KZN’s financial challenges don’t lie within Treasury
24 November 2016
HAVING just completed the close out budget allow me to concur with both MEC Scott and Honourable Nkosi, that the KZN treasury is one of the top performing treasuries in the country and deserves to take the credit for the exemplary role that it plays in controlling the province’s finances. One shudders to think what the situation would be if we didn’t have such an effective treasury.
KZN’s financial challenges don’t lie within treasury. They lie with the provincial departments, public entities and certain senior officials who either lack the capacity or the political will to effectively implement provincial budgets. Or perhaps it’s a case of giving treasury ‘the bird’. Why else would you have departments and entities that continually ignore legislation when it comes to budget control and why is it always the same serial offenders?
Let me supply this House with clear evidence of this starting with Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) under the watch of MEC Zikhalala. The department made transfer payments of R15.8 million in the first six months of 2016/17 in respect of various events in programme 2, 3, 6 and 7 without Provincial Treasury approval. This in contravention of Treasury Regulation 6.3.1(b). The department wanted to undertake virements and introduce new transfer payments for two weeks before the end of 2015/16 to reduce its level of underspending. This is nothing more than fiscal dumping and, in the words of the Treasury report, an indication of poor planning by the department.
Treasury did not approve the requested virements as some of these events were considered ‘nice to haves’ and not in the spirit of cost-cutting and were considered to be exorbitant. So while we have a department with a R2.7 billion budget that should drive local economic projects it would rather spend money on things like, VIP catering, couches, ottomans, luxury vehicles and promotional material - to say nothing of the R20million that this department wants to spend on the Metro FM Awards, certainly not a priority in the current economic climate. One can only hope and pray that the now infamous Hlaudi Moetsoneng will not get his grubby paws on this obscene amount of money. This department continually, year in and year out, continues with shifts and virements. Every year the MEC and senior departmental officials give the commitment that this procedure will cease, which of course the mid-year budget proves is certainly not happening.