ANC CHIEF WHIP'S RESPONSE To THE DAILY MAVERICK ARTICLE TITLED "QUALITY oF OVERSIGHT SUFFERS AS RECESSES SLASH PARLIAMENTARY CALENDAR" , BY MARIANNE MERTEN, 9TH OCToBER 2019
I wish to express my disappointment at the shoddy journalism of Marianne Merten in an article that appeared in the Daily Maverick dated the 9th october 2019. While the headline gives an impression that the article expresses a concern about parliamentary oversight in the 6th term of Parliament, in its essence it an ill-informed broadside on the African National Congress.
Ms Merten deploys a Straw man fallacy to make her argument. She has worked out, based on the programme of parliamentary portfolio committees, that on average two hours are spent on discussions on the annual reports and financial statements of each department and each one of its agencies. Without stating her reason and evidence, she then falsely conclude that these two hours are not sufficient to conduct effective oversight over the performance and financial management of departments and state-owned entities.
In order to lay bare the defectiveness of Ms Marten's argument, we will explain the various ways in which Parliament maintains oversight over the national sphere of government. Section 55 of the South African Constitution gives Parliament the exclusive powers to provide mechanisms to hold the executive organs of State accountable to it and to maintain oversight over the execution of their mandates and expenditure of public funds.
The annual budget review and recommendations report but one among many mechanisms that parliamentary Portfolio Committees use to maintain oversight Actually, Portfolio Committees also receive quarterly reports from departments and their entities. Parliament also has specialised committees — the Appropriations Committee in both Houses and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCoPA) — whose business entails exclusively oversight on budgets and financial accountability.
The clear objective of the article is not to present facts, but to cast aspersions on Members of Parliament, particularly those from the ANC as people who are failing to do the oversight work for which they have been elected.