PBC bases its proposals from a pro-poor perspective and within the framework of the realisation of socio-economic rights, including but not limited to, the right to dignity and life. The PBC has, for the past nine years, tabled proposals on spending and revenue to government as part of public participation in the budgetary process. Organisations involved in this Campaign are COSATU, SACC and SANGOCO. The culture of transparency with regards to budget documentation is visible. The government’s fiscal information, tax revenue, procurement and audit information is made available timeously through government websites, public and academic libraries. There have been efforts made at improving access to public information through the use of simplified budget material and encouraging direct public interaction with the Minister of Finance through web submissions. The Estimates of National Expenditure provides relevant public sector financial information in a timely and systematic manner, linking performance targets to budgeted expenditure. The 2010 Estimates of National Expenditure presented a summarised account of the spending plans of all national departments and agencies for the three financial years between 2010/11 to 2012/13, expenditure outcomes for the previous three years between 2006/07 to 2008/09 and revised estimates for the year 2009/10. The government’s budget preparation for the 2009/2010 cycle focused extensively on finding savings within departmental and agency baselines and on redirecting expenditure towards key priorities within these institutions. Savings arose from effecting changes in public sector spending habits and instituting cost-cutting measures. Government plans to reform procurement systems, rationalise public entities and review a range of programmes in order to accommodate increased spending on its priorities. National departments undertook a rigorous budget baseline savings exercise, and identified R23 billion in savings over the medium term: R6.5 billion in 2010/11, R8.6 billion in 2011/12 and R7.9 billion in 2012/13. At local government level, approximately R2.6 billion in savings was identified over the three year period that began in 2009. Every endeavour was made to decrease spending on non-core goods and services, reschedule expenditure over time in the case of delays, effect exchange rate savings in respect of payments to foreigners, reduce transfers to certain public entities, improve financial management, reduce expenditure on administration in favour of frontline services and find alternative sources of financing. 5.3 Public Expenditure Management Capacity The Office of the Auditor-General is one of the key institutions that exercises oversight over public finance expenditure management. During the period under review, government launched Operation Clean Audit 2014. The Operation seeks to ensure that by the year 2014 all municipalities and provincial departments will have achieved clean audits on their financial statements and they will also be maintaining systems for sustaining quality financial statements and management information. Furthermore, all accounting officers, both in municipalities and provincial departments are expected to include in their performance contracts audit management, integrated risk management, functioning of audit committees 36