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Date : 16/11/2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: P Mashatile: The presentation of the Provincial Adjustment Appropriation Bill and the Unauthorized Expenditure Bill


Speech by Gauteng MEC for Finance and Economic Affairs, Paul Mashatile, at the presentation of the Provincial Adjustment Appropriation Bill and the Unauthorized Expenditure Bill

16 November 2004, Gauteng Legislature

Honourable Speaker;
Honourable Acting Premier;
MEC Mokonyane;
Honourable Members of the Executive Council;
Honourable Members of the House;
Ladies and Gentlemen:

Let me take this opportunity to once more send a message of condolence to the Weinberg family, particularly Mark his only son, for the loss of his beloved mother.

Comrade Shiela Weinberg was a dedicated cadre of our movement who served her people with distinction. As we will be laying her to rest this Friday, let's continue to be inspired by her selfless dedication to the cause of freedom and democracy. We will honour her by continuing with our commitment to serve the majority of our people, especially the poor. Makalale ngoxolo! Robala ka kgotso! You were always a shining example.

Comrade Speaker, seven months ago our people came out in their millions and responded to a call by our movement to form a partnership with us to create work and fight poverty. They voted in their millions in favour of this partnership.

They gave the ANC an overwhelming mandate to continue to govern our country and to accelerate the pace of change, to bring about a better life for all.

In line with this mandate we are committed to the challenge of halving unemployment and poverty by 2014.

Our vision is to ensure high levels of labour absorbing economic growth that will contribute to reducing inequality and accelerate development in our province, our country and the Continent. We will fight poverty through growing secure and prosperous communities with jobs, schools, clinics and other services. We will ensure that our people live in a safe and healthy environment which supports active social, cultural and volunteer activities.

To make this vision a reality, the Gauteng Provincial Government developed a five year strategic plan that will guide its work in the current term of office. The pillars of this plan are:

* Enabling faster economic growth and job creation
* Fighting poverty and building safe, secure and sustainable communities
* Developing healthy, skilled and productive people
* Deepening democracy and nation building and realising the constitutional rights of our people
* Building an effective and caring government.

It is in this context that we are today tabling a revised budget for the year ending March 2005. This budget has been revised and adjusted to ensure that we begin to put in place the building blocks that will advance our strategic objective of creating work and fighting poverty.

At the beginning of this year, we tabled a budget with estimated revenue amounting to R 30 billion and expenditure amounting to R 29 billion.

Honourable Speaker, I am honoured to inform this House, that today we are tabling an adjusted budget with revenue revised upwards to R 31.3 billion and expenditure estimated at R 31. 2 billion.

The Adjustment Appropriation Bill we are tabling today will revise the Appropriation Act of 2004 /05 in terms of which the Provincial Budget for the financial year 2004/05 was approved.

This adjustment is done to enable departments to deal with spending pressures, meet objectives and provincial priorities set by the Executive Council. The additional resources we are providing in the Adjusted Budget will assist the province to deal with increased spending pressures resulting from the provision of social security grants.

The resources will also assist departments to deal with the higher than anticipated salary adjustments. We have also made provision for unforeseen unavoidable expenditure in certain departments and we have accommodated changes resulting from the realignment of departments as announced by the Premier.

We are also taking steps to correct the baseline in personnel budgets, especially for Department of Education to cater for teachers' salaries.

Additional resources amounting to R1. 4 billion will be allocated to various Departments in line with the objectives I have outlined above. These resources were made possible amongst others, by prudent management of budgets by Departments, resulting in savings of R 432 million.

An additional allocation of R 634 million was received from National Government. We have also approved roll-overs for certain departments for capital expenditure amounting to R 44 million and R 310 million has been made available from surplus funds.

Comrade Speaker, we have decided to allocate resources giving priority to the Departments of Health, Education, Social Development and Transport and Public Works, which have indicated spending pressures.

Social Development

Gauteng has experienced a rapid increase in the numbers of beneficiaries from social security grants, especially child support and disability grants.

In order to cater for this pressure we have allocated an additional amount of R 608 million to the Department of Social Development. The budget of this department will therefore increase from R 5.7 billion to R 6.3 billion.

Comrade Speaker, we will ensure that all people in our province who deserve to benefit from these grants receive them.

However, we must warn those who are fraudulently benefiting from the system. We have already taken steps to root out these corrupt elements from our system.

In this regard, the Department of Social Development will soon start a process of cleaning up its data base. People receiving disability and child support grants will have to be reregistered. In this way we will be able to flush out those who are defrauding the system.

Comrade Speaker, we will strive to minimise disruption as we engage in this process, but this task must be done! We have made resources available to undertake this task.

Education

An additional allocation of R 126 million has been made available to the Department of Education to cater for higher than anticipated increases in salaries adjustments, lack of pay progression for educators for the period 1996 to 2002 and the new housing allowance policy for all public servants.

An amount of R 347 million has been made available for correcting the personnel baseline and carry through costs. The Department of Education will also receive R1,8 million to cater for the shift of the media library function from National Department of Education. An amount of R 90 million has also been made available to cater for the employment of additional educators to cater for increase in the number of learners due to in-migration to the province.

We are therefore increasing the allocation to the Department of Education by R 570 million. The total budget for this department will increase from R 9.4 billion to R 10 billion.

Health

The Department of Health will receive R 71 million as part of the incentive we have promised for exceeding the target in the collection of revenue. We are also allocating an additional R 200 million to cater for the impact of HIV/ AIDS on services rendered in academic hospitals and also for the improvement in conditions of service.

