North West to return unspent millions to Treasury
The North West provincial government is set to return millions of rands to National Treasury after it failed to utilise the conditional grants.
The underspending comes despite a lack of service delivery across many towns in the province.
The provincial government will return R455 million from the R1 billion grant it received from Treasury.
The unspent funds will now be allocated to other departments or other provinces.
The DA’s Freddy Sonakile said these conditional grants were intended to improve bulk infrastructure, ensure provincial road maintenance, establish early childhood development centres, and expand the National School Nutrition Programme in the province.
“The Department of Health failed to utilise over R256 million. The Department of Public Works and Roads failed to utilise nearly R380 million. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development forfeited over R85 million to National Treasury.”
Sonakile said the party is concerned by the consistent failure of the provincial departments to spend the allocated conditional grant funding intended for large-scale projects.
“It is shameful that the provincial government neglects to improve infrastructure while North West residents continue to experience one of the worst service delivery failures in the country.”
Provincial Treasury has defended the underspending, saying the 2022/23 financial year ends on 31 March.
“As a result, departments are still transacting and departments should be allowed to close the books before confirming the expenditure performance of all the departments. The departmental expenditure performance would be reflected in the annual reports of the departments and departments implementing critical service delivery programmes, which would have an impact on expenditure.”
It said the financial year for municipalities ends on 30 June, and therefore it will be premature to pronounce on any unspent funds.
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