During the first quarter of the 2012/13 financial year, the Department had spent R1.3 billion (25.8 per cent) of its total budget. The Department had planned to spend R1.7 billion (34.4 per cent); hence, the Department was behind on total spending by R425.6 million. This was mainly due to slow spending on transfer payments as the Department was finalising the contracts with the recipients of the transfer payments. For the same reason, this spending trend is evident in the previous years.