We are therefore increasing the allocation to this department by R 212 million. The overall budget for the Department of Health will increase from R 8.7 billion to R 8.9 billion.

Public Transport, Roads and Works

The Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works will receive an additional allocation of R 278 million for the procurement of buildings for the Gauteng Government Precinct and for interim day to day operational expenditure and maintenance of the Precinct buildings.

We have also approved roll-overs for road infrastructure projects amounting to R 10. 2 million for various construction projects of client departments that were not completed in the previous financial year. The overall budget for this department will increase from R 1.6 billion to R 1.8 billion.

Department of Finance and Economic Affairs

Although the Department will not receive additional allocation in its overall budget, resources have been shifted from other programmes to fund new priorities.

An amount of R 20 million has been allocated for the establishment of the SMME Agency. R 2.9 million for the operational costs of the Gauteng Film Office. The Gauteng Tourism Authority will receive R 5 million to implement the balance score card. This will assist us to monitor progress in the performance and transformation of the industry in line with government policies.

We are continuing with our commitment to fund Local Economic Development projects in Sedibeng and the West Rand. An amount of R 9 million has been made available for these projects.

An amount of R 6 million has been made available for the establishment of the Public Private Partnership unit within the Department.

The Legislature

The Gauteng Legislature will receive an additional amount of R 1.7 million for additional facilities and other needs of new members. We have also approved rollovers amounting to R 3. 6 million to cater for the completion of capital projects that are still in progress.

The Budget of the Legislature will be increased by R 5.3 million, raising its total from R 93 million to R 98.6 million.

Housing

The Department of Housing will receive a conditional grant of R 6. 2 million to be used to purchase land for the relocation and settlement of Alexandra residence from London Road and other areas in the township that require redevelopment.

We have also approved roll-overs amounting to R 8 million for the completion of the Human Settlements Projects started in the previous year. The Department will receive an increased allocation of R 15.2 million.

Local Government

We have approved roll-overs amounting to R 4.1 million and R 5.3 million to continue with LED projects.

We have also approved the rollover of R 1 million for HIV/ AIDS projects transfer delayed because of poor systems in certain municipalities. The Department will receive an additional allocation of R 6 million for HIV/AIDS projects in municipalities.

Roll over funds for LED projects will be transferred to the Department of Finance and Economic Affairs which is now responsible for this function. The total Budget for the Department of Local government will increase from R 231 million to R 237 million.

Gauteng Shared Services Centre

We have approved an amount of R 11.4 million to complete the Disaster Recovery Projects, which is part of our Information Technology infrastructure.

The GSSC will also receive R 140 000 from the Department of Community Safety for Employee Assistance Programmes and an amount of R 42 million has been made available for the implementation of e-governance and recruitment of staff.

Owing to savings in the GSSC, the Department will only receive an additional allocation of R 32.6 million increasing its overall budget from R 476 million to R 509 million.

Community Safety

As a result of assuming new functions of traffic management, the Budget of the Department of Community Safety has been adjusted from R 39.2 million to R 162.6 million.

Agriculture, Conservation and Environment

A conditional grant of R 185 000 has been allocated to this department for the Land Care Programme.

Sports, Recreation Arts and Culture

The budget for the department has been adjusted by R 5.5 million increasing the overall budget from R 136 million to R 142 million.

Shifts between votes

We have also shifted expenditure between and within votes that have been approved during financial year. In this regard, an amount of R 58.7 million will be shifted from the Department of Health vote to various Departmental votes to fund HIV/ AIDS projects. These projects will be co-ordinated by the Department of Health.

In addition Comrade Speaker, the Department of Social Development is suspending R 17.4 million of its capital budget to the Department of Public Transport, Roads Works. This allocation will fund maintenance projects which include the Walter Sisulu, Magaliesrood, Jabulani and Tutela places of Safety.

An amount of R 22.2 million has been suspended from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works for capital maintenance and rehabilitation.

Unauthorized Expenditure

Honourable Members, we are also tabling the Unauthorized Expenditure Bill of R 598 million for approval by this House. The Bill will cater for financial years starting from the 1st April 2001 and ending on the 31st March 2003.

The key reasons that gave rise to unauthorized expenditure are as follows:

* Inadequate budget allocations
* Weaknesses in management control and inadequate systems and
* Non- utilization of virements between programmes

Conclusion

Honourable Speaker, we have adjusted the budget in the manner that we did so that we can address spending pressures in the various departments. This will ensure that no department over-spends on their budget.

Let me appeal to all my colleagues and all Accounting Officers to ensure that we spend prudently. We know that these resources are not enough for all the things we want to do. However, we must ensure that we spend within the voted budget so that we don't end up with an over expenditure as happened in the previous financial year.

Comrade Speaker, now that we have allocated these resources, we must all forge ahead to advance service delivery. Once more let us commit ourselves that we will continue to strengthen mechanisms aimed at combating both under and over expenditure within the Provincial Government.

We look forward to the continued support of this House as we engage in this critical exercise.

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members, I now take this opportunity to table the following documents for consideration by this House

* The Provincial Adjustment Appropriation Bill of 2004;
* The Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill;
* The estimates of revenue and expenditure;
* The Unauthorized Expenditure Bill for the financial years starting on the 1st April 2001 to the 31st March 2003;
* The explanatory Memorandum to the Bill; and
* A copy of my speech

Ke ya Leboga !!!

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