Gauteng Social Development MEC warns officials about underspending

Gauteng Social Development MEC Faith Mazibuko has warned management that she will not tolerate the over- or underspending of government funds under her watch.

She made this warning when appearing before the Social Development Portfolio Committee to answer questions on the department’s annual performance report at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature in Johannesburg.

The report shows the Auditor-General found material misstatements in the department’s performance in the 2023/24 financial year. The report also recorded the underspending by R554m in the same financial year.

Mazibuko, appointed this July, said the warnings were in the spirit of creating good governance, especially around promoting a culture of accountability and transparency in the public sector.

“Anything to this regard (over- or underspending) will be penalised by withholding performance bonuses and payment progressions,” Mazibuko warned.

She said should the accounting officer again do such acts, a written recommendation would go to the premier for possible dismissal, indicating the provincial government’s commitment to prudent management of public resources.

“There is no justification by the department to overspend on allocated funds, and equally, there is no justification for underspending while the people of Gauteng suffer from malnutrition and hunger,” said Mazibuko.

She said the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) encourages accounting officers to interact constantly with their executive authorities because if there is good communication between the two parties, there would be no surprises come the financial year-end.

“The constant interaction will result in potential problems within programmes, challenges in implementing projects, and challenges being detected early,” added Mazibuko.

She said management could also use the provincial treasury financial management package that will assist in developing an accurate database to complement the government’s basic accounting system.

“This will put us in a good position because it advises the department in time of any irregularities in the accounting system, and we hope this will go a long way in assisting us to have correct statistics and usable information to allow proper spending.”.

She said she was encouraged by the progress made in ironing out funding challenges with NPOs.