GP Premier's Office exceeds budget by 102% due to Life Esidimeni payments

9 October 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is shocked to learn that the Office of the Premier (OOP) incurred unauthorised expenditure of R5.9 million.

This information is contained in the annual report for the OOP for the 2018/2019 financial year.

According to the report, the OOP reported unauthorised expenditure of R5,9 million under Programme 1, which resulted in the programme over spending on its allocated budget of R294,9 million.

The OOP says the unauthorised expenditure was due to payments made to the Life Esidimeni claimants. The verification process was only finalised towards the end of the financial year.

According to the department they committed to prioritise the Life Esidimeni payments and the claims were then processed for payment during 2018/2019 financial year.

However, there should have been a better plan in place to ensure that unauthorised expenditure did not occur in the OOP.

The DA will be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to ascertain why they did not have the payments made in the new financial year and if Gauteng Provincial Treasury did not set aside any money for the claims to be paid.

Issued by Solly Msimanga, DA Gauteng Provincial Legislature Caucus Leader, 9 October 2019