Underspending on infrastructure amounts to treason, says Ramaphosa

PROVINCIAL governments and municipalities that failed to spend money allocated for infrastructure were committing treason against their residents, says President Cyril Ramaphosa.

He was responding during a question-and-answer session in the National Council of Provinces on Wednesday.

ANC MP Kenny Mmoiemaang had enquired about whether the government has assessed the impact of inadequate spending by provinces and municipalities on their commitments to deliver quality and essential services to communities, particularly crucial infrastructure such as housing, schools, and roads.

Mmoiemang also wanted to know whether the government has been engaging provinces and municipalities that continue to underspend and fail to adequately utilise their allocated service delivery budgets.

In his response, Ramaphosa said inadequate or slow capital expenditure has, in many ways, hampered the delivery of services that are due to the people.

"The issue of underspending is quite an important issue, particularly when it comes to spending on infrastructure allocations such as housing, education, water, and roads.

"I actually often characterise it as treason against the people of South Africa when monies that had been allocated are not spent and are returned to the National Treasury," Ramaphosa said.

He said underspending delays delivery of houses, stalls infrastructure projects such as schools, water, as well as sanitation and waste management infrastructure projects."

“It also erodes the public trust in the State's ability to improve the livelihood of our citizens and exacerbates service delivery protests.”

Ramaphosa  blamed the inability of municipalities to spend their capital projects on poor management, poor planning, weak implementation capacity, and inadequate financial and supply chain management.

"The national government continues to engage directly with our municipalities and provinces to demonstrate persistent underspending that is unacceptable."

The budget monitoring forums coordinated by the National Treasury were established to track in-year spending and detect low expenditure patterns at an early stage, and support programmes by the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Ministry.

There were also capacity-building programmes that were organised by the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency, and the Cabinet has appointed an inter-ministerial committee to support distressed municipalities.

"One of the priorities of this administration is to build a capable and developmental state, and involves strengthening inter-departmental accountability and introducing early warning systems," he said.

The metro trading reform programme has been initiated to support the implementation of institutional and financial reforms to increase investment in infrastructure.

"This innovative initiative is going to see great changes being introduced. These measures will help address the root causes of underspending and ensure infrastructure is maintained and expanded to improve service delivery."

Asked about mechanisms to ensure consequence management for failure to spend on infrastructure allocations, Ramaphosa said: "All of us need to understand that consequence management is essential, and there should be follow-through if we do not meet citizens' expectations. It is a matter we are addressing as we professionalise the public service and insist elected representatives should be accountable and responsible for the performance of their duties that they are expected to execute." 

Cape Times