ATC150429: Report of the Standing Committee on Finance on the Financial and Fiscal Commission Amendment Bill [B 1 - 2015] (National Assembly- section 76), dated 28 April 2015

Finance Standing Committee

Report of the Standing Committee on Finance on the Financial and Fiscal Commission Amendment Bill [B 1 - 2015] (National Assembly- section 76), dated 28 April 2015.
 

The Standing Committee on Finance, having considered and examined the Financial and Fiscal Commission Amendment Bill [B 1 - 2015] (National Assembly- section 76), referred to it, and classified by the JTM as a section 76 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B1A – 2015].

 

The Committee welcomes this Bill, believing that it is long overdue.

 

A major issue that the Committee had to deal with is: should the Bill include a clause that the Chairperson of the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) be full-time? After careful deliberation, the Committee decided for a variety of reasons that it should.

 

However, the Committee also raised the following issues in this regard:

 

  1. The Commission needs to clearly define the respective and complementary roles of the Chairperson and the CEO of the FFC;
  2. Given the constraints on the national budget, the FFC needs to be prudent in managing the cost of the office of a full-time Chairperson. The Committee will monitor this periodically;
  3. The Committee will also periodically monitor the performance of the FFC Chairperson; and
  4. There needs to be, as the Committee observed in its 2014 Report on the Department’s Budget, a review of the role of the FFC, taking into account the experiences since its establishment and developments since then. Government, parliament, the FFC, civil society stakeholders, experts and others need to review the role of the FFC over time.

 

The Committee further reports that the Democratic Alliance (DA) reserved its position on the Bill.

 

 

 

Report to be considered

 

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