Provinces will receive R238-billion this year, a whopping 16% higher than last year’s allocation. By 2010/11, provincial budgets will have doubled on their 2004/05 levels. All increases to key portfolios outstrip inflation by significant margins.
But will they spend it well? In his budget speech on Wednesday, Trevor Manuel told Parliament that the provinces will receive R46-billion over projections in the next three years, but he pointed to provinces’ lack of proper expenditure.
These essential development nodes are the biggest Achilles heel in education, health and welfare spending, all areas that the government is emphasising as the national focus moves towards poverty eradication and development away from a pure growth model.
Manuel knows this, which is why he again warned MPs to track the money carefully.
“Improving the quality of services for which responsibility is shared concurrently between national and provincial government presents particular challenges,” he said. “In some instances provincial budgets do not always reflect national priorities, while national departments sometimes introduce priorities that are not well costed.
“We call on provincial legislatures and the public to raise their vigilance to ensure that priorities we hold dearly, especially education and health, are funded adequately.”
In the Budget Review, Manuel said that most of the new money allocated to provinces is intended for public schooling, healthcare and welfare services. Funds have been set aside to train more teachers who are responsible for grade R, as well as to build classrooms and provide equipment. Extra money has been allocated specifically to help procure textbooks for learners in grades 10, 11 and 12.
Teachers, nurses and social workers are in for a boost with an additional allocation of R1,6-billion, taking the total available for better salary packages to R7,6-billion.
Additional funds will go to multidrug-resistant TB programmes and HIV/Aids projects, and to help people with disabilities.
The national government will ring-fence more funds in the form of conditional grants to ensure that spending tracks priorities. About 10% of the provincial budget takes the form of conditional grants to deal with school infrastructure backlogs, the school nutrition programme and the hospital revitalisation plan.
Finance committee chairperson Nhlanhla Nene says provinces will be expected to account more rigorously because of last year’s misspending of funds allocated to them. Provincial ministers will be called to Parliament — with their accounting officers — to explain why funds were not spent in the way they were intended. Nene says provinces will be given the option of public-private partnerships to provide them with the necessary expertise and capacity, which are often the main reasons provinces give for their poor performance.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, former education minister Kader Asmal suggested that education competencies be moved to metropolitan and district levels rather than left in the hands of provincial governments. Education Minister Naledi Pandor also said her hands are often tied by the architecture of the government where national ministries set policy only and have little to do with implementation.
Although the Constitution allows for funds to be withheld from provinces that misspend, Nene says this would be too drastic an action because it would make things worse for the people on the ground who are already suffering.
Provincial breakdown
KwaZulu-Natal will receive the largest largest allocation of R49,5-billion and Gauteng is second in line with R44,2-billion.
The largest province, the Eastern Cape, will receive R35,9-billion with the rest of the allocation divided between the Free State (R15,19-billion), Limpopo (R29,1-billion), Mpumalanga (R18,5-billion), the Northern Cape (R6,6-billion), North West (R16,39-billion) and the Western Cape (R22,4-billion).
The M&G Online budget special report is brought to you by the