Sound Provincial Fiscus
The Province of KwaZulu-Natal currently manages the largest provincial budget in the entire country, followed by Gauteng and then the Eastern Cape. The province receives the highest allocation at 21.1% of the provincial equitable share, despite numerous budget cuts experienced over the past 6 financial years.
Despite the significant budget cuts, the province has remained focussed on implementing its cost-cutting measures and to ensure that as much funding as possible goes towards rendering services to our people. The cost-cutting measures have been expanded to include controlling the public wage bill which was threatening to crowd out service delivery spending, as well as controlling the cost of international trips, among others.
A significant achievement is that KwaZulu-Natal has had a less than 1% deviation from budget for the past 7 years. This means when we have under- or over-spent, it has been by less than 1% when compared to the budget, which is a remarkable achievement and bears testimony to the fiscal discipline that exists in this province. This means that the disciplined fiscal environment is producing the required results.
Despite the budget cuts, KwaZulu-Natal has been able to add substantial amounts of funds to a variety of provincial priorities, and this is only possible because of the excellent way that the provincial budget is being managed and because of the continued implementation of cost-cutting measures which helps us focus our expenditure on service delivery spending. Areas that have received additional funding include, but are not limited to, drought relief, rhino anti-poaching, sanitation in schools, electrification projects and flood relief.
The Select Committee on Finance complimented the province on 16 August 2016 on its ability to continue budgeting for a Contingency Reserve, which is seen as good budget practise as it allows the province to provide funding where emergencies arise. The Committee went on to say that the other provinces have not managed to do the same and were therefore very complimentary of KwaZulu-Natal.
Receipt of Additional Conditional Grant
Because of the exemplary way in which the provincial budget is managed, KwaZulu-Natal has been the recipient of conditional grant funds which other provinces were unable to spend. These allocations were made quite late in the year and required the passing of Second Adjustments, and on one occasion, even a Third Adjustments. Significant funds were received for service delivery projects via the Human Settlements Development grant where R308 million was received in 2015/16, R200 million in 2017/18 and a further amount of R340 million was received via the Education Infrastructure grant.
Maintaining Cash Positive Trend
KwaZulu-Natal has remained cash positive, despite numerous budget cuts. This cash positive trend began in May 2010, and we have not gone into overdraft since then.
More information contact:
Sibonelo Msomi - Media Liaison Officer
Tel: 033 8466986
Cell: 0725879046
Email: kzntreasurynews@gmail.com;
sibonelo.msomi@kzntreasury.gov.za
sibonelo@mailbox.co.za
