Oversight: Mohammed Jahed’s office will provide technical advice on the cost implications of political decisions.
Working between a rock and a hard place — arguably that could describe Professor Mohammed Jahed's new job as director of the country's fledgling parliamentary budget office.
The hard place is Parliament — the sprawling, often arcane institution inhabited by a multitude of political parties, personalities and agendas. It has been waiting for the founding of Jahed's office to boost its technical expertise and capacity, enabling it to better tackle the budget process and perform its oversight role.
The rock is the executive, where ministers and their departments have the monopoly on technical expertise and must answer to MPs, often their political juniors, making oversight at best difficult and, at worst, weak.
But when the Mail & Guardian sat down with him, Jahed was unfazed by the fine balance he will have to strike. He is also determined to ensure that the office's independence and credibility are established from the word go.
"The issue of independence is crucial," Jahed said.
The office would "provide independent, nonpartisan, technical advice" to Parliament, he said, notably to the four committees on finance and appropriations in the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces that are charged with overseeing the budgeting process and government spending.
Tools to amend the national budget
The establishment of the office will finally give Parliament the tools to amend the national budget should it deem it necessary, a power provided for by the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, passed in 2009. It will also take up the work of costing new Bills that come to Parliament.
"We'll develop the methodology [for costing new Bills], we'll develop the economic, financial and policy assumptions and we'll put the numbers on the table," he said.
From here parliamentarians must take the information provided and make policy and legislative recommendations based on it. In countries such as South Korea, the parliamentary budget office takes on work from any MP who might require technical assistance.
Jahed said the local budget office would initially take work generated by the committees and, "at this stage", would not take work from different political parties or individual MPs. "We don't have the capacity."
Initially the office will be staffed by 12 employees, including economic, public finance and policy analysts.
Its establishment was announced before the budget in February. Speaker of the Assembly Max Sisulu said that, after an initial period of 12 to 24 months, it would be reviewed to extend support to all committees.
Praises for Jahed
Jahed has a doctorate in economics and was previously a senior economic planning specialist at the Development Bank of Southern Africa and an academic at the University of the Witwatersrand.
He was seconded to Parliament in 2012 to begin setting up the office. He was appointed after a selection process led by the finance committee and the final appointment was announced in mid-June.
Opposition parties have praised his selection. The Democratic Alliance's spokesperson on finance, Tim Harris, described Jahed as "independent-minded but also diplomatic".
He added that, for the office to succeed, it had to remain independent, its operations had to be transparent, it had to be accessible and the quality of its staff appointments had to be excellent.
Private sector observers are more cautious.
The economist Dawie Roodt said that "theoretically it's a good idea" as Parliament should have more power over the budgetary process.
Scoring points
"[But] in reality politicians could use it to score points. They don't have the capacity or expertise and don't know their stuff."
But Jahed emphasised the need for co-operative relations with the executive.
"Most budget offices internationally don't actually face off with their national treasury. In most cases there is a co-operative relationship with national treasury, with the Reserve Bank, with other institutions.
"The point [of the budget office] is to ensure that Parliament is provided with the necessary technical expertise, capacity, information, analysis and methodologies to make decisions around the budget and the budgeting process," he said.
"In this regard you will need to work with national treasury to feed you information, you will need to work with departments, you will need to work with fiscal and financial institutions."
Strategic relationships also had to be built with civil society and the private sector, he said.