‘Cabinet has a week to solve Limpopo crisis’
Provincial youth league says interference by government has paralysed service delivery
PLACING departments under administration created problems for people in Limpopo instead of helping them, the ANC Youth League said yesterday.
“As a result of the interference by national cabinet, service delivery in Limpopo is literally paralysed,” it said, following an announcement by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan that a forensic investigation into the province’s possible R2 billion shortfall would start this week.
The league said: “For the first time since 1994 we are experiencing problems.”
It claimed school nutrition programmes and transport were not being paid, medication in hospitals was not being procured, education bursaries had been frozen and various other service providers had not been paid.
The national government placed five Limpopo departments under administration in December because of billions of rands in wasted spending, leaving the province bankrupt
Five departments – finance, education, health and social development, public works, and education– were placed under national government’s control. The remaining departments were operating under guidelines provided by national government.
The ANCYL in the province said yesterday that it was giving the Cabinet seven days to “rectify the situation”.
“If we don’t notice any change, we will mobilise all affected stakeholders to march to Pretoria because that is the centre of our problems.”
The league said it was “puzzling” that the Limpopo provincial government had been targeted as it was not the “worst” province.
“Other provinces requested overdrafts exceeding the R1bn requested by Limpopo, yet those provinces are not targeted.”
Gordhan said at a media briefing that as and when the investigation revealed evidence of illegal activities, “the perpetrators will be charged, whether they are government employees or service providers, and we will have special courts, World Cup 2010 style, on standby”.
At the end of last year it emerged that the province could not pay its civil servants and was broke.
This was because of its large accumulated unauthorised expenditure which had grown from R1.5 bn in 2009 to R2.7bn in 2011, Gordhan said.
Gordhan said: “National Treasury will have to restructure the province’s finances in order to find savings of R2bn to cover the shortfall.”
So far, teams had found that the health department owed suppliers R138 million, but only half these payments, R67m, could be verified and approved for payment by December 23.
Another R427m in assets had no supporting documents, and there was R400 m in irregular spending on goods and services, mostly medical equipment.
Education Minister Angie Motshekga said there was no supply chain management in the education department, with the department not ordering pupil support material on time.
It had accumulated unauthorised expenditure of R2.2m and there was a R190m accrual of “stale debt” – money owed.
At least 200 “ghost” teachers were paid and there were 2400 excess teachers in the province.
Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi said the modification of existing contracts to push up tender values and consultancy fees contributed to the financial crisis in that department,
“A security contract of R1.8m a month… was extended without proper procedures from 2010,” Nxesi said.
Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele said there was no contract management system in place in the province’s transport department and no oversight of the Limpopo Roads Agency.
Gordhan confirmed that Limpopo’s treasury had an overdraft at the Reserve Bank of R757m in November 2011 and wanted to increase it by R1bn. – Sapa