Committee Report on Department of Defence and Military Veterans 2012 budget

Meeting report

Consideration and adoption of Committee Report on Budget Vote 22
The Committee agreed to proceed with the consideration of the report on a page-by-page basis.

Pages 1 to 7 of the report were approved, without amendment.

Mr D Maynier (DA) objected to the Committee’s recommendation that the allocation to the Department of Defence should be increased to 1.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (see paragraph 6.2 on page 7 of the report).  His objection was that there was no scientific basis for using a percentage of GDP to determine the amount of funding for the Defence Force.  The Defence Review underway would indicate what the funding requirements of the Force would be.

The Committee noted the objection.

Mr Maynier advised that the decision to approve or reject the report would only be made during the national caucus meeting of the Democratic Alliance.  He objected to the assumption that the Committee report was approved (see paragraph 7.2).

The Committee noted the objection.

Ms N Mabedla (ANC) proposed the motion to adopt the report, without amendment.  The motion was seconded by Ms H Mgabadeli (ANC).

The meeting was adjourned.