Parliament budget totally inadequate, Mbete claims

SPEAKER of Parliament Baleka Mbete says the budget afforded to parliament is totally inadequate and the institution has been meeting with the Treasury in a bid to rectify this.

Speaking at the joint standing committee on the financial management of parliament‚ Mbete said there was not enough money in the budget to be doing the work parliament should.

“As an example‚ in other parliaments‚ one MP has 10 support staff.”

Mbete said representatives from the Speaker’s Forum had met with then finance minister Pravin Gordhan last year to explain to them the constitutional role of parliament and the legislative sector.

Mbete said with the global economic outlook‚ expenditure cuts and “now with junk status‚ the situation obviously gets worse”. Secretary of parliament Gengezi Mgidlana told the committee “there is a mismatch between the intentions [of parliament] and the resources we need”.

He said to do “serious oversight we need a whole lot more”.

Parliament required more support staff‚ better technology and funds to ensure its work reached South Africans.

But DA MP John Steenhuisen said parliament was not even getting the basics right.

“We can’t even get a basic thing like a library up and running. When there is cost-cutting‚ MPs can’t even get access to journals they need but there is money for overseas trips‚” he said.

EFF MP Veronic Mente said executive oversight was not being properly done because committees were being cancelled‚ often at the last minute. –