Have your say in how government budgets should be drafted through the Vulekamali portal
National Treasury Director, Andile Best, who leads the Vulekamali portal, said they hope that by making the budget more accessible by using a simplified format, they will promote citizen engagement.
POLOKWANE – The Vulekamali online portal, aimed at boosting public participation into how government budgets should be drafted, was officially launched on 20 February in Cape Town.
National Treasury has since been training people on how to utilise the portal, and a training session by National and Provincial Treasury was hosted in the city on 22 August.
National Treasury Director, Andile Best, who leads the Vulekamali portal, said they hope that by making the budget more accessible by using a simplified format, they will promote citizen engagement.
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“ The portal includes all allocated expenditure from the national revenue fund, which is administered by the national treasury. Budget information from all three spheres of government which are national, provincial and municipalities, is available.”
He said the project is part of National Treasury’s continued commitment to public financial management reforms, focusing on transparency and increased public participation in the budgeting process. “The challenge that we have realised over the years is that the consumption of the data, is not at the level it could be. In asking questions from various users, it became clear that we are mostly publishing data in the way that National Treasury wants and not in the way users want to view it.”
He said the portal will become a platform for young South Africans, especially the academia, to access budgeting information to help them gain critical insights.
The portal not only offers information that has been divided into different provinces, municipalities but also within the various departments.
Participants can contribute to the portal through the feedback mechanisms by:
• Telling government information you would like to see.
• Letting government know how you would like funds to be allocated
• Testing the portal and letting government know how it could be improved.
• Submitting your own data.
The facilitators of the training included Best, along with Demi Petherbridge from Equal Education, Senzo Zungu from Provincial Treasury and Benjamin Mbekezeli.
During the first day of the training, attendees were taught how to access information on the websites and its different functions while day two of the workshop was reserved for the implementation of the knowledge on how to use the portal.
