The Democratic Alliance expects the MEC for Finance, Mcebisi Jonas to table a tight Provincial Budget of R48,3 billion today, and which requires tough action.
This consists of R40.134 billion in equitable share, conditional grants of R7,453 billion and own revenue in the region of R700 million giving a total of R48.3 billion.
The tight fiscal space in which the Province has to manouvre in the light of the projected R2.7 billion over expenditure, calls for tough management and focussed spending. The projected over expenditure will eat up any increase in direct equitable share excluding conditional grants.
This new fiscal reality calls for greater accountibility and the Democratic Alliance will be driving it’s AGENDA FOR ACCOUNTABILITY to ensure that we get the biggest bang for our Provincial buck.
The DA expects the MEC to announce :
• How the budget will be re-prioritised to meet service delivery targets
• The success of the austerity campaign and future targets
• How the over expenditure is going to be dealt with
Some of the performance measures that the Democratic Alliance would introduce to ensure that spending makes a greater impact are :
• Increased spending on education must be linked to the performance management system for teachers and administrators
• Improved social spending on grants must be linked to regular health checkups at clinics for children of child grant recipients.
• Increased expenditure on the expanded public works programme must be linked to skills training
For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 0827753444
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