MEC Ndalane Confident of Implementing Department’s Projects
DEPARTMENT’S PROJECTS
The MEC for Limpopo Department of Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure tabled the department’s budget for 2018/19 financial year in the provincial legislature earlier in April 2018. The department has been allocated R3.1 billion out of the province’s R65.4 billion budget, and the Honourable Nandi Ndalane had to outline how her department planned to allocate that across the department’s four main programmes.
The MEC for Limpopo Department of Provincial Treasury, the Honourable Rob Tooley, had announced earlier in his budget speech that the allocation to the department has a negative growth of 0.6 percent in 2018/19 due to a once-off allocation of R1.1 billion for conditional grants in 2017/18 financial year.
The greatest share of the department’s allocation to its programmes, at R1.883 billion, went to Road Infrastructure, of which R988.9 million
has been transferred to Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) for operational costs, and upgrading and maintenance of roads during the 2018/19 financial year.
The department is not immune to the economic principle of trade-off that is synonymous with budgets and allocation of financial resources the world over, that are even more strenuous in the public sector. At current estimates, RAL will need R160 billion to upgrade and maintain the entire road network in Limpopo.
However, the MEC says it is up to those responsible for resources and implementation thereof to make a choice to become great, as the department had done. She says people no longer accept bureaucratic processes as reasons for failures to deliver.
During her speech, MEC Ndalane borrowed from company sustainability and growth expert Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen’s 2011 Economics/Business research book Great by Choice as she tried to relate budgetary constraints to the book’s fundamental question, “Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not?”
“Our people are no longer interested in the reasons why we have not been able to deliver on our promises or failed to meet our targets,” said MEC Ndalane.
These realities, she said, have collectively informed our choice of being great to deliver and refrain from using unnecessary excuses for our failures to deliver.
“From the outset, we have put priorities, which include amongst others improving our audit opinion, improving our corporate governance and, importantly, improving and expediting delivery to our people.”
She is pleased that the department’s public entity, the Roads Agency Limpopo, is continuing a winning streak, having achieved an unqualified audit opinion in 2016/17.
“I commit to ensure that during this last stretch of the term, the department and the entity will work closely together to develop a winning formula for both, by improving the relationship, oversight management and overall governance,” she said.
To achieve these, the MEC says the department has resolved to among others, “to report to work on time, place the right people at the right positions, refrain from corruption, instil discipline, appreciate and recognise talent, and empower women and the youth, amongst others.”
“We are confident that through this approach, we shall be able to improve our audit opinion, meet our service delivery targets and improve the lives of our people,” the MEC said.
Over the 2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period, RAL will complete the current multi-year projects from the previous financial year(s) still in implementation stage. “In addition to these projects,
“WE ARE CONFIDENT …. WE SHALL BE ABLE TO IMPROVE OUR AUDIT OPINION, MEET OUR SERVICE DELIVERY TARGETS AND IMPROVE THE LIVES OF OUR PEOPLE”
contractors were appointed in the fourth quarter of 2017/18 financial year to implement a total of twenty-one upgrading and maintenance projects.”
These include, road R523 to Alldays, Lemondokop to Olifantshoek, Nkowankowa to Deer Park, Haenertsburg to Tzaneen; Senwabarwana to Indermark; Tompi Seleka to Mogaladi to Phokwane; Riba Cross to Ga-Riba village, and the Marulaneng to Ga-Maila to Mphanama to GaNchabeleng road.
The MEC said the programme of continuing to create jobs, support local Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) and provide onthe-job and accredited training for local labourers through the multiyear road infrastructure projects is ongoing.
“Up to the end of the third quarter of 2017/18 financial year, a total of 498 work opportunities were created at a cost of R51.817 million, and R155.096 million was spent on supporting about 426 SMMEs in the project areas, and 264 local labourers were provided with accredited training.”
The Department of Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure has also been allocated R3.2 billion and R3.4 billion in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years respectively. To this effect, RAL will get a provincial road maintenance grant of R1 048 088 000 for 2019/20 and same amount for 2020/21, as per revised mid-term estimates from the annual three-year expenditure planning. This is based on Road Infrastructure programme’s estimated purse of R1, 9 billion and R2 billion for the next couple of financial years.
The rest of the department’s programmes, namely Administration, Infrastructure Operation (Planning and Design, Property and Facilities Management, and Construction Management) and Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) got a share allocation of R386.5m, R790.7m and R57,7m respectively, for the implementation of their projects.
The MEC said the budget allocation will assist the department to deliver on its mandate of providing public infrastructure and services for the people of Limpopo through various programmes and projects.