Unspent Limpopo millions go to others

FOUR provinces will share about R560-million that was meant to build houses in Limpopo after the provincial government failed to spend the money.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has approved the re-allocation of the human settlements development grant to KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Western Cape. KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape will get the lion ’ s share of the money, with R236-million and R233.5-million, respectively.

Mpumalanga will receive R70-million and the remaining R20-million will be allocated to Western Cape. The Division of Revenue Act allows Nene to stop allocating funds to a province or a municipality on the basis of persistent and material non-compliance.

This drastic step is allowed only “if the National Treasury anticipates that a province or municipality will substantially underspend on the allocation, or any programme partially of fully funded by the allocation,” according to the act.

The funds can also be re-allocated if a province implementing an infrastructure project does not comply with construction industry best practise standards and guidelines.

When Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced the provincial department ’ s failure to spend the money in October last year, she blamed “capacity constraints ”.

Last year, the National Human Settlements Department said it worked tirelessly, appointed contractors and consulting engineers to hasten service delivery and spending of the grant, which was about R17-billion for all nine provinces in 2013/14.

The Limpopo provincial government has previously returned R644-million in conditional grants to state coffers after failing to use the funds due to weaknesses in its tender system. Limpopo cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs departments spokesman Motupa Selomo did not respond to questions yesterday.

DA spokesman on the provincial treasury Langa Bodlani said he feared that the provincial government was heading for another collapse.

Five provincial departments were placed under administration by Nene ’ s predecessor Pravin Gordhan in December 2011 including cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional Affairs.