Hon Chairperson, the Select Committee on Finance conducted an oversight visit to the province of Limpopo on Friday, 22 February.
The background to the Limpopo visit was actually the public hearings that were held here in the House on road transport, local government, housing, agriculture, health, sports, arts and culture, water affairs and the provincial treasury.
The terms of reference were actually to find out the spending trend of the departments in the province. Our findings, when we visited the Limpopo province, in respect of this mandate that was given to us, were that the provincial department of agriculture was building roads. Regarding transport, we found out that, generally, there was no co-operation amongst departments in the province. The two departments don't speak to each other regarding the process. There was no collaboration between the two departments. There is a lack of co-operation in the department's Roads Agency Limpopo, RAL, with regard to business plans and reporting back.
In regard to RAL, they actually received 80% of the budget for Limpopo province's roads. Actually, when comparing the two, RAL has 40 employees compared to the department of transport, but RAL has 80% of the budget. That was a big concern for the committee, and we asked the provincial treasury to investigate the process and report back to us.
Regarding the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, the committee found that in the previous financial year, 2007-08, the department hadn't spent any money on libraries. The committee, in respect of that, asked the provincial department to investigate that and to report back to us. Also, there was another visit to the province regarding the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture with a focus on libraries and sport, and we found that what was actually reported here in this House and what we found on the ground were two totally different things. We will also have to follow-up with another visit to the province, because the head of department, on that occasion, was not available.
The Department of Housing did not attend the meeting when we visited the province, so we do not actually have any report on that. Regarding the Development Bank of Southern Africa, we asked them to report back to us, and actually, up until this point, we haven't received any report for the DBSA and the Department of Provincial and Local Government. The queries were over their spending regarding that.
The provincial Department of Health, when they reported to us here in this House, actually said that there was a shortage of money, but we found out the situation via a report. The committee made the following observations regarding health: For the provincial growth and development strategy of any province to work, it requires healthy people to take part in it; the extension of the occupation-specific dispensation was very high; and there was a need to align provincial priorities and national priorities. The baseline had risen from 24% to 25,9%, and our recommendation to treasury in the province is that they have to increase the baseline for health to 26,5%.
We ask that this report be accepted by this House. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Report be adopted.
IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.