCOP)

29/10/2002

  

Odendaal, Dr W A (NA)

19/08/2003

  
     

African Christian Democratic Party

Blaas, Col A (NA)

12/11/2003

  

Southgate, Ms R (NA)

29/10/2002

12/11/2003
     

* indicates an alternate member