Strategic planning and budgeting alignment : the case of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA)

Abstract

Strategic planning and budgeting are key performance management and measurement processes which need to be flexible and robust to enable the organisation to cope with the ever-increasing environmental and organisational challenges. Strategic planning involves a structure or framework, a set of procedures (both formal and informal), and of course, content. Beyond these basic elements, the underlying assumptions about strategic planning are that the future can be anticipated, forecasted, managed or even controlled, and that the best way to do so is to have a formal and integrated plan in place. The process of planning itself may turn out to be more important than the results, and that process requires, as Mintzberg (1994:109) suggests, both analysis and synthesis. Planning simply introduces a formal ―discipline‖ for conducting long-term thinking about an institution, and for recognising opportunities in and for minimising risks from the external and internal environments. A budget (from old French bougette, purse) is generally a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods. In other terms, a budget is an organisational plan stated in monetary terms. The study will provide an analysis of the strategic planning and budgeting process in South African Social Security (SASSA) and explore ways to eliminate possible strategy gaps that seem to hamper the implementation of the strategy. The primary objective of this research is to investigate a potential misalignment between the strategic planning and budgeting processes in SASSA. The study aims to discern whether a potential misalignment of the strategic planning and budgeting processes exists and then suggest a plan to align the processes by considering best practices. The study will address the following research problem: are the strategic planning and budgeting processes in SASSA aligned enough to place the organisation in a position in which it is able to implement its mandate? The study further highlights strategies and recommendations to help improve the strategic planning and budgeting processes, if the research identifies any, and proposes procedural improvements.