Issued by: Government Communication and Information System
DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE
You are invited to attend a briefing and press conference hosted by the Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, to release the Intergovernmental Fiscal Review 1999.
The Intergovernmental Fiscal Review 1999 marks a significant step in government's commitment to transparency and accountability, by making available fiscal and financial information that supports the work of Parliament and the Provincial Legislatures, researchers, the media and civil society.
This is the first Intergovernmental Fiscal Review. It contains fiscal and financial information on the budgetary performance of all nine provinces over the last four years, and budget data through 2001/02. It describes the issue of provincial deficits in 1996/97 and 1997/98 and the turnaround in provincial finances in 1998/99, and notes the enormous challenges faced by provinces in meeting the needs of citizens in the face of tight macroeconomics conditions. Much of this information, though available from each province previously, was not comparable because of a lack of uniformity.
The Intergovernmental Fiscal Review also discusses the trends in provincial expenditure on health, education, welfare, personnel and capital investment. It provides an analysis of the key social services across the provinces as well as looks at some of the circumstances facing individual provinces. It is the first time that actual expenditure data, desegregated by province, by department and by key items such as personnel, have been made publicly available.
The Review is to be released on Tuesday 14 September 1999. Journalists will be provided with copies at 12:30pm in the Rainforest, Room at 120 Plein Street, Cape Town in the Ministerial complex. Senior officials from the Department of Finance will be available from 12:30pm to respond to any queries and to clarify technical issues. The document will be available on an embargoed basis until its official release at 2:45pm. Apart from financial journalists, the Review will be of interest to journalists focusing on provinces, education, health and welfare.
The press conference will also include remarks by the Minister on his forthcoming briefing to the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank on South African economic issues.
Contact Mr I Momoniat or Ms F Zitha at (012) 315 5165 for any information on the Intergovernmental Fiscal Reivew.
10 September 1999