ANC deployees in government warned to spend allocated budgets or face consequences

ANC deployees in government whose institutions fail to spend their allocated budgets by the end of the financial year will face harsher treatment from the party, including redeployment, the Limpopo ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) warned this week.

The party said it was concerned that not only does the trend negatively affect municipal programmes on service delivery, but also affects the performance of councils on audit outcomes. The party said it was baffled that the money ends up returned to the provincial Treasury, while it could have been best spent on government projects to improve lives.

“The PEC appreciates the continuous work done by the organisation, particularly with regard to water and roads. The party also appreciated the availability of party deployees in various levels of government to account for their work,” Reuben Madadzhe, Limpopo ANC provincial secretary, said in a statement.

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Madadzhe said there was, however, a need for the people deployed in government to remain focused and double their efforts in delivering basic services to the people. To that effect, he said the PEC will embark on assessing and monitoring the work of its deployees across the province, from time to time.

Madadzhe said the Limpopo ANC had noted some municipalities, departments and state-owned entities continued to return allocated monies to the Treasury because of their inability to spend the funds. He said this happened in many councils, despite the glaring service delivery backlogs the province was facing.

“The PEC resolved there should be consequence management on ANC deployees whose institutions return unspent funds to the provincial fiscus,” said Madadzhe.

The call by the party comes three months after Auditor-General (AG), Tsakane Maluleke found several Limpopo council’s failed to impress in their financial reporting last financial year. The AG singled out five municipalities – Ba-Phalaborwa, Musina, Thabazimbi, Modimolle-Mookgophong and Mopani District – as being in a vulnerable financial position, with the latter three in this state for the past five years.

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Of the five councils, Thabazimbi and Modimolle-Mookgophong are led by coalitions, while the remaining three are ANC-run. While the AG admitted there has been a “notable improvement” in municipal audit outcomes in Limpopo in last financial year, she also raised concerns over a hefty reliance on consultants, with municipalities spending more than R971 million on external costs for financial reporting.