A BLOATED and ineffective public service, which has to all intents and purposes abandoned the ‘Batho Pele' principle, is the root cause for KwaZulu-Natal's financial woes.
This was the message from Democratic Alliance KZN finance spokesperson, Johann Krog, following today's budget speech by provincial finance MEC, Ina Cronje."With more than half of the provincial budget currently apportioned to personnel wages and salaries, there is very little room to manoeuvre funds and it is practically impossible to free up monies for infrastructure maintenance and development. This year, provincial government budgeted for a mere 5.3% wage increase - yet every year this figure is doubled, during wage negotiations, making the entire budget exercise worthless."
He said that a 75% hike in salaries over the last three years, which included above inflation salary increases and OSD (Occupation Specific Dispensation) payments, not fully- budgeted for at provincial level, were the major contributors to the province's depleted coffers."The financial crisis in this province has nothing to do with a recession and everything to do with an ineffective civil service, poor financial planning and a culture of self-indulgence and self-enrichment that has permeated government ranks."
Krog predicted that, despite promises to the contrary, provincial government is set to follow the downward spiral, as witnessed within municipalities, with service delivery grinding to a halt."The rot has already set in. Our province's road network is not being maintained, school infrastructure is crumbling and even provincial buildings are not maintained. Mismanagement of funds and the ongoing awarding of tenders to unregistered companies, and to concerns and individuals, who have already proved they are not up to the task, are key to this problem. The 140 outstanding projects within the education department, along with 50 that are running behind schedule within the health department indicate that the situation has been allowed to manifest to an alarming degree. Before this problem can begin to be addressed, government will have to commit to an open and transparent tender and award process."
Krog said that the DA would call for immediate streamlining and the realignment of personnel within all departments, in order to free up funds to deal with provincial government's priorities of health and education and crime."This budget - like the other budgets before it - sees a massive amount of money going towards salaries yet there is no commensurate productivity increase - it is time for provincial government to rationalise and ensure maximum productivity from a committed public service."
Statement issued by Johann Krog, MPP, Democratic Alliance KZN spokesperson on finance, March 4 2010
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