By the end of the third quarter of the 2012/13 financial year, the Department had spent R4 billion (80.5 per cent) of its total budget. The Department had planned to spend R4.3 billion (86.3 per cent) and was, therefore, behind on total spending by R287.4 million. This was mainly due to slow spending on transfer payments in the Human Capital and Knowledge Systems programme, specifically to Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Research and Development Infrastructure.