NELSPRUIT – Funds earmarked for emergencies was utilised to foot the bill for memorial services for the late former president, Mr Nelson Mandela.
This was the explanation given by the provincial executive last week following an outcry over the fact that it cost the province R70 million to have official memorial services for Madiba in Mpumalanga in December.
This came after the provincial assembly approved a second adjustment budget for the financial year two weeks ago. The total amount appropriated in the bill comes to R114 million.
Of this, R70 million was used on memorial services for Madiba. According to the provincial executive committee, logistics cost R50 million, catering R12,5 million and transport R7,5 million.
Ms Candith Mashego-Dlamini, MEC for social development, said the R70 million were the province’s own revenue which had been accumulated but not yet allocated for emergencies as well as savings.
The remainder of the adjustments found in the bill was from funds from programmes in departments that would not have been spent before the end of the financial year, which ends this month.
These include a R20 million deposit paid to Eskom for an oilseed crushing plant of which public works and human settlements each contributed R5 million. These funds were initailly allocated to compensation of employees that would have gone unspent due to their not filling vacant positions.
These same had their budgets cut during the mid-year adjustment budget last year when human settlements lost R2 million and public works R17,9 million due to underspending.
“No programme is running short on funds as a result,” explained Mashego-Dlamini during the press conference. Her own department raised R10 million from capital expenses related to land which it had failed to secure, since it would not be rolled over to next year’s budget if it went unspent.
Members of the house of traditional leaders also received salary increases. To fund this, the department of finance contributed R4,5 million and traditional affairs allocated R14 million from elsewhere in its programmes.
Mr Simon Skhosana, MEC for cooperative governance, said they went all out for the organisation of the memorials. “We could not allow one aspect of the events to go wrong.” Since it had to be organised at such short notice, the regular tender process was also suspended. “An emergency calls from emergency procedures.”
Mr Madala Masuku, MEC for finance, admitted the government could have better communicated the appropriation to the public.
