Overspend, underspend, misspend and pay – Gordhan

The government will introduce measures to deal with departments and municipalities that fail to spend, underspend or misspend their budget allocations on infrastructure development projects, said Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

“We are aware of several weaknesses in the state’s infrastructure capacity. In the past, spending has lagged behind plans. Our estimate is that in 2010/11, R178 billion was spent out of a planned R260 billion, or just 68%,” said Gordhan in the 2012 budget speech today.

“We have to do better than that – state enterprises, municipalities and government departments all need to improve their planning and management of capital projects,” he said.

Gordhan said the government has experienced significant cost over-runs in infrastructure projects.

“So we shall step up the quality of planning, costing and project management, so that infrastructure is delivered on time, and on budget,” he said.

“This means that government departments and municipalities that don’t spend, underspend or misspend their allocated funding, will be at risk of losing the allocations. The relevant official will also be held liable for such misdemeanours,” he said.

“National Treasury will be pro-actively monitoring the spending of grants to ensure value for money, adherence to expanded public works programme targets and implementation of operational and maintenance programmes,” he said.

- City Press