Allow me to thank the Chairperson of the Finance Portfolio Committee for his
report and for the many committee meetings that were called in the run up to
this debate. My thanks also go to the Provincial Treasury officials for their
briefings and support.

As the Inkatha Freedom Party we are of the informed view that the finances of
most departments are in a mess. I say this because if one listened to the report
of the Chairperson, it would have become clear that many departments either
overspent on their budgets or they did not spend allocated funds and even did
not spend conditional grants that were ring-fenced for specific projects. These
indiscretions can only happen where we have unqualified and inexperienced cadres
who have been deployed to occupy senior positions within government departments.
When these people get into these positions they have access to huge budgets and
because they have no knowledge of the PFMA or have complete disregard of the
law, they do whatever they please and the citizens of our province suffer
because funds are not spent to deliver services where and when they should.

Although Provincial Treasury has indicated that overall the provincial spending
is in line with the 50% benchmark, we must look at individual departments and
consider whether their spending patterns are in line with their Annual
Performance Plans and Strategic planning guidelines.

We are aware that the National Health Insurance has been in the pipeline for
some time now and that certain sites were identified. The citizens of this
province are eagerly awaiting better health care at our public health
facilities. But we are told that the Department of Health is slow in spending
the allocated budget for the NHI and that a further amount of R5.8million has
been allocated from National Treasury to this grant as a roll over. This is
money that should be utilised in improving the public health care system and
should be spent by the end of the 2014/2015 financial year.

To make matters worse this department has been underspending on its
infrastructure grant for many years and continues to do so even now.

The budget allocated to Programme 8 that deals with infrastructure is slow to
spend and the National Department of Health has allocated an additional
R200million to this programme. I recall in the past, millions of rand that were
allocated to the Hospital Revitalisation Grant was taken back by National
Treasury because the KZN Department of Health could not spend it. This is a
shame because our people suffer in appalling conditions in public hospitals and
clinics whose infrastructure is crumbling. One recalls that parts of Prince
Mshiyeni Hospital in Umlazi had to be shut down not so long ago because the pipe
lines carrying essential gases had corroded. Yet there is money to fix these
things but this government does not have the will or the capacity to get it
right.

This government must answer to the people of KwaZulu-Natal as to why money that
is allocated to take care of their most valued possession - their health - is
not being spent.

I have noted with dismay during my earlier debate on SCOPA that the Department
of Education is cash strapped and cannot continue building new schools or
maintain existing buildings or eradicate pit toilets, but we now hear that the
Department of the Premier will be increasing its staff component from 428 posts
to 687 posts - an increase of 259 warm bodies. Even though this enormous staff
increase will be phased in, the financial implications have not been finalised.
One wonders how this Department functioned all these years with its previous
staff component to now warrant such a huge staff component. If money is
available, should that money not be better utilised in eradicating pit toilets
at our schools? Would that money not be better utilised in improving health care
facilities or providing libraries and laboratories at schools? I ask the Hon
Premier to search his conscience and tell this House if he has his priorities
right.

At the Finance Portfolio Committee meeting we were told that the Department of
Economic development, Tourism & Environmental Affairs will be constructing
market stalls in Mozambique and Swaziland. We are in the dark (not because of
load shedding) as to who are the beneficiaries of these market stalls nor what
will be the cost implications of this project. This House needs to know what
benefits these market stalls will have for the people of our province, who will
maintain these stalls and what agreements are there with the governments of
those neighbouring countries.

We have heard of the shambles at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife with its CEO now
suspended. But the issue of the organogram of Ezemvelo has still not been
finalised and has been a long standing matter. Due to this matter not being
finalised, this entity is expected to under-spend its budget. There is also the
issue of the Rhino Security Intervention project running out of funds. Since the
protection of these endangered animals has received world-wide attention, we
need to know how this project will be sustained.

Whilst many children across our province depend on the National Schools
Nutrition Programme for their only meal of the day, we find that this programme
is in shambles with service providers on the one hand not being paid on time
while others get paid double. Almost every time service providers are left in
doubt as to whether their contracts will be renewed or not. It is unbelievable
that the Department of Education just cannot get its act together in ensuring a
sustained school nutrition programme. There must be something terribly wrong in
this Department.

We are aware that the Department of Education spends over R23.6million a year in
renting office space in Pietermaritzburg - that is almost R2million a month.
Should this department not utilise government building and use the savings to
get rid of pit toilets in our schools?

The Department of Education has been contracting IDT and COEGA Development
Corporation to build schools valued at millions of rand instead of utilising the
Department of Public Works. IDT and COEGA then awards contracts to other
companies to construct the schools. This could explain why the Department has
run out of funds and cannot continue with the building of new schools and
maintain existing structures.

I thank you,