INLSA
File Photo: Ina Cronje Picture: Jacques Naude
Opposition parties warned that the increased infrastructure budget for KwaZulu-Natal – which was expected to be announced when Finance MEC Ina Cronje tabled her 2012/13 budget on Friday morning – could “attract more corruption”.
The provincial budget is expected to top R80 billion.
KZN receives the biggest cut of the equitable share allocation from the national fiscus. However, Cronje is expected to deliver a prudent budget, in line with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s national Budget.
Opposition parties and organised business in KZN did not expect any major surprises, predicting that Cronje would spend more money on education, health and infrastructure.
But the official opposition in KZN, the IFP, warned that the substantially larger infrastructure budget could “attract more corruption”.
Finance spokesman Roman Liptak said: “At present, too many corruption probes proceed at a frustrating pace. As a result, few cases lead to prosecutions or financial recovery,” he said. “Few indicted officials are disciplined, while some are even re-employed in other departments with impunity. The provincial budget must show the political will to counter this by directing more resources to the newly established integrity unit in the Office of the Premier.”
Liptak said an immediate test of the KZN government’s resolve to fight corruption was the “collapse of accountability” in the eThekwini metro.
“With the Manase report illustrating abuse of power by officials and politicians on a grand scale, preventing state employees from doing business with the government is no longer an option,” he said.
Liptak said KZN needed legislation to criminalise conflicts of interest. He said much of KZN’s past investment into public infrastructure had resulted in failed, delayed or overpriced projects.
DA finance spokesman Johann Krog agreed that the government should “get tough” on civil servants doing business with the state.
“The disclosure of financial interests by civil servants is an indispensable tool in the fight against corruption… Many public servants continue to milk the system, lining their own pockets with taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Krog said the real test for Cronje was whether her fiscal control over the past few years could be maintained in the forthcoming financial year.
He said that Cronje should prioritise funding to ensure that service delivery and infrastructure development were given precedence.
“But we believe that monitoring delivery and holding those responsible for the delivery accountable is as important,” said Krog.
He said housing delivery should be prioritised.
“Despite KZN’s massive backlog in housing delivery, the Human Settlements Department underspent its conditional grant by R200 million and was obliged to return a portion of this sum. This is indicative of a department that is drastically under-performing,” he said.
Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew Layman said there was not much room for surprises in the context of the present economic environment.
“The MEC is prudent by nature and has done well to get the province to a cash surplus situation. There will be more money to spend, but I don’t think she will be splashing out.
“However, the government seems to be a lot more aggressive on infrastructure development. The economic development and tourism department might get a bigger slice to promote job creation and to grow the economy,” he said. – The Mercury
