The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West has accused prime minister Bushy Maape of protecting MECs, department heads and supply chain management directors after underspending R1 billion for the 2021-22 financial period.
Poor service delivery
The DA member of the provincial legislature said that the province’s failure to use the conditional grant, amounting to R1 billion, has led to the already poor service delivery situation.
While part of the R1 billion was put into the following / current financial year, approximately R619 million, the balance returned to the National Treasury.
This happens despite the lack of quality service delivery. Clover, a dairy company, disinvested from the province for what they described as a lack of proper roads and unreliable water in the new year.
the party responsible for the fire
North-West University political analyst professor André Duvenhage also called on the prime minister to fire all those responsible for returning the money to the Treasury.
“This has become a pattern in the North West but it is absolutely unacceptable when we see the decay and state of the province. “This requires strong measures from the side of the prime minister and the provincial government,” he said.
DA member of the legislature Freddy Sonakile said: “We will only know about July how much it will cost to return this year because it has become the norm to generate money for the delivery of services to the Treasury.”
This follows a response from finance MEC Motlalepula Rosho to a written question about the financial period before 2021-22.
“The question I have is because of the fact that farmers in this province cannot be funded when the money is returned to the treasury. In 2021-22, there were exactly 12,000 applications by farmers for assistance, and only 110 farmers were financed, which is only 10% of the applicants,” said Sonakile.
According to Sonakile, Maape must deal with those responsible to return the money. “So it became clear that there was an element of criminality where department heads and directors of supply chain management were reluctant to award tenders that would not offer bribes.
What is the reason for refusing to use money when people do not have roads, water, sanitation, etc.,” he asked.
According to Rosho: “In aggregate, the province has underspent R1 063 on conditional grants for the 2021/22 financial period. The amount of R619 425 million was approved as a rollover for the 2022/23 financial year.
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Structure
The head of the provincial finance department, Ndlela Kunene, said: “The general challenges related to spending in relation to large infrastructures are due to inadequate planning and slow implementation of plans.
The government is creating structures to ensure effectiveness in responding to these challenges. Duvenhage blamed incompetence: “This has to do with the ANC’s cadre deployment policy – putting people with no expertise in positions. Ordinary people are paying the price.”
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