Stats SA is not underfunded and can remain credible, says Treasury chief

Stats SA has been allocated R3.45bn for this financial year, with a sharp rise projected for the following year to enable it to conduct the census in 2021.

The body charged with producing the country’s official statistics was allocated R2.5bn in the 2019 budget and projected an allocation of R3.3bn for the 2020/2021 year.

A rise to R4.8bn is projected for next year.

Stats SA produces a raft of important statistics on consumer inflation and unemployment, among other data, and publishes surveys on poverty and inequality. These are used to inform private sector planning and the government’s policymaking and budgeting.

The 20-member Stats SA council must sign off on all official statistics or they are “effectively rendered meaningless”.

Last week, before the tabling of the budget, the Stats SA council threatened to quit en masse if the agency did not get more funding.

Stats SA is at “a tipping point”, chair David Everatt said in a statement. Lobbying “behind the scenes” for the past year had not produced results, he said. The statement prompted an urgent meeting with minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu.

Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane said at a media briefing that Stats SA had been informed early on in the Treasury’s budget preparation process of its proposed budget allocation, so it was not true that its allocation was a result of pressure. Over the next three years Stats SA would receive R154m to address compensation challenges, of which R40m would be in the first year.

An additional R150m had been allocated to poverty surveys and R4.2bn for Census 2021. “There is no underfunding of any kind. There are processes to address the shortcomings and shortfalls that they have.

“We think that Stats SA will remain a credible institution that will produce credible statistics that can inform our planning as we move forward as a country,” Mogajane said. He noted that the budgets of government departments had been slashed and Stats SA had not been spared.

Finance minister Tito Mboweni slammed the Stats SA council for running to the press as “bad etiquette” and an indication of “wrong upbringing”.

He said: “You can’t negotiate with me in public. You go through the process.”