The Joint Budget Committee (JBC) was constituted by a resolution of Parliament in 2003 to give effect to several aspects of Parliament’s oversight responsibilities regarding the public finances. The current JBC was convened in 2004 and its co-chairpersons elected later on that year. This document is the result of a 4 month long process in the first half of 2005 to map out a way forward for the duration of the current parliament in the form of a rolling strategic plan. The document, which will be updated in 2006, sets out the JBC’s strategy for developing its role in the budget process in practice, and for engagement in the current MTEF and budget cycle.

In compiling the document the JBC set itself the task of being brief, activity-focused and transparent. While a conceptual framework and the necessary background information is provided therefore, the JBC endeavoured to be concise and clear in setting out a work plan for 2005 and 2006. The document is set out in four main sections. Section one provides the conceptual framework for the JBC’s strategic decisions by formulating its vision, mission and core goals for the strategic plan period (2005 to 2007), the second frames the strategy by providing information on background factors such as the JBCs Terms of Reference (TORs) and parallel processes elsewhere in Parliament affecting the JBCs work, the third sets out the activities the Committee will undertake to achieve its objectives and the fourth discusses how it will organize itself to undertake the activities.

The JBC’s vision is to have an effective role in budget management, facilitating improved spending outcomes in terms of (i) aligning spending with government priorities, and (ii) ensuring value for money.

The JBCs goals to reach this mission are

• To review and provide meaningful recommendations aimed at improving spending effectiveness and efficiency to parliament on budget allocations in Appropriation Bill and the MTBPS
• To review actual expenditure reports on a monthly and quarterly basis for spending effectiveness and efficiency
• To engage the executive effectively in a dialogue on spending effectiveness through the above two tasks.
• To engage with, coordinate and guide portfolio and select committees work on the budget in order to streamline parliament’s role in budget management
• To put in place a structure and work method that will effectively make use of committee capacity
• To build its own resources in order to fulfill its mandate.

The TORs of the JBC for 2005 – as passed by the NA in concurrence with the NCOP – specify the structure of the Committee (in terms of political party shares and number of members from the two Houses respectively) and mandates it to undertake specific tasks. These tasks are

1. Consider the proposed allocations in the Medium-term Expenditure Framework and Appropriation Bill (and whether these are in keeping with Government policy directions)
2. Consider the Medium-term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), with the exception of those sections dealing with the macro-economic situation and revenue
3. Conduct hearings on the MTEF and the Budget Policy Review document, with the exception of those sections dealing with the macro-economic situation and revenue
4. Monitor published actual revenue and expenditure per department (to ascertain whether they are in line with budget projections)
5. Report on the MTBPS (regarding the matters referred to under 2 above) and quarterly on actual revenue and expenditure per department (as in 4 above)
6. Make proposals regarding
1. The processes Parliament should follow with regards to its role in the development of budgets in accordance with the Constitution
2. The nature of its functions relative to those of other committees in respect of the budget process and conducting oversight
7. Report on its functions from time to time as necessary, but submit a final report not later than the end of the next budget cycle in Parliament.

The TORs, as they currently stand, therefore mandate the JBC

• to engage with the distribution of expenditure (in relation to spending effectiveness and efficiency) rather than with the aggregate level of expenditure or how the expenditure is to be financed (revenue and borrowing);
• to interact with three important sets of executive budgetary documentation, the MTBPS, the budget documentation and the monthly and quarterly National Treasury (NT) reports on actual expenditure;
• to make recommendations as to the nature of its functions relative to those of other committees

This strategic plan addresses when and how the JBC will engage with the budget process in order to fulfill these mandates.

The TORs also mandate the JBC to make recommendations regarding its role in the development of budgets in accordance with the Constitution. This strategic plan does not address this mandate directly, on account of a separate process in Parliament that is developing proposals in this regard under the auspices of the Task Force on Accountability and Oversight. The JBC will however stay abreast of developments in this process, and will share how it intends shaping its role in practice with the Task Force.

