On Wednesday, National Treasury briefed the NCOP’s Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations on the poor spending by various strategic government departments. The presentation showed a pattern of underspending in key departments associated with service delivery for the 4th Quarter of the 2018/2019 financial year.
Prominent in the list of departments with underspending include:
- Police (R1.3 billion)
- Health (R966 million)
- Transport (R640 million)
Other departments with underspending include:
- Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (R3.2 billion)
- National Treasury (R1.1 billion)
- Environmental Affairs (R702 million)
The Democratic Alliance (DA) made a request in the meeting for all these Departments to be summoned to appear before the Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations to account for their underspending and detail a way forward. This underspending is indicative of mismanagement and corruption at these departments, which is concerning since they play such a critical role in delivering services, yet they are unable to use the budgets given to them to deliver on their mandates.
The R966 million underspending at the Health Department is alarming, given that many of the country’s hospitals are completely dilapidated and have become sites of violence, whilst KwaZulu-Natal has been hamstrung by the ongoing oncology crisis. Most chilling was the comment that National Treasury made in the meeting, regarding their concerns with the fact that there was no spending on mental health services following the Life Esidimeni tragedy. Spending in this component was 63.1% of the available budget. The Department of Police underspent by R1.3 billion, money which could have been allocated to curb gang violence on the Cape Flats and resourcing police to curb rural crime and violence.
Overall, 24 departments failed to spend 100% of their allocated budget. This is a gross disservice to South African citizens. With billions having been underspent, South Africans are receiving the short end of government’s stick.
Government needs to start prioritising services to the people by trimming the fat and capacitating departments to ensure that they meet their budgetary targets and that the needs of the people of South Africa are met.