The Free State provincial government has noted with concern media reports stating that some departments have been placed under administration.
It appears some of the media houses have misinterpreted the Cabinet statement issued on 5 December 2011. The correct facts are as follows:
On 25 November 2011, Premier Ace Magashule requested the Minister of Finance to implement the section 100(1)(a) intervention as announced by Cabinet this week. In terms of section 100(1) (a), directives will be issued by the relevant members of the National Executive for two provincial departments, namely the Provincial Treasury and the Department of Police, Roads and Transport.
The Free Sate provincial government welcomes the announcement of Cabinet that it has approved the section 100(1)(a) intervention in two Departments of the Free State.
The provincial government has been engaging and requesting the assistance of National Treasury over the past few months with regard to technical and financial management issues in our Department of Police, Roads and Transport.
In fact, during early November, Premier Magashule appointed a task team to work with National and Provincial Treasury and the Free State Department of Police, Roads and Transport to ensure service delivery in terms of roads in the Province.
National Treasury has started to concretise the assistance that it will be providing to the Free State Province and more specifically the Department of Police, Roads and Transport.
Technical assistance that will be rendered includes the deployment of a team of professionals to the Free State to strengthen and enhance the internal capacity of the Department. The on-going assistance of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and South African National Roads Agency Ltd (SANRAL) in this process has also been confirmed.
We expect that the Provincial Treasury will have to continue to exercise its functions and responsibilities towards ensuring sound financial management and compliance with legislation across the provincial government.
We are confident that the assistance announced by Cabinet this week will further strengthen our service delivery initiatives in compliance with legislation and that astronger Free State will emerge from this initiative.
For Media Inquiries:
Wisani Ngobeni
Cell: 072 594 9099
Free State departments not under administration
Province
