Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) departments spent 99% of their total adjusted budget for 2012/13 financial year.
This expenditure which amounted to 74.7-billion represents a substantial improvement on the previous year and shows that GPG departments continue to improve spending to meet the service delivery needs of the people of Gauteng.
The information is contained in the Gauteng Provincial Treasury’s State of Finances Report for the fourth quarter.
The Gauteng Department of Health and Gauteng Department of Education were the main drivers of expenditure for the provincial government, accounting for 36% and 38% respectively.
Total cash representing 1% of the budget that had not been spent at the end of March was already committed; therefore these invoices are being paid in line with established Treasury budget processes. This is a clear indication that departments are enhancing their measures of ensuring that resources are spent in an efficient and effective manner.
“It is critical for GPG departments to institutionalise (at strategic and operational levels) financial discipline and continue with the implementation of cost-cutting and cost-containment measures to ensure that the available resources make a significant impact on service delivery,” Finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe says.
“The province managed to keep expenditure on compensation of employees within the budget, but more work needs to be done to manage personnel numbers especially for labour intensive departments. In other words human resources/capital management should continue to receive prominent attention within departments, from planning, budgeting and implementation,” Nkomfe adds.
Infrastructure expenditure
Infrastructure expenditure continues to improve in the province due to various initiatives that are being implemented pertaining to project planning, budgeting and implementation. As at end of the financial year, Gauteng Provincial Government spent R8.7-billion on infrastructure projects and this represents 96% of the total budget for infrastructure. On an annualised basis, total expenditure increased by 8% compared to the previous financial year. The Gauteng Department of Education and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development were the main drivers of expenditure in the provincial infrastructure programme.
“The provincial government is improving in the alignment of planning with the budget cycle. However some projects and programmes were affected by supply chain management processes. This resulted in these projects commencing towards the latter part of the financial year thereby exposing them to the rainy season and the builders break in the December and January months,” Nkomfe explains.
“The Gauteng Provincial Treasury will soon present proposals on how to improve supply chain management processes for all infrastructure departments so that we further enhance spending in this regard,” MEC Nkomfe adds.
Enquiries:
John Sukazi
MEC Spokesperson
Tel: 011 355 2161
Cell: 083 772 4885
E-mail: john.sukazi@gauteng.gov.za
