EXCO
Lekgotla reveals that Mpumalanga
departments should improve
The Mpumalanga Provincial Government
departments that are under spending will forfeit their remaining budgets and
the money will be given to the municipalities to support water and sanitation projects.
There will be a second budget adjustment to this effect before the end of the
financial year.
The decision was announced at a
three-day Mpumalanga Executive Council Lekgotla
which started on Saturday 14 February 2015 at Skukuza in the Kruger National
Park, attended by the members of the executive, executive mayors, heads of
departments, municipal managers, chairpersons of boards of the provincial state
owned entities and chief executive officers of parastatals.
The decision follows a ten months
provincial expenditure review report by the Provincial Treasury that indicated
that many departments were under spending especially on compensation of
employees. The Lekgotla was convinced
that possibilities were high that departments might not necessarily spend the
rest of their budgets in the last coming two months of the financial year.
The provincial government departments
and municipalities were also warned that as from the 2015/16 financial year,
the national budget was taking a downward trend and the Mpumalanga provincial
government’s budget would shrink by at least R215 million.
At the same time departments have been
instructed to implement cost curtailment measures. Some monies from the
departments would be taken upfront in order for the cost curtailment exercise
to work. The Provincial Treasury has since been tasked to finalise the revenue
enhancement strategy in order for the provincial government to generate some
income.
The Lekgotla
expressed some satisfaction on
the manner the Department of Education ran its affairs; however it was
cautioned to ensure that skills
development should respond to the economic needs of the province by focusing on
areas of its competitive advantage.
Further the department should seek
creative ways of ensuring that young people were gainfully employed and that
they were able to create employment for themselves. The Lekgotla again expressed some concern that there were no returns on
investment from the resources the government puts in the Early Childhood
Development. The Departments of Education and Social Development must provide
leadership on this matter and integrate resources.
The Department of Education should
develop a practical plan to deal with the high dropout rate and its
socio-economic challenges and to ensure that schools are free from drugs and
substance abuse.
The Lekgotla further warned the Department of Community Safety,
Security and Liaison against the escalating security costs as a cause for a
serious concern.
The department would surrender for other
reprioritisation the money that was allocated during the budget adjustment
period for the construction of a provincial traffic college if the money would
not be used solely for this purpose.
The Department of Health was warned
to deal with high litigations that were costing the department exorbitant
amounts of money due to negligence by its officials.
The department was further
instructed to migrate and start using electronic filing system instead of the
paper-based one in the hospitals, since the later contributed greatly to
litigations due to disappearance of information. The department was encouraged
to urgently accelerate clearing of accruals as per its approved turnaround
strategy.
The Lekgotla further deliberated on a need to reconfigure the
municipalities in the province since some of them were not financially
sustainable, but survived on the grants to pay salaries. It is likely that some
municipalities could be merged with the others after the 2016 local government
elections.
Speaking at the Lekgotla, Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza said government service
delivery was under pressure, therefore the leadership of the municipalities
needed to understand that it would not be the business as usual.
The Premier said municipalities needed
to increase their revenue collection too as the government fiscal distribution
would be reduced.
“This would mean bigger challenges
for all of us; we must try and make our economy to work. We must be able to
generate our own revenue to close the gap. The compensation of employees will
be reduced to the limit. Government cannot be an employment agent, but it
should create a conducive environment for job creation.
“The leaders at the local government
sphere must sensitise the people on the ground that government services cannot
be free, they must be paid for. It is high time that we must spell out the
truth, we cannot survive on lies. Some
municipalities collapse because people do not pay for the services.
“We must deal with the water
problem, no one should go without water. As a provincial government we wil
embark on energy saving devices in order to scale down. All government and
municipal buildings should do that because electricty is becoming a problem,”
said Mabuza.
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