The Eastern Cape budget of R48, 223 billion announced on Wednesday is not innovative enough to meet the fiscal challenges this province is facing, says DA Legislature Leader Bobby Stevenson.
The crunch-issue in the Eastern Cape is value for money and expenditure. One would have expected an announcement to be made in relation to invoking the stringent provisions of the Public Finance Management Act against those officials who mismanage our scarce resources.
The initial R403-million which has been identified from non-core items in the 2010/2011 budget can be drastically improved. The DA in the Western Cape has identified R2,1-billion in savings over a three year period – on a smaller budget. Given the fact that the government committed itself to an austerity campaign in November at the DA’s urging, we would have expected this amount to be higher.
The MEC correctly touched on the need for tender reform but failed to announce that a Bill could be introduced to ban provincial employees from trading with the province. This is something the DA is doing in the Western Cape. Read Stevensons full comment here.
.
Leave a Reply