THE welfare department spent only 0,7% of its 1998 budget on poverty relief, according to a report by the auditor general quoted in the Sunday Independent. Auditor General Shauket Fakie found that the national department spent about R1,4-million of the R204-million it was allocated for poverty relief in 1998/99. The report also found that a Dutch government grant of about R11,7-million to components of the department’s juvenile and youth work system was unused. In all, 78,5% of the department’s R450-million national budget was not spent, the auditor general said.
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