Chairperson, I will present the Third and Fourth Quarter Reports of the Joint Budget Committee on spending by government at the same time.
Ke simolole ka gore mokgatlho wa rona wa ANC o dumelana le repoto e e tlhagelelang e. [May I begin by saying that our party, the ANC, agrees with this report.]
The JBC did its oversight function on general government expenditure. It held workshops with a few selected departments to have more interaction with the relevant ones, but also to go more deeply into their spending patterns. The portfolio committees of those departments were invited and we commend them for their interaction with the Joint Budget Committee because that exercise strengthened their joint oversight with us on conferral responsibilities and we learnt much from each other.
The departments that were invited were National Treasury, Transport, Home Affairs, Housing, Agriculture and Land Affairs. Although we did oversight over all departments, these were given specific attention.
With Correctional Services and Health more focus was placed on the research that was done on the Kimberly prison and Upington hospital.
Regarding current expenditure, general spending increased in comparison to the previous financial year and it was at 98,5%, which is a great improvement. The virements and shifts in current expenditure were largely attributed to vacancies and delays in procurement, which impacted negatively on service delivery. We hope that in the forthcoming quarters expenditure will increase in those two aspects. The committee has observed that departments budget for the filling of vacancies, then later during the financial year utilise those funds for other activities. With regard to those activities, we have a concern with the intergovernmental co- ordination and monitoring, which remain a problem in terms of how national departments co-ordinate their functions with local government or with provincial departments to ensure that spending does take place. High expenditure in the last quarter has now turned from a March spike into "the last quarter spike", which means that departments now spend in the last quarter whereas in the past they used to spend in the last month of the financial year - and this needs to be taken note of. National Treasury underspend on funds that are transferred to either provinces or local government, and we are appealing to National Treasury to assist local government and certain provincial departments to plan in order to ensure that those funds are transferred on time.
Although we support the fact that when plans have not been put in place funds must not be transferred. This has also been done by the Department of Housing which we commend for having transferred funds from the Eastern Cape and the Free State governments to other provinces where they could not spend on housing.
The Department of Transport had a positive spending on taxi recapitalisation, although they spent 53% of the allowances in March. That was good spending because finally those taxi owners were paid for recapitalisation. The department also highlighted challenges with regards to vacancies, weak procurement processes and lack of clarity regarding departmental functions between the national department and the provincial governments.
Furthermore the committee was concerned with transferred funds that go to either provinces, local government or public entities. In this regard reference was made to the South African Social Security Agency, Sassa. Huge amounts of funds go to Sassa and they need to be monitored very closely because there has to be change after its formation, in terms of the way grants go to the recipients.
The JBC intends to pay more attention to the transfer of funds in future quarterly reports. The Department of Land Affairs will continue to underspend due to protracted negotiations associated with the purchasing of land.
Re le komiti ra re kgang ya gore o a rekang lefatshe o tla tshwanelwa ke go reka go yo a leng ikaeletseng go le rekisa, ga re dumelane le yone. Ke bua ka kgang ya [willing seller willing buyer approach] ga e re thuse ka sepe e bile re ka itumela ga selo seo se ka fedisiwa. Gore go seke ga tlhole go nna le gore yo a rekisang o tla tshwanelwa ke gore a fiwe madi go ya ka mokgwa o ene a batlang ke teng. Selo, se re busetsa kwa morago gore re seke ra baakanya dikgang tsa lefatshe la rona.
Kgang ya gore fa lefapha le sena mananeo a gore madi a dirisiwa ka tshwanelo kwa mafapheng a leng kwa tlase,go matshwanedi gore fa madi a sa dirisiwe sentle re a tshware mme re a ise kwa re as ek gore go na le bokgoni jwa gore madi ao a ka dirisiwa. Fa re lebelela tiriso madi mo capital expenditure, re lebeletse Lefapha la Home Affairs. (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.) [As the committee, we do not buy the idea that the purchaser of the land should show his intention to buy only if the seller is prepared to sell. This willing seller willing buyer approach does not help us in any way and we would be happy if it is eventually abolished so that there will never again be a seller who asks for an offer in order to be able to sell. This whole thing is a total drawback which makes it difficult for us to resolve our land issues.
