Planning commission won’t be gatekeeper, says Manuel

THE National Planning Commission will not be “the gatekeeper of policy”, nor will it take over setting budgets, Minister Trevor Manuel told Parliament today.

Manuel, who is reported to be at the centre of a bitter fight between Cabinet members and trade unions over control of the country’s economy, said his ministry’s task was to create “a coherent vision” on the outcomes of policies.

“We think that we shouldn’t be the gatekeepers on policy,” Manuel to the ad hoc committee on the green paper on national strategic planning.

“We shouldn’t intersect between departments and Parliament for instance.” Manuel said a single budgeting process was needed and this was not something his ministry wished to become involved with.

“You need a single budgeting process that probably is best located still within the National Treasury headed by the minister of finance. It is not something we desire to get involved with.” Manuel said national departments were “better able” to do micro and sector planning, while municipalities would still draw up special development plans.

“It is about a coherent vision, about the outcomes of which policies will be detailed and programmes implemented,” Manuel said.

The development of macro-economic policy is the responsibility of the Treasury, headed by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

President Jacob Zuma however is under pressure from the Congress of SA Trade Unions to hand this power to Economic Policy Minister Ebrahim Patel. Cosatu has blamed Manuel for leading what it claimed was Patel’s marginalisation and wanted his conservative policies to be curbed.

Manuel said his ministry was driven by the desire to improving on quality of life of South Africans.

“We don’t have the capability or the intent to get into nitty gritty, but at a national level we must be able to see where there is a failure to sequence decisions properly within departments or spheres of government where you have unco-ordinated or contrarian approaches.”