31 Mar 2021

The National Assembly on March 30 approved approximately P172 million supplementary budget to cover six ministries.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Thapelo Matsheka had presented to Parliament the supplementary appropriation to cover excess expenditure incurred under six government organisations during the financial year 2019-20.

These ministries and departments were handed the supplementary budget, among them Ministry of Basic Education at approximately P113 million, Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security at roughly P17 million, and the Ministry of Health and Wellness at around P25 million.

Further funds released were P10 million for the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security, P6 million for the Administration of Justice and P700 000 for the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services.

Dr Matsheka revealed that the excess expenditure incurred was mostly for personal emoluments quotes, as the agreement between public sector unions and government to award salary increments for the financial year 2019-20 was reached in January 2019 after the budget preparation exercise had been completed.

The minister further stated that initially it had been anticipated that the additional expenditure would be catered for by the provision for vacant posts, but this proved to be insufficient, Dr Matsheka said.

Further, Dr Matsheka said while supplementary budget estimates were provided for in the law, they were meant for circumstances of clear emergencies, or to provide for requirements that were not foreseen.

He said his ministry was working on reforms of the public finance management systems, including on how to appropriately allocate public resources under an extremely constraining fiscal environment.

Dr Matsheka further said at an operational level, the monitoring and tracking of expenditure of ministries, departments and agencies introduced last December would continue, and his ministry would intervene in the event of major deviations from approved annual spending. ENDS