If the department does not have measures in place to ensure that spending is done properly in the provincial departments and local government, it is then advisable to withhold funding for departments which use their finances inefficiently, and rather transfer them to the departments which will use them efficiently.
With regard to spending in capital expenditure, we are actually looking at the Department of Home Affairs.]
The Hanis project has been in the pipeline for a long time and spending in this regard should be given serious attention because this project must come to fruition; it must become a child that can walk on its own. Furthermore we were concerned about spending on the Upington hospital and Kimberly prison. We do not understand why there is no budget for that because the ground work has been done, so why is there no budget for this project to be completed.
The findings of the committee are that spending has increased in most departments, although there are challenges that still prevail; but it is good that spending has increased. We also noticed that virements and shifts are still attributed to vacancies and delays in procurements. Poor planning implementation and financial management are still a challenge to most departments and this needs serious attention. Many departments experience difficulties with the Department of Public Works with regard to capital spending and maintenance.
Ka kakaretso mafapha a lela ka lefapha la Tirelo ya Set?haba. Fa ba tshwanetse gore ba dirise madi go tokafatsa dikago tsa mmuso, ditirelo tsa set?haba e ba tshwara diatla. Mme re ka itumela fa lerapha la ditirelo tsa set?haba le ka leka go baakanya ntlo ya yone gore ba kgone gore ba thuse mafapha a mangwe a kgone go dira tiro ya bone. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[In general, many departments are complaining about the Department of Public Works. Other departments are willing to spend their budgets to improve government buildings but Public Works retard them in this regard. We would be happy if Public Works would put its house in order so that they do not delay other departments but rather help them to carry out their functions.]
Some of the departments do not respond timeously to queries by the committee. This creates a challenge when we have to finalise our reports, because if responses come after the reports have been adopted there is no way that we can include them.
In addition, one of the recommendations that we propose is that both the Departments of Public Service and Administration and National Treasury must revisit their policy on spending on vacant posts. The Department of Public Works must strengthen its capacity to improve co-ordination and working relations on capital projects and maintenance with other departments.
I attended a meeting of the NCOP with the Auditor- General, where the Auditor-General earlier on indicated that financial spending in all government spheres can be improved provided that simple basics are put in place. The Auditor-General also indicated that it does not require complex skills to get people who can do filing and can file documents so that when auditing takes place documents can be provided. Those are not rare skills; they can be provided for and they are there in the market.
We are happy, as the JBC, about the portfolio committees that worked with us. We learned from our interaction about policies that you deal with and you benefited from us on how spending in your respective department takes place. I would also like to thank all the budget committee members and all the staff that worked with us for the effort that they put into the work of the committee. We thank the departments that responded to our queries and we hope that in future other departments will respond on time and not when it is already too late.
Ke tla kopa rre Modulasetulo gore e re fa ke baya repoto e fa pele ga ntlo e mo nakong e e tlang re tle re bone go na le phapang e kgolo. Bokgoni bo teng bo kwa mebileng, di tlhoka fela gore di tsewe di tsenngwe mo mafapheng, bo dirisiwe gore dilo di tle di tsamaye ka tshwanelo. Ke a leboga. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, I would appreciate it if next time when I present this report before the House, we should be able to notice a major difference. There are a lot of skills out there in the streets, they only need to be brought in and be used by these departments, to ensure that everything goes well. Thank you.]
Modulasetulo a re adopt report ena. Re a leboga. [Chairperson, I move that this report be adopted. Thank you.]
I was very happy that the Chief Whip used the English word for "adopt" because SeSotho ha ke se tsebe. [I don't know Sesotho.] The motion is that the report be adopted.
Motion agreed to. There was no debate.
Reports accordingly adopted.