Scores of Newcastle business people and Utrecht communities (Emadlangeni area) gathered at Newcastle Casino and Utrecht Town Hall have pronounced the need for value for money by government in order to ensure that the budget is wisely spent.
This came out during Provincial Treasury’s last post-budget roadshow , a consultative outreach programme sponsored by First National Bank, staged with the local business fraternity at Newcastle Casino and the local people in Utrecht in Emadlangeni Municipality today.
Explaining the purpose of the roadshow, Simiso Magagula, HOD for Provincial Treasury, said the purpose is to get Newcastle business community and the people in general excited about the provincial budget.
“We want you to understand that this is a people’s budget and you must know how we spend and why we spend it the way we do. We also want you to know what is contained in the budget. Secondly, we also want to share with business that we have a very important programme, namely, Operation Pay On Time, through which we want to adhere to the provisions of the PFMA and Treasury Regulations and this programme will also assist us to develop good working relations with the business,” he said.
Alex Liu of Newcastle Chinese Chamber said they want to see government spending wisely to get value for money.
“As tax payers and as business, we really want to get value for every cent spent by government and that we want to see the government fighting corruption. Our businesses have also been struggling to grow after the recession and we need to see how every cent spent wisely,” he said.
Other inputs included the need to have schools subsidized for water and electricity and the need to resolve the problem of ghost teachers and corruption that is threatening the need to spend in order to get value for money.
Speaking on behalf of FNB, Kgosi Ledimo, CEO of Local and Provincial Business (Public Sector) said their partnership with Provincial Treasury is strategic in many respects.
“We understand the Provincial Treasury’s drive to communicate, educate and consult communities on the provincial budget and as First National Bank, we think that we have something in common with Treasury, namely FNB has a huge interest in the business development as well as personal finance of communities in general. Newcastle and Utrecht areas in particular are strategic communities for us because we have a huge client base here and we still need to ensure that this area is serviced fairly from the point of view of business and personal finance as well as making our bank as household name in this area, he said.
MEC for Finance in KwaZulu-Natal, Ina Cronjé, said “As Provincial Treasury, we emphasise the fact that we must not spend more money than what we have and this is the message that must through to every government department. We also want to obtain clean audit reports for all sixteen government departments and all our 61 municipalities and Treasury is willing to help achieve this. But all of this is only possible when we understand our budget and our priorities as government,” she said.
The final post-budget roadshow comes hot after other pre and post budget roadshows which were held in Pongola, Nongoma, Pietermaritzburg, Ezinqoleni and Mzinmkhulu.
For more information, contact:
Tthe Department Spokesperson, Musa Cebisa
Cell: 071 6878 777
