For the period under review, the Department of Minerals and Energy was allocated an amount of R4.65 billion, which was 1.08 per cent of R429.64 billion which was the main budget. When adjustments are taken into account, the total budget amounted to R4.68 billion. Of the R4.68 billion budget, the Department managed to spend R4.54 billion or 96.9 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter of the 2009/10 financial year. The variance between total budget and actual expenditure amounted to R143.21 million or 3.1 per cent. This is less than the five per cent benchmark of the National Treasury. The expenditure in the fourth quarter per programme was as follows: