Newsroom

Focus on service delivery valued in provincial budget

PERCCI welcomes the focus by MEC Mcebisi Jonas on controlling public spending more tightly, enhancing revenue streams, and closely managing funding to ensure the public derives value and true service delivery from provincial government, as highlighted in his budget speech today. The progress with the provincial industrial development strategy is also encouraging, and business looks forward to the opportunity to engage with government to ensure delivery in this area.

Overall, we believe it is a sensible budget, and sensitive to controlling expenditure in a time of slow economic recovery. However, in addition to focusing on controlling expenditure, we would have liked to have seen a focus on performance management and measuring the impact of the expenditure in order to effectively manage service delivery.

In an environment where about 7% of the provincial work force have lost their jobs (more than half of those in manufacturing) business welcomes the positive impact of counter-cyclical government spending which has to some extent cushioned the blow of the global recession.

We are in agreement with MEC Jonas that the positive lessons learnt during the recession should be applied going forward, particularly the positive impact of joint problem-solving involving government, business and labour; and the vital need to adopt new approaches to spending of scarce public resources. We agree that it is critical that the costs of public service delivery must be controlled – and in this regard we welcome the focus on cutting the costs of non-core areas such as travel and accommodation – in order to free up resources for improved service delivery in priority areas. Similarly, the approach to building internal capacity in the public service, and reducing reliance on external consultants, is also to be welcomed – this is a critical area of skills development in which real capacity-building can make a positive difference to achieving sustainable service delivery.

The launch of the R50-million cooperative development fund in terms of the provincial development strategy is a positive move which will impact heavily on rural development. A balanced approach is needed to deliver on this long-awaited strategy. We would like to engage on a provincial level regarding the strategy as we have already communicated and engaged with the local municipality, and would like to see REAL delivery into ensuring that the rural heartland develops and grows in its own right. As government finalises the priority sector action plans associated with the provincial industrial strategy, we look forward to engagement with the province on this, participation in identifying sectors, developing plans, and working together to put enabling factors in place and attract investment to our area.

The Chamber also welcomes

• Proposed improvements to the procurement system in order to address corruption and collusion between officials and suppliers
• Tight management of expenditure in order to strengthen provincial reserve funds
• The commitment to fully accessing and utilising funds available to the province from national government
• Additional focus on education, health and housing

A concern however, is that these departments consistently receive the lion’s share of provincial budget, yet continue to display weak delivery. These are the basic delivery areas which have to be managed correctly to serve the community, support skills development and provide for an attractive investment environment. We trust that the measures put in place to monitor and control expenditure will have a positive impact on delivery.

Exceeding the target of job creation through the expanded public works programme is commendable. The MEC’s commitment to implementing a “true” expanded public works programme, gives us hope that the ambitious target of 480 000 jobs over the next five years is going to produce sustainable, long-term employment opportunities.