Ferial Haffajee
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel will unveil the 1999 state spending plan on November 2, removing the surprise factor from next year’s budget. The event will mark the change from annual to multi-year planning, and is one of the significant post-apartheid changes made by the Department of Finance.
Monday’s announcement of a medium-term budget policy statement will set spending estimates. The framework is an indicator of the state’s spending priorities and policies for next year. It will give Parliament and civil society four months to study and lobby around budget plans ahead of the formal announcement.
It’s also a bit of financial spring- cleaning where development and macro- economic targets are assessed. Manuel will report on the growth, employment and redistribution strategy in his parliamentary address on Monday.
Instead of the stop-start nature of yearly budgets, the three-year plan aims to integrate development planning with budgeting, whereas previously the two processes were separated. Theoretically at least, the stability this will bring should cut out the roll-overs, overspending and underspending which have plagued many government departments since 1994.
“It also allows participation in the budgetary process,” says Manuel’s representative Logan Wort. Parliamentarians now have the opportunity to review and debate the budget before it is a fait accompli. Wort says spending patterns are likely to follow last year’s, where health, welfare and education got the biggest chunks.
“The budget shifts [from old priorities like defence to social needs] have been made. Now it’s a question of spending more and spending it better.” The targets for better spending are the provinces where nine rand in every R10 is spent on staffing costs.