| Oversight |
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, section 114 (2) (b) states that the provincial legislature should maintain oversight of i) the exercise of provincial executive authority in the province, including the implementation of legislation, and ii) any provincial organ of state. In short, it means that the provincial legislature performs in role in overseeing the actual implementation of policies, programmes and expenditures of government. The Legislature does this through various processes which will be spelt out below:
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| The Budget Process |
As part of the oversight of committees and a requirement by law (Public Finance Management Act, Constitution), a Department is required to present their budget for a certain financial year to the Legislature, specifically through committees. For example, the Department of Education will present their budget statement to the portfolio committee of Education for the 2005/6 financial year. The Committee will then interrogate the detail of the budget presented and make recommendations to the Department in this regard.
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This process follows after the President, in its state of the nation address, outlines government’s priorities for the specific financial year, followed by the Minister of Finance’s speech on the details of the South African government’s financial priorities. After this process, the Premier of the Gauteng province outlines the Gauteng government priorities, followed by the introduction of the budget or technically the Provincial Appropriation Bill by the Finance MEC (member of the Executive). After its introduction in the Gauteng Legislature, the Finance Committee deals with the principle of the budget, after which the individual portfolio committee deal with the details of each allocation per Department. Reports are drafted by committees, which are debated in the House (by all political parties and members of the legislature). Any member of the public can engage the budget process, by providing inputs or submissions to the specific committee.
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The Committee stages on the consideration of the budget are as follows:
- After the introduction of the budget by the MEC, the
- Committees identify Key issues/analysis of the budget
- Committees then engage all the GPG departments on the detail of the budget
- Committee deliberates on key issues identified during the engagements with the departments
- Committee prepares a draft report
- Adoption Final draft report
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| Quarterly Reports |
Quarterly Reports from all GPG Departments provide the Committees with the information needed to monitor effective programme implementation (input and output variables). The information contained in the quarterlies provides the important first threshold for the analysis of Departmental performance. They serve as an early warning that a programme, sub-programme or project is not materialising as projected, with consequent implications for the attainment of outcomes (the ‘political’ imperative).
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In dealing with the quarterly report the committee follows these processes:
- The Researcher will present an analysis and the Committee generates questions, which are then forwarded to the department.
- The Committee will then consider the responses of the department
- The Committee prepares a draft report
- The Committee deliberates and finalises its report
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It is worth noting that this process is applicable to all the quarterly report.
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| Annual Reports |
Departmental Annual Reports assist the Committees to pass a verdict on the department’s performance. It also helps in providing the Committee with a comprehensive indication of where a department finds itself in terms of the priorities it has been pursuing during financial year. .
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Of significance at the Annual Report stage is the coincidence between the tabling of the Annual Report and the Auditor-General’s Reports at the Legislature. Commensurate with the PFMA there is greater correspondence between the timeframes under review in the audit reports and those in the Annual Reports.
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The Committee follows the same process as when dealing with the Quarterly reports.
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| Focused Intervention Studies (FIS) |
The main purpose of Focused Intervention Studies (FIS) is that they provide the impetus for committee’s oversight visits. The Budget Cycle Model prescribes at least two per financial year, i.e. after:
(a) the Committee has dealt with a detail/ micro issues of the Departmental Votes, and before the arrival of the First Quarterly report; and
(b) the Auditor-General’s and Annual Report processes but before the arrival of the Third Quarterly report.
FIS’ are unique in that they do not involve the submission of a document by the departments.
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Plans for Focused Intervention Study No. 1 follow immediately after the budget process. A buoyant Focused Intervention Study No. 2 shall be implemented at the time of, and with a view to, informing the Annual Report process. In respect of the FIS process, prior planning and a sufficient quantum of committee meetings are necessary to do away with ad-hoc processes and thereby facilitating the process of successfully implementing the particular imperative.
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| Oversight Visits |
As part of the oversight work of committees, oversight visits are also conducted on areas, topics or themes identified by the committee for investigation. These oversight visits can be reactive, e.g. missing patients at hospitals. The Health committee, as part of their oversight work on the Health Department, will conduct an oversight visit to investigate a number of issues, draft a report and make recommendations to the Department of Health on the results of the investigation. Oversight visits are also planned, e.g. if the Department in its budget allocated a certain amount of funding to sports facilities development, the Sports Committee will conduct oversight visits to check the development of those facilities, checking a number of issues.
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