The Northern Cape provincial government is concerned about the growing unauthorised expenditure by provincial departments.

 

Addressing the Budget Lekgotla on Monday 22 October 2018, Premier Sylvia Lucas indicated that she was concerned that the provincial government continues to spend money “which we don’t have.”

 

“We should appreciate that there is no money, no new money will come into our system. What we have, should be used with proper care. However, we appreciate the effort put in place by Provincial Treasury to assist departments such as health, education and local government to turn things around,” she said.

 

The MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Mac Jack, said that drastic measures should be employed “to tackle the growing unauthorised expenditure of the province. We are however encouraged by the fact that the Departments of Education and Sport, Arts and Culture is reporting good progress in this regard and other departments are following suite, which will drastically improve the picture for 2019.”

 

The Budget Lekgotla was attended by Premier Sylvia Lucas and her Executive Council, the Head of Departments, the Head of Ministries, CEOs and CFOs of the provincial entities. These fora bring together administrative and political leadership to ensure that there is alignment in terms of planning and improved quality and effectiveness for public spending.

 

MEC Jack said that the fiscal measures need to be maintained into the medium period, in order to optimise full value and impact. “One of these measures was to apply strict conditions on the equitable share unspent funds presiding from the previous financial year. The moratorium (for jobs) has become a contentious issue and we need to improve our approval processes to deal with the red tape – especially for those departments with adequate resources to appoint additional personnel.”

 

MEC Jack indicated that the Budget Council has endorsed a new grant which will be added to the system for the roll out of the sanitary dignity project for the provision of free sanitary towels in the 2019 MTEF

 

“The Infrastructure Delivery Improvement Programme (IDIP) which was introduced 10 years ago to improve poor delivery of infrastructure across the country, is coming to an end. In order to sustain this program and improve the delivery of infrastructure, resources will be made available through the Provincial Equitable Share (PES) to be allocated in the Provincial Treasuries,” MEC Jack said.

 

He indicated that the solutions to most of the problems will not be solved by adding resources in the system. “We expect HODs to manage and present options in how some of these problems can be resolved, but we will not throw money into every problem and disregard consequences, symptoms and the origins of these problems,” he said.

 

The Budget Lekgotla preceded the Extended Budget Lekgotla which took place on Tuesday 23 October 2018 and the Mid Term Budget Speech by the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, which took place on Thursday 25 October 2018.

 

Office of the Premier & Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism communication

 

 

 

 

 

MEC Mac Jack and Premier Sylvia Lucas at the Budget Lekgotla.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a joint media statement issued by the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism.

 

Enquiries: Bronwyn Thomas-Abrahams 083 447 6586 (OTP Spokesperson)

 

               Zandisile Luphahla 060 997 5404  (Ministry FEDAT Spokesperson)