The JBC has formulated and accepted a set of principles that guide this Strategic Plan. These are

1. Parliament’s intervention should strengthen accountability and the incentives for public managers and office holders to be fiscally responsible, to allocate resources to priorities and to minimise wastage.
2. The role Parliament defines for itself in the budget should balance influencing policy, with the right to make amendments with the obligation to hold the executive to account.
3. Parliament should engage with the outer years of the MTEF.
4. Parliament deliberations on the budget should focus on the financing of existing legislation and policy objectives (the link between policy and spending), and on the quality of spending and service delivery (on what is achieved with spending).
5. Parliament should intervene if there is a mismatch between policy and budget, and between budget and spending (when budgets do not result in service delivery), when spending and financial management is poor and when there is wastage.
6. The JBCs role should be formulated in line with the Constitutional framework regarding the respective roles of the executive and the legislature on the one hand, and to the rights and obligations of Parliament on the other. This means that Parliament will not duplicate or take over the executive’s role of drafting and implementing the budget. Parliament’s role in the budget is primarily one of oversight over executive action, not of action itself.
7. Parliament’s role in the budget should not disrupt the integrity of the budget, or the integrity of the expenditure management system. The executive has superior information to draft the budget – amendments by parliament should not result in poorer budget decisions.
8. If spending departments’ new policy proposals have already been rejected by the executive, the parliamentary budget process should not allow an easy backdoor to fund new proposals.
9. Parliament should speak with a unified voice. Notwithstanding the right of each of the Houses to differ, the process in Parliament should allow the Houses to reach some consensus on reactions to the budget.
10. The JBC’s role should not overtake that of portfolio and select committees. These committees are the engine of engagement with vote level budgets. The JBC’s role is that of coordination. It also has a substantive role in considering the distribution of available funds between votes.
11. The JBC’s process should make full use of other parallel processes, within Parliament and in relevant institutions outside of Parliament, such as the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) and the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG). The JBC should endeavour to liaise with these institutions, and ensure that it receives the full benefit of on-going work in these institutions.
12. The JBC process should respect the NCOP’s unique role in terms of presenting provincial interests. The NCOP’s role does not need to mirror or duplicate that of the NA, but should be complementary.

This document is the result of a two-day workshop held on 20 and 21 May 2005 in Gordonsbay. At the workshop the JBC received briefings from the National Treasury, the FFC and the Office of the Auditor General. The workshop was the culmination of a process started in February 2005 with a first working session regarding the TORs of the JBC.

The JBC is facing the challenge of developing its role and work methods from the current state of affairs to its vision: playing a substantive and meaningful role in a fully developed parliamentary budget process. The activities set out below are therefore undertaken with the strategic intent of expanding its role while paying due attention to capacity constraints. For convenience its activities are arranged against the budget cycle – budget preparation, budget approval, budget execution, and audit. In deliberating its activities for each phase, the JBC developed a set of guiding decisions that demarcated its scope of work. For each phase these decisions are recorded first, followed by the resulting activities, which are set out in numbered format in a table.

Budget preparation refers to the prioritization and allocation phases of the budget process (as set out in the diagramme below) that lasts from April in previous year until the budget is tabled in Parliament.

• The JBC will not actively participate (ie have a decision-making role) in the budget preparation process: that is the prerogative of the executive.
• In order to prepare thoroughly for its role in reviewing the MTBPS, the MTEF and the Appropriation Bill, the JBC will request briefings from the Executive at key points in the process.

• Also, the JBC will attempt to influence in the preparation process. For this the JBC will submit a pre-budget report to Parliament, which will set out issues of concern on account of Parliament’s oversight over spending and spending departments, e.g. under spending in votes, poor implementation of policies, poor service delivery, unauthorized spending etc. JBCs work on quarterly reports and its engagement with Portfolio and Select Committees’ oversight work, will determine content of pre-budget report
• It is important for JBC to slot into earliest feasible slot on 2006/7 process which is already underway.

1. The legislative phase starts when the Budget is tabled and ends when the relevant Acts are passed.

• Parliament has the strongest constitutional mandate in the legislative phase of the budget process.
• The JBC will review allocations in line with government’s spending priorities and existing legislation.
• The JBC will however not attempt in depth engagement with all spending. Given current capacity constraints, the JBC will rather focus on specific, substantive spending areas or departments. These areas will be identified in advance of the budget being tabled, on account of its oversight over actual expenditure and its interaction with Portfolio and Select Committees. The JBC will also use its interaction with the executive in the budget preparation phase to identify priority focus areas. These might be in line with the executive’s spending priorities.
• In the legislative phase the JBC will utilize the budget documentation to
• Relate past performance to spending plans
• Ascertain whether concerns in drafting phase have received attention
• The JBC will coordinate its investigation into specific spending areas with relevant portfolio and select committees
• In engaging with the budget as tabled in the immediate future, the JBC would pay particular attention to
• Funding of new spending policies
• Changes over baseline
• Capital projects funding and implementation
• Intergovernmental issues (FFC report)
• Financial management issues

The Diagramme below sets out role and activities up to point of budget approval.