The North West Provincial Government has established a Joint Infrastructure Expenditure Steering Committee (JIESC) to accelerate infrastructure spending and improve infrastructure performance on its R4,3 billion infrastructure budget for the current financial year.
The newly JIESC established by Exco in June chaired by the MEC for Finance is already functional and has thus far held one on one meetings with all provincial government departments with allocated infrastructure budgets to assess progress with regard to compliance with implementation of the Provincial Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS).
The intervention to establish the committee followed Exco’s concern regarding the R1,3 billion under spending that was recorded by provincial government departments in the past financial year which it viewed as unacceptable given the province’s infrastructure backlog and the need to accelerate infrastructure delivery.
“Poor expenditure and performance on allocated infrastructure by departments results in the under achievement of socio economic targets that were set for job creation, poverty alleviation and impedes on the improvement of livelihoods of population of the province, hence we took a decision that no performance bonuses would be paid to officials in underperforming departments.
We are determined to take further drastic steps and measures that will ensure that departments emulate the performance of our Human Settlements Department which was declared the best performing department in the country in the past financial year,” Premier Thandi Modise has vowed.
Inadequate technical capacity within infrastructure units in provincial government departments to execute roles and responsibilities in terms of the IDMS, failure to fill vacant key infrastructure positions in departments, Inadequate implementation of Supply Chain Management practices, the Construction Industry Development Board Act as well as Treasury Regulations in terms of infrastructure procurement, Non-compliance to Division of Revenue Act requirements by departments and Poor planning were identified by Exco as key factors that contributed to under spending in the past financial year.
Stringent measures that will allow proper roll out and infrastructure development during the current financial year had been adopted to ensure that client departments plan and implement infrastructure projects aligned to approved norms and standards and spend funds that are appropriated solely for infrastructure in an effective and efficient manner to provide value for money.
The Provincial Treasury chairs a technical committee on infrastructure (Infrastructure Support Forum, ISF) on a monthly basis that is to also serve as an early warning to identify problematic areas for implementation and delivery of infrastructure.
A Supply Chain Tracker Systems which tracks the status of all supply chain management and effective functioning of bid committees of all departments has also been established to address supply chain management processes.
A Provincial Budget Forum has also been established this to create a platform for budget managers and planners to share best practices on planning and budget implementation. Through this forum, strategic and operational challenges have been identified and addressed. Treasury officials are also invited to departmental Quarterly Review Meeting where Treasury highlights on all areas of planning and budget implementation with clear recommendations to improve expenditure management.
To improve spending and service delivery in the province, monthly departmental spending trends are part of the EXCO agenda.
EXCO has also resolved that the spending trends for all departments must be reviewed at the end of the second quarter and if needs be, funds will be reallocate to departments that demonstrate the ability and capacity to deliver and spent in the current financial year
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Spokesperson
Cell: 083 629 1987
Tel: 018 388 3705
Fax: 018 388 3157
Email: Lkgwele@gmail.com
