In the previous financial year (2022/2023), the Free State government failed to spend funds amounting to R2,5 billion, which were earmarked for infrastructure development.
In the same financial year, the provincial government overspent about R424 million on salaries in its various departments.
This is evident in reports that the respective departments submitted this week to the Legislature’s Public Accounts Committee.
The provincial departments only succeeded in spending an average of 52% of the available infrastructure funds for the past financial year.
Departments guilty of underspending must now apply to the National Treasury to have the unused funds rolled over to the next year.
This will result in further underspending in the following financial year, because these departments are unable to do proper planning and manage their spending accordingly.
The Department of Police, Roads and Transport spent only 57% of the available R1,5 billion in road-maintenance grants during the reporting period.
This is despite the enormous demand for road maintenance in the Free State. And yet, this same Department also overspent about R110 million on salaries.
The Department of Human Settlements fared even worse and only succeeded in spending 21,7% of the R1,08 billion at its disposal.
Failed ANC ideologies and policies, like Affirmative Action (AA) and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), among others, as well as unprecedented levels of fraud and corruption under ANC rule have resulted in these departments being unable to function optimally.
The Free State simply cannot afford to have incompetent officials, fraud, corruption and cadre deployment hampering service delivery.
The FF Plus will demand, in the Public Accounts Committee meetings held over the next few days, that the officials of the departments guilty of underspending must be held accountable.
