Late appointment of contractors haunts Coghsta

The Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta) has already spent R478 million of its R2,5 billion budget allocated for the current financial year.
The department’s presentation of its first quarter report to the Portfolio Committee on Coghsta on Friday revealed that R90 million (26%) had been spent on administration, R213,5 million (15%) on human settlements, R72,4 million (25%) on cooperative governance and R102 million (21%) on traditional institutional development.
The department has spent 19% of the total budget which is less than the previous year when 23% had been spent in the first quarter. According to the report, in 2015/16 and 2014/15 the department spent 20% and 13% respectively in the first quarter. It was stated that the spending pattern showed some improvement in the previous year after, among others, the implementation of corrective measures in the appointment of contractors in supply chain management. However, the appointment of contractors is still taking long and this in turn slows down contractor-orientated services, hence 81% of the total budget remains unspent as to 30 June.
The department stated in its report that a total spending on conditional grants as of 30 June amounted to R182,3 million (13%) out of the total budget of R1,3 billion. On Municipal Infrastructure Grant R2,6 billion (90,5%) out of R2,9 billion had been spent by June thus leaving the department with only R281,6 million.

Story: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za