Parliament flags poor showing by key provincial departments

PARLIAMENT’S select committee on finance has expressed concern about the poor performance of provincial education and health departments.

The committee was briefed by the national Treasury and the Mpumalanga Treasury on Tuesday about the preliminary outcomes of 2017-18 provincial expenditure‚ as at May 31.

“The committee noted with concern the overall fiscal risk pertaining to the education and health sectors‚ as well as high accruals‚” the committee’s chairman, Charel de Beer, said.

“The committee agreed with national Treasury that skills capacity‚ particularly in project execution and planning, should be sought by departments to reduce under-spending on certain spending items and conditional grants.”

According to the committee‚ Mpumalanga has a record of unauthorised and under-expenditure‚ “indicating that employees are not doing their jobs‚ and which has serious implications for service delivery”.

Mpumalanga Treasury MEC Sikhumbuzo Kholwane told the committee he was in discussions with the department of health on the possibility of the provincial Treasury taking over the department.

“In its presentation‚ the national Treasury said the provincial health department’s accumulated unauthorised expenditure increased to approximately R200-million and irregular expenditure still awaiting condonation amounts to R6.7-billion.

“The select committee is concerned by the overall poor performance in provincial departments of health and education‚ which has been raised in all the presentations from provincial treasuries. This is disturbing and unacceptable,” De Beer said. – TimesLIVE