Budget office short

THE Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament has expressed serious concern about inadequate funding of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

Thus, a resolution to discuss the matter with the presiding officers was taken.

This followed a unanimous committee agreement that the PBO plays a vital role in the constitutional mandate of Parliament.

The committee was briefed by the management of Parliament on the institution’s mid-term financial and non-financial performance for the 2017/18 financial year.

Co-chairperson Vincent Smith said: “We are equally concerned about the underspending on the compensation of employees’ budget, considering that Parliament is insufficiently resourced in the research field.”

The committee welcomed the institution’s performance in the term under review, in which seven of the 11 indicators that are applicable during the mid-term were achieved.

The Acting Secretary to Parliament, Baby Tyawa, said the performance amounted to 68%.

On the finance side, Tyawa told the committee that Parliament has achieved 44.89% performance, in which it spent R1.091 billion of the R2.430 billion annual operational budget.

The committee also dealt with the revised annual performance plan of Parliament, and agreed that revision was necessary in light of the reduction in the institution’s budget.

Finally, the committee took a decision that the internal audit report on the Secretary to Parliament, Gengezi Mgidlana, be kept under lock and key and only made accessible to members to read under supervision. Justice Molafo Parliamentary Communication Services