Roll-over beyond our control
Cogta budget was impacted by a number of unforeseen circumstances, writes Lennox Mabaso
THE latest opposition gimmick from the DA is that the provincial Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has underspent its 2015/2016 budget because of a lack of political leadership and proper management.
This assessment is grossly misleading and – based on its provenance in the DA – also malicious. In fact it is the biggest element of fiction.
The truth is that Cogta has spent 96% of its previous budget, which is widely considered an optimal result. The minuscule 4% cannot be conflated as under-expenditure but a roll-over which has the full support of the provincial Treasury. The money has been rolled over precisely because of issues largely beyond our control as a department. The 2015/2016 financial year was a unique year of transition within local government and the department was impacted by a number of unforeseen events.
Budget
Part of our budget was set aside for support to municipalities and for election infrastructure during the local government elections, which we initially anticipated to be held in the first quarter of the year.
As it turned out, the elections only took place last month. This delay had negative implications for our budget be- cause multiple election-related items had to be procured close to the polling day.
The department had, as it always does, provided reasons for delays in spending to the provincial government and the legislature portfolio committee and all parties to the discussion seemed to understand that the underlying issues were beyond KZN Cogta’s control.
The DA is deliberately twisting the facts because this is part of its DNA, indeed one would expect this from a party that thrives on theatrics, but it must know that it is entitled to its opinion but not its own facts.
The fact is that all monies earmarked by Cogta for critical development initiatives were spent in line with the budget and the department has subsequently received a positive unqualified audit report from the auditor-general based on this expenditure.
At KZN Cogta we take tremendous pride in our working relationship with the provincial legislature and its oversight committees. Our engagements with all MPLs are robust but absolutely correct and our interactions with this oversight institution are based on transparency and mutual respect.
Therefore we find it disingenuous of the opposition in general – and the DA in particular, which sits on the legislature’s oversight committee – to receive all the facts and then to go out of its way to deliberately distort, sensationalise and scandalise all that the government does to fulfil its constitutional mandate.
The DA is using its deeply flawed argument about “under-expenditure” to bolster its long-held belief that KZN Cogta is in dire need of internal restructuring to ensure greater economy and efficiency.
The irony is such internal restructuring is already taking place at KZN Cogta as announced in this year’s budget speech. The privileged information about the department re-engineering process, which includes the decentralisation process and structures that provide direct support to municipalities, are all contained in the budget policy speech and the DA is plagiarising this information to create an impression that it has better ideas. Tell no lies and claim no easy victories.
The DA is welcome to have and air its gripes against the government, but it must be factual and not resort to distortions.
We are streamlining all our operations to ensure smoother communication with municipalities and a tighter internal structure to achieve faster response times in dealing with crises that arise in our local government institutions. We are now also working with a reduced number of municipalities – 54 down from 61 before the 2016 local government elections – so we are already seeing positive changes emanating from our novel approach.
Dishonesty
We understand that the DA is an opposition party that needs to derive political capital from the government’s shortcomings. What we object to is the plain dishonesty with which this opposition party pursues its scorched-earth agenda of turning everything our government does into an endless stream of negative news reporting.
Mabaso is the spokesman for Cogta KwaZulu-Natal