MEC Mandla Nkomfe on media briefing of the 2014/15 Gauteng Provincial Budget
Members of the media, colleagues from the Legislature, senior management of the Provincial Treasury and other stakeholders present with us here today; I welcome you all to the media briefing of the 2014/15 Provincial Budget.
The Budget that we are presenting today is the last spending plan of this political term of government. It serves as a continuation of what government has attained in the past 20 years. This is a budget that is designed to move Gauteng forward.
Given the continued tight fiscal constraints; we have had to make difficult trade-offs between competing priorities. In an environment where we have limited resources against a myriad of needs, it becomes imperative for departments to prioritise core functions and continue to assess how to improve both the method and vehicle of delivery, ensuring that services are provided in the most effective and efficient manner.
Therefore in framing the 2014/15 Provincial Budget, we have been guided by five enduring principles:
- Everyone is required to be prudent in the manner in which they deploy resources;
- Everyone is still expected to do more with less;
- Reprioritisation away from consumption towards investment;
- Sustaining employment growth and expanding training opportunities;
- Our budget which expresses our actions today does not constrain our development tomorrow.
Fiscal framework
Since 2009, more than R345 billion has been appropriated for spending in the province. These resources came from three sources i.e. equitable share and conditional grants from national government and own revenue to be collected by the province.
In 2014/15, total transfers from national government amount to R85.6 billion which constitutes 95.4 per cent of the total revenue available to the province, while 4.5 per cent relates to own revenue. Therefore, the allocated budget to be spent by all provincial departments in 2014/15 financial year is R86.9 billion. Over the MTEF, the departmental budget grows to R94.7 billion in 2015/16 and increases to R98.9 billion in 2016/17 financial year.
We are presenting this Budget at the time when the world economy is still in difficulty, and global institutions are struggling to find their way. Therefore in an uncertain global economic environment, the most important contribution that government can make to bolster confidence and growth is to maintain a sound fiscal position, and this budget seeks to do exactly that.
We are indeed mindful of the challenges that our people are facing especially around the cost of living on both food and transportation costs. As government we continue to work with our people and different role players towards finding a sustainable way of alleviating the pressures faced by individuals and households.
Going forward the province will continue to prioritise cost containment given the anticipated increases in goods and services and other inflationary pressures. Lower priority areas will continuously be reviewed and revaluated. The reprioritisation exercise will continue to assist the province to achieve sustainable public finances in terms of recovering from the high levels of accruals and its continued impact on the budget. The cost saving measures introduced will be mainstreamed to ensure that the province does not revert to poor levels of fiscal discipline.
For more information, please contact:
Mr John Sukazi, MEC Spokesperson
Cell: 083 772 4885
E-mail: john.sukazi@gauteng.gov.za
