House Chairperson, nationally raised revenue is apportioned between national, provincial and local government in the Division of Revenue Bill, with provinces and municipalities receiving equitable shares as a general allocation and conditional grants to achieve specific outputs. The ACDP supports this Bill.
In the past, however, we have seen National Treasury intervening in a number of provinces to address financial mismanagement that seriously undermined service delivery. Whilst the ACDP fully supports those interventions, particularly in Limpopo, the question arises as to how these provinces were allowed to reach those shocking degrees of mismanagement. We learned, for example, that in Limpopo the 27 forensic investigations have led to more than 300 cases being opened. We also share concerns about municipalities in provinces not being able to fully spend their capital budgets, with local government only spending 84,6% of their infrastructure grants for the 2012-13 financial year.
While we appreciate that National Treasury will continue to build capacity in provinces and municipalities, clearly more needs to be done. Municipalities are meant to generate their own working capital from rates and levies, but require a bigger share of national revenue, namely R90 billion - well up from last year's R83,6 billion. Obviously it is in this sphere where service delivery is affected the most and where we have protests. So, we understand that increase, but financial mismanagement at those levels must similarly be addressed.
In this regard, we would enquire as to what progress is being made to strengthen those internal audits of municipalities. Clearly, we in Parliament need to exercise greater oversight to assist the National Treasury in addressing wasteful, irregular and corrupt expenditure. It is also apparent that long-term remedial action is required across the board to improve financial management and address wayward spending patterns. Although some progress has been made in this regard, there is still a long way for us to go to find the right balance between supporting national departments, provinces and municipalities, while at the same time holding them accountable.
We in the ACDP commend the Minister and national treasury for the initiatives already in place to address the concerns we have already raised and we will support the Division of Revenue Bill.
In conclusion, I would like to state that although I am not a member of the appropriations committee, I have the highest regard for Mr Sogoni and wish him and the members of this committee well. My thanks also to Mr Thaba Mufamadi of the finance committee and the members of the finance committee with whom I have served. It has been an honour to serve with you.
Minister, we wish you everything of the best. I have enjoyed engaging with you, I have enjoyed having you as a captive audience for two hours on the plane during the time around last year's budget. We wish you well. You have indeed been a good and faithful servant of South Africa.