ANC-led Gauteng overspends on salaries, underspends in critical areas
13 June 2018
The ANC-led Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) has in the 2017/18 overspent on salaries by R942 million yet failed to spend on critical Goods and Services.
According to the GPG fourth quarterly report, the GPG has underspent on Goods and Services by R1.6 billion for 2017/18 financial year.
Furthermore, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) only managed to spend R750 million (77%) of their budget for the 2017/2018 financial year.
The GDARD also performed poorly in spending its Conditional Grant and Infrastructure allocations which has a detrimental impact on service delivery.
The R221 million that was not spent by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development could have been used to help train emerging and small-scale farmers and assist co-operatives. By not spending their Conditional Grant, the department runs the risk of having their budget cut for the next financial year.
The Department of E-government only managed to spend 91% of their allocated budget.
While, the Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR), only managed to spend 87.4% of its budget.
SRAC only spent 46% of its infrastructure budget, leading to a backlog in the building and maintenance of sporting facilities in the province.
It is worrying that the GPG and its departments are failing to spend their allocated budgets while there is a dire need for service delivery in our communities.
Failure by provincial departments to spend their allocated budgets may see a cut in future budget allocations.
The DA will question why GPG departments have failed to spend their allocated budgets and what steps will be taken in future to avert this from happening again.
It is clear that Gauteng needs change, the kind of change that only a DA-led government can deliver, where the people’s money is spent on improving the lives of the people, not politicians.
Issued by Mike Moriarty, DA Gauteng Provincial Legislature Chief Whip, 13 June 2018
