The National Treasury is working with the Presidency and the Department of Public Service and Administration on the reconfiguration of the State, and this may result in some departments being done away with and others merged.
This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement in the State of the Nation Address earlier this year.
The Department of Public Enterprises is already in the process of folding.
This was confirmed by Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises Obed Bapela a few months ago in the national legislature that they were working closely with the presidency on the closure of the department.
The process would have to be completed before the elections next year.
In the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, National Treasury said they were working with the presidency and the Department of Public Service and Administration on the closure and merger of some of the departments.
However, Treasury did not indicate which departments might go.
Ramaphosa had said they were going to look at those departments that serve a similar purpose or function.
But in the MTBPS, they said they have been looking at the functional performance of departments.
“Over the last three years, the National Treasury has conducted a series of spending reviews. In many cases, these reviews have highlighted deficiencies in policy choices, programme design, scale, and cost. They have also revealed shortcomings in planning and implementation, which result in overlapping mandates and functions and duplication of effort. Government considers these inefficiencies to place a further drag on the economy,” said the National Treasury.
It said there were various measures they would take to look at departments that would either be closed down or merged with other departments.
This will include the performance and size of the department and whether it was unable to fulfill its mandate.
They will also look at bigger departments to absorb smaller departments.
The National Treasury will look at departments that have overlapping functions.
A technical team has been set up to undertake this review of departments.
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