Agriculture MECs were sent back to do their homework on Tuesday when figures they presented to Parliament’s finance select committee differed from those provided by the national treasury.
Some figures on spending patterns presented by at least two MECs did not tally with treasury statistics, committee chairperson Tutu Ralane pointed out.
”Why are these figures not the same when these reports to national treasury come from yourselves?” he asked.
Ralane instructed MECs Casca Mokitlane of the Free State and Dikeledi Magadzi of Limpopo to report back in five days on the apparent anomalies.
In reporting to the committee on their third quarter spending, MECs were taken to task for underspending on conditional grants provided by the national government for agricultural support, land care, infrastructure and disaster management.
”The national government gives funds to the provinces for delivery purposes, if there are roll-overs we really would want to understand why,” said committee member Peter Moatshe.
”Twelve years down the line we cannot afford roll-overs. We are doing an injustice to the masses of the country.”
The Free State was questioned about a reported 33% spending rate on disaster management for the year to December, given the province’s drought problem.
Mokitlane agreed that roll-overs were unwarranted, and said steps were being taken to rectify that.
Having achieved 51% spending on conditional grants amounting to R97,3-million by the end of December, the Free State expected to achieve nearly 100% by the end of the current financial year in April.
Mokitlane said spending was greatly curbed in the 2004/05 financial year when a moratorium was imposed in the department for an investigation into expenditure processes.
The department was working hard at capturing information from about 5 000 farmers who had sought drought relief, and ensuring the money was disseminated.
Eastern Cape MEC Gugile Nkwinti blamed poor planning and weak management skills for underspending, agreeing it was ”embarrassing”.
”When you look at underspending you feel incapacitated in terms of asking for more money,” he told the committee.
By January 23, the province had spent R35,9-million of R87,4-million provided in conditional grants for 2005/06. – Sapa