Hearing with National Treasury & provinces on quarterly education grant performance; with Minister

NCOP Appropriations

24 August 2022
Chairperson: Mr E Njadu (ANC, Western Cape)
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Meeting Summary

Video

In a virtual meeting, the Committee met with National Treasury, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and identified provinces, to receive briefings on the quarterly expenditure of the grants for learners with profound intellectual disabilities (LPID) and mathematics, science and technology (MST).

National Treasury described the purpose of the LPID and the MST grants. It provided national and provincial statistics, with a breakdown of the budget allocation and spending for both grants. For the MST grant, only two provinces came close to reaching their targets, and the other provinces’ spending was lower than their budgets. For the LPID grant, seven provinces did not meet their spending targets, one spent 100% of its budget, and one province overspent.

National Treasury said the challenges faced in MST were the late installation of equipment, inadequate training of caregivers, teachers, officials and therapists, inadequate provision of maintenance, and poor monitoring. It recommended that planning must take into account the full delivery cycle, a thorough needs analysis had to be conducted, and the DBE needed to augment its monitoring and reporting capacity.

The challenges faced in LPID were inadequate training of caregivers, inadequate storage of learner-teacher support material, the high turnover of trained caregivers leaving centres due to some of the care centres not receiving subsidies, parents being unable to afford to pay for transporting children, care centres lacking proper infrastructure, and procurement delays and challenges. The recommendations were that the training of the caregivers must be conducted as planned, appropriate storage facilities must be installed, learner transport should be considered, and all care centres should provide appropriate infrastructure.

The provinces that provided briefings on their statistics were the Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Western Cape. These provinces did not meet their spending targets, and the most general reasons for underperforming were the impact of Covid-19, vacant posts, undertrained personnel, late procurement of tools of trade, and other challenges.

The Members were concerned about why spending was slow during the first quarter, and why it was rushed towards the end of the year. They drew attention to the lack of training of caregivers and the inability to fill vacant posts, specