The largest proportion of the Department's budget was for transfer and subsidies in the amount of R1.1 billion or 66 per cent out of the total budget allocation of R1.7 billion. The Committee expressed concern at the capacity of the Department to monitor the effective, efficient and economic expenditure of transferred funds to the different State-Owned Entities (SOEs). The Committee also noted a trend by the Department to transfer high amounts during the fourth quarter of a financial year. The overall expenditure of the Department increased from 46.1 percent as at the end of December 2011 to 89 per cent at the end of March 2012. The main reason advanced by the Department was that the bulk of the entities required funding in the fourth quarter only. The Committee expressed concern in this regard and clarity was sought on how the SOEs could spend the transferred funding in that short space of time and whether that expenditure contributed to service delivery or not. The budget allocation of the Public Entity Oversight sub-programme that dealt with the oversight on SOEs, has received R1.1 billion for the 2012/13 financial year resulting in a reduction of R1.1 million as compared to the 2011/12 financial year.