File picture: Independent Media File picture: Independent Media
Cape Town - Senior officials in the Western Cape Treasury were questioned for hours in the provincial legislature as ANC members queried millions in net underspending, irregular expenditure, conservative budgeting and a high staff turnover in the department.
Tabling the provincial Treasury’s annual report for the period April 2014 to March 2015, Finance MEC Ivan Meyer said the department had an important role to play in ensuring that public confidence was inspired through prudent financial governance and the professional monitoring of the budget allocated towards service delivery.
But ANC MPLs, led by the party’s chief whip in the provincial legislature, Pierre Uys, were relentless in their pursuit for answers.
Uys wanted clarity about the department’s net underspending of R7 million during the past financial year, which the department attributed to delays in internal control-related projects and vacancies.
Uys also questioned the department’s conservative budgeting, which indicated that the department estimated it would receive a budgeted income of R320m for the past financial year but ended up collecting R523m.
“The department adopted a conservative budgeting approach, given flat economic conditions, but fortunately collected more than what was originally budgeted for. These funds were surrendered to the provincial Revenue Fund,” the department’s head, Zakariya Hoosain, said.
Hoosain said casino and horse racing taxes for the financial year amounted to R519m, mainly as a result of legislative changes to the tax structure of casinos, resulting in increased gambling tax collections. “Fines, penalties and forfeits consisting of court fines and penalties on court orders, received from the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board, amounted to R309 000 for the financial year,” the report said.
Uys questioned why the department did not budget properly since the extra money could have been allocated for a specific purpose in the budget but instead the department now had “R200m just floating around to be used as it pleases”.
ANC MPLs Richard Diyantyi and Carol Beerwinkel wanted clarity on the high staff turnover in the department, citing 58 people leaving the department while only 40 appointments were made.
Meyer said he was “not happy” with the high staff turnover and had requested a plan to address the problem.
“There’s room for improvement,” he added.
CAPE ARGUS