This is why SA needs a Parliamentary Budget Office
Research shows that meaningful public participation and parliamentary oversight over budget processes lifts social ownership of the budget and effective allocation of funds, and cuts waste, writes Mohammed Jahed
"Follow the money, always follow the money," is a catchphrase from the 1970s movie All The President’s Men, which focused on the Watergate scandal, which brought down US President Richard Nixon. Since then it has come to be associated with high-office corruption, but it is also relevant in terms of the need for close public scrutiny of government revenue collection, budget allocation and spending. It is key to parliament’s fulfilling its constitutional mandate of exercising oversight over the executive’s management of public finances. Parliament’s Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) set up in 2013, supports parliament’s oversight. The Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act of 2009, provided for the establishment of the PBO and the standing and select committees on finance and appropriations in parliament. The act has its origins in the constitution’s provision that: "An act of parliament must provide for a procedure to amend money bills before parliament". It has empo...
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