Failure to spend grants: Limpopo loses R1,3bil

POLOKWANE – Limpopo’s failure to spend some grants resulted in national treasury cutting the province’s budget and allocating the money to other provinces.

This comes after treasury warned the provincial government that if they did not spend the money it would be given to provinces where delivery will take place.

Provinces must spend grants received by national government within a financial year and unspent monies cannot be rolled over to the next financial year.

Limpopo’s budget was cut by R1,3 billion by treasury. The province’s failure to spend its grants means better roads and more library infrastructure for other provinces.

Grants Limpopo failed to spend were as follows:

• R637,5 million for fixing provincial roads.

• R644 million for housing.

• R8,9 million for libraries.

These funds run through the provincial roads maintenance grant, the human settlements development grant and the community library services grant.

The grants will be reallocated as follows:

• Free State gets R449,7 million for provincial roads, R230 million for housing and R1,48 million for libraries.

• Northern Cape gets R187,7 million for provincial roads and R207,9 million for housing.

• Gauteng gets R3 million for libraries.

• Western Cape gets R1,48 million for libraries and R32,1 million for housing.

• KwaZulu-Natal gets R57 million for housing.

• North West gets R117 million for housing.

Jabulani Sikhakhane, a spokesperson for national treasury, said the Road Agency of Limpopo, which implements road projects on behalf of the provincial roads and transport department, had been the subject of investigation as well as clean-up processes arising out of the failures in its supply chain processes.

“The minister of transport, for example, has had to replace the agency’s board as well as probe its supply chain rules. The net result of all this has been that the roads and transport department in Limpopo has spent poorly this current financial year. At the time when the decision was taken to move the funds, the department had only spent 19% (R232 million) of its R1,2 billion budget. A rollover of the funds would have compounded the problem of underspending,” Sikhakhane explained.

He added that national treasury withheld the human settlements funds in May last year due to the irregular tenders awarded by the provincial department.

“These funds have remained withheld pending the finalisation of the forensic investigation and the subsequent suspension of the head of the department. In the end there was too little time left for the province to spend the money and it was agreed with the national department of human settlements that the funds be reallocated,” Sikhakhane said.