Eastern Cape provincial departments continue to drag their feet on delivering critical infrastructure projects desperately needed to improve the lives of residents in the province.
Current expenditure trends for the new financial year are already raising red flags that key targets will not be met, funds will go unspent, and hundreds of millions of much-needed funding could once again be returned to the national treasury. The worst offenders are the Departments of Education, Health and Human Settlements.
While ANC-deployed millionaire managers are asleep at the wheel, learners will once again be deprived of new schools, the sick will be deprived of primary care facilities, and housing lists will remain the place where the dreams for houses go to die.
This week, damning revelations were made in the Eastern Cape Legislature’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
Download SCOPA report extract.
A review of the first two months of spending for the new financial year revealed that of the 366 projects under construction for the Education Department, 265 have not recorded any expenditure.
Based on the report, the Department should have spent R147 million between April and May but has only spent R24,3 million. That’s just 16.5% of what should have been spent. This is a serious red flag, mirroring trends from previous financial years, where hundreds of millions went unspent at the end of the financial year and had to be returned.
Clearly, the Education Department does not have the internal capacity to manage infrastructure development projects. Yet, it insists on keeping the bulk of its projects in-house, even if this means forfeiting significant funding meant to improve the learning conditions of the children of this province.
The Health Department is not faring much better. Of the 49 infrastructure projects that should be under construction, 23 have not recorded any expenditure in the first two months. Of the R39,9 million that should have been spent by the end of May, just R14 million had been spent. That places the department 65% behind on their expenditure for infrastructure projects.
Human Settlements, notorious for underspending their budget, are also behind on expenditure, having spent just R26 million of the R40 million they should have spent by May. Sixteen of the Department’s 55 projects have recorded no expenditure.
Every day that projects are delayed is a day that residents of this province are denied critical infrastructure that will make a positive difference in their lives.
It is high time that the MECs of these Departments start taking action against wayward officials, ensure that their budgets are spent correctly, and that projects are delivered on time.
The DA will be tabling detailed questions to each of the relevant MECs, with our relevant shadow MECs keeping a close eye on the infrastructure programmes of the relevant departments.