Gauteng govt has failed to spend some of its budget allocation this fiscal year
In its medium-term budget statement on Tuesday, the books are now showing an increase in revenue due to Treasury allowing the provincial government to roll over R1.2 billion of its unspent funds.
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JOHANNESBURG - The Gauteng government has surrendered R2.2 billion in unspent funds back to National Treasury.
In its medium-term budget statement on Tuesday, the books are now showing an increase in revenue.
That is due to the Treasury allowing the provincial government to roll over R1.2 billion of its unspent funds.
Gauteng’s Treasury head, Ncumisa Mnyani, said the province failed to spend about R3.4 billion of its allocated funds from the previous financial year.
“We rolled over 1.2 [billion rand] of that, so we are sitting at about 2.2 [billion rand] – that is the amount that was not committed, where it was not linked to any invoices or work already done, and contracts haven’t been signed to that effect.
"Part of it will be surrendered back to the National Treasury for their various departments because it’s national transfers in the form of conditional grants, so it’s not our money, and the other amount will go to the provincial revenue fund, which is related to the provincial equitable share.”
The Democratic Alliance (DA)’s Ruhan Robinson said it is unacceptable for the province to be giving money back to the Treasury when it is under financial strain.
“Every cent we can use to make service delivery happen in the province should be used exactly for that. We are expecting the MEC today [Tuesday] to announce a deficit of about R5.5 billion, and we certainly cannot afford a single cent of money to be sent back because that’s going to hamper service delivery.”