Province frees funds to fight pandemic
The Eastern Cape government has diverted money from other service delivery needs to help fight the coronavirus, finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko told the Bhisho legislature yesterday.
Tabling his Covid-19 emergency funding report, he said section 25 of the public finance management act allowed him to use money from the provincial revenue fund.
His approval of R307m to provincial health was based on budget analysis and reprioritisation conducted by the provincial treasury in light of the unforeseen nature of the pandemic.
The R307m will be used by the health department to conduct testing, buy personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators, establish field hospitals and appoint 822 enrolled nurses and nursing assistants “to assist our healthcare system to fight the pandemic”.
These funds, Mvoko said, will help procure PPE such as gloves, goggles, visors, particulate respirators, grade N95 masks, surgical masks, aprons, gowns, heavy duty gloves, boot covers, surgical masks for patients and sanitisers for all health institutions.
Delivering the budget and policy speeches on Tuesday, Mvoko, premier Oscar Mabuyane and legislature speaker Helen Sauls-August detailed some reallocations.
Mvoko said the province had reduced all departments’ travel and subsistence budgets for the 2020/2021 financial year by 45% since the lockdown was announced. More reductions were on the cards for non-core items such as communication, advertising and catering.
An additional R44.5m was allocated from the 2019/2020 provincial disaster relief grant for purchasing PPE for health department employees.
The pandemic, Mvoko said on Tuesday, had a negative effect on economic growth and the government’s fiscal position, “dealing a profound blow to businesses and jobs”.
An economy worsened by the pandemic, coupled with revenue collection shortfalls was affecting provincial allocations and putting pressure on an already strained fiscus.
“This requires us to exercise fiscal discipline, especially in light of further budget cuts implemented for the 2020 medium-term expenditure framework and reprioritisation.”
Specific interventions to address challenges in the health and education departments — which accounted for the lion’s share of the provincial budget — would be undertaken, Mvoko said.
He told the legislature the battle against suppliers who inflated prices when selling to the government would be escalated. He urged departments to deal with state employees who continued doing business with the state.
“Fraud prevention strategies are in place and forensic investigation work is being conducted to deal decisively with corruption. As a result, 13 forensic investigations in the province were completed in 2019/2020, eight are in progress while eight follow-ups on completed investigations were performed,” Mvoko said.
On Wednesday Mvoko told the legislature national government had allocated R98.5m to the provincial human settlements department.
Mabuyane welcomed a donation of 50,000 surgical masks and 10,000 N95 masks from China’s Zhejiang provincial governor, Dr Yuan Jiajun. He said Zhejiang had pledged additional masks.
Meanwhile BCM adjourned a virtual council meeting on Wednesday after councillors in the King William’s Town office said they felt unsafe as a finance department staffer had tested positive for the virus.
The meeting was rescheduled for Friday after it transpired that only the finance section had been deep cleaned despite everyone using the same entrance.
Approval of R307m to provincial health was based on budget analysis conducted by the provincial treasury