Limpopo government refutes reports of underspending

The Limpopo Provincial Government has  refuted claims that they underspent over a billion rand and returned it to the National Treasury in the 2022/23 financial year. According to the DA in Limpopo, the province has over a billion rand in unspent amounts from their allocated budgets.

The party says the following budgets were not utilised: Education: R523.3 million. Health: R570.5 million. Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure: R 226.1 million. Agriculture: R98.7 million. Social Development: R72.4 million. Legislature: R45.1 million. Transport and Community Safety: R40.7 million. Premier’s office: R16 million. Treasury: R14 million. Also the Economic Development, Environment and Tourism: R8.4 million.

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But in a statement issued on Tuesday, the provincial government said the figures were not for the 2022/23 financial year.

“The Provincial Government has not returned the figures stated to [National] Treasury,” they said.

“The Provincial Government denounces the reference of the statement or apportioning it to the 2022/23 financial year as that information is deliberately misleading. The figures are not for the 2022/23 financial year and the Provincial Government has not returned the figures stated to [National] Treasury.

“The process of declaring funds as unspent is quite involved. Conditional grants and equitable shares that are not spent within a financial year are repurposed by the Provincial Treasury. The money is appropriated in budgets for subsequent years within the provincial government,” read the statement.

GOVERNMENT IN LIMPOPO REACTS TO REPORTS OF A BILLION RAND UNDERSPENT

“After that a request for roll-overs is made to the National Treasury that approves or rejects it. Only then a surrender of the amounts that could not be rolled over takes place.

“In the case of the 2022/2023 financial year the Provincial Government only surrendered R122 million to the National Treasury. Arising out of the Welisizwe Rural Bridges Programme (R81 million) and other smaller projects which only constitute 0,15% of the provincial budget of over R70 billion.”

“The general underspending for 2022/23 was  1,9% of the appropriated budgets which is within the National Treasury norm of 2% and an improvement from 2021/22.”