The North West Department of Finance is yet to receive a response from the National Treasury about the application to have the unspent R1.8 billion conditional grant from the previous financial year rolled over to the 2023/4 budget.
The Provincial Head of the Department, Ndlela Kunene, said they expect to get a response from the National Treasury by the end of the month.
“We have done a submission as a province like all other provinces. The National Treasury is currently evaluating the submissions and has not made a final decision in terms of whether they are going to approve or disapprove the request. In order words the request is in the system and will obviously communicate their decision before the end of June in terms of the process,” Kunene said.
He said they will conduct oversight visits at different provincial government departments to ensure no funds are forfeited to the National Treasury in the future.
“We will continue with assessments and visitation of sites in terms of infrastructure as part of a report back to the accounting officer. The report will be based on measures that need to be implemented to correct the situation.
“There will also be an early implementation of what we consider to be a recovery plan that relates to the department’s expenditure. This will also include escalating the matters to the Provincial Executive Council for intervention and ensuring that corrective measures are put in place,” he said.
This is the breakdown of the amounts that were not used by each department.
- The Department of Health failed to spend R302 million.
- The Department of Education failed to utilise R383 million.
- The Department of Public Works and Roads could have lost R227 million,
- The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development didn’t spend R64 million.
- The Department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation failed to use R32 million.
- And the Department of Human Settlements failed to spend R7.5 million.
