Cape Town - The National Treasury is looking at creating a separate nest-egg of funds or "policy reserve" by drawing from its existing investments and revenue to support economic growth, the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan said today.
Presenting the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament, Gordhan said the government had substantial financial investments, some of it in surplus cash and some in other assets.
"Where these resources could more productively be applied to other priorities, we will return surplus funds to the fiscus," said Gordhan.
He added that greater efficiency must also be sought in government cash management and in the procurement of goods and services, by strengthening ordinary disciplines of financial management.
In this way further steps would be taken to reduce administrative costs and unnecessary duplication of capacity.
"Departments will be obliged to identify and report on savings initiatives. We will request the Auditor-General to strengthen his focus on value for money," said Gordhan.
In a media briefing shortly before delivering the speech today, Gordhan said a figure had not been developed yet for how much the National Treasury wanted to place in the policy reserve, but that it was likely to be in the "tens of billions" of rands.
The National Treasury would release a long-term fiscal report in the next 12 months.
The department's Director-General Lungisa Fuzile said during a media briefing ahead of the speech today that the review would determine which financing model was more sustainable when financing government's long-term obligations.
The findings from the fiscal report would add to the fiscal guidelines published by the National Treasury in February, he said.
