North West intervention pay-off ‘two years away’

IT WILL take another two years before government interventions in North West bring financial stability to the provincial government.

This is according to a report tabled in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) yesterday, in which the content adviser for the ad hoc committee on North West outlined steps being taken following the loss of billions of rand in irregular expenditure.

The National Treasury and Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu have found that irregular expenditure in the province increased from R8.6 billion to R15.3bn in four years.

Content adviser for the committee Tshepo Masoeu said: “All interventions to enhance and improve service delivery in the province will require sustained efforts over the next two years or so.”

He said the intervention would be similar to that undertaken in Limpopo seven years ago.

“With the experience of Limpopo, the intervention happened in December 2011 and the committee tabled its report in 2014,” he said.

MPs agreed to visit North West next month to check on progress made and crack down on the use of money by government departments.

Chairperson of the ad hoc committee on the intervention in the North West Charel de Beer said the committee wanted to know what had happened to the money allocated to the province by the National Treasury.

“When we go there in September we will follow the money. Where did the money go to? Section 100 (2) of the Constitution is very clear that the NCOP must monitor this intervention,” said De Beer.

Mntomuhle Khawula of the Inkatha Freedom Party said some departments in North West were in a shambles and failed to spend allocated funds.

One such department had to return a conditional grant to the National Treasury.

Ockert Terblanche of the DA said the challenge for the teams on the ground in North West would be to implement the turnaround strategy to fix the province.

NCOP chief whip Seiso Mohai said MPs needed to go to North West to ensure the speedy implementation of plans to turn it around. “We are clear that we will... do what we need to do,” said Mohai.