At a Finance Portfolio Committee briefing in Pietermaritzburg yesterday, the ANC learned with that the Department of Education, under IFP MEC Narend Singh, has spent a pitiful 21% of the national conditional grant aimed at promoting HIV/Aids and life skills education in primary and secondary schools during the first quarter of this financial year.
Of the R6,656-million targeted expenditure for the period April to June 2003, the Department only managed to spend R1,392-million.
Furthermore, the ANC was surprised to learn that, instead of embarking on a systematic education programme among the youth in KwaZulu-Natal schools, the Department intended to hand this money over to a single operator for the purpose of erecting HIV/AIDS information kiosks.
The expenditure on the national conditional grant on HIV/AIDS Home-based Care aimed at advancing the development of community-based programmes to communities, is equally appalling at 18%.
This national grant is managed by the Department of Social Welfare and Population Development under IFP MEC Prince Gideon Zulu.
Of the R11,996-million targeted expenditure for the period April to June 2003, the Department spent a miserly R2,11-million.
No reasons for this gross under-expenditure were provided to the Committee.
Unless the Premier immediately steps in to address this crisis, the ANC will be calling for urgent national intervention. – Sapa.
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