Just energy transition funds yet to be disbursed - Dicks
The Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) says it is yet to disburse funds received by South Africa for the Just Energy Transition.
Some $300 million in donations each from France and Germany, to help move the country move to cleaner energy, has already reached our shores.
But the lack of an implementation plan has led to the funds sitting with National Treasury.
The commission's Rudi Dicks briefed the media on the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET_IP) recommendations report submitted to the president on Monday.
Dicks told the media that the country will have to account for every rand spent during the project.
"Some of the policy-based contributions from France and Germany have already flowed $300 million each, some of the grant funding has flowed also the exercise that we are currently doing and its part of a preliminary exercise once we have completed the consultation processes on the investment plans and the finalization on the implementation plan because the partners themselves have made this very clear that we need to have a detailed structure implementation plan on where funding will flow.
"At this point in time, money has not flowed into projects until such time that we have completed and finalized an implementation plan that everybody is happy with including the PCC and the international partners.
The commission’s Crispian Olver says engagements are ongoing with stakeholders on the implementation of the transition.
"We have now consulted extensively with stakeholders, there is a clear commitment to stakeholder engagements on behalf of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan team and we recommend that stakeholder engagements continue even as we move to an inclusive participatory partnership approach around implementation and there’s is enormous goodwill and capacity that exists across the stakeholders for implementation.
“There have been valid criticisms raised by stakeholders, and these must be addressed in the process of implementation (rather than rewriting JET-IP).
“Capacity and implementation issues are inadequately covered. Government should undertake a capacity assessment, align the governance structures and address barriers to implementation.
“Strong accountability, anti-corruption and oversight mechanisms need to be built into the plan.”
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