Poor procurement costs province R6m

4 May 2016
Release: immediate

The Democratic Alliance condemns the fact that the Northern Cape lost
R6 million in the second adjustment appropriation bill for 2015/16.
The funds were earmarked for the building of a substance abuse
treatment centre, the first such facility in the province. Without
such a centre, substance abuse treatment in the province suffers.

It is absolutely unacceptable that poor financial management and slow
procurement processes from the department of Social Development has
created this situation. The department was once a flagship of proper
financial spending and we will be investigating the issue further.

The DA also has concerns about the legitimacy of the bill. In terms of
section 31 of the Public Finance Management Act, a provincial
adjustment appropriation bill may only make provision for certain
types of spending. This includes, for example, funding for emergencies
or to budget for funds that have been made available to the province.
It does not appear clearly that the second adjustment appropriation
bill actually meets the requirements of this section, which would
render it illegal and illegitimate.

We cannot condone any legislation which contradicts the Public Finance
Management Act or we would become complicit to illegal conduct
ourselves.

Furthermore, we need to express our extreme disgust at the conduct of
the acting chairperson, Honourable Fufe Makatong, during the briefing
on the bill presented to the Portfolio Committee on Finance. She would
not allow me to present my views and resorted to childish insults when
I insisted on making myself heard. The use of invectives and insults
have become the norm in committee meetings when the ANC do not get
their way and it is something which must be stopped immediately.

The Democratic Alliance will continue to pursue good, clean governance
without fear or favour.

Media Enquiries:

Adv Boitumelo Babuseng, MPL
DA Provincial Spokesperson for Economic Affairs
082 302 2117 / 079 874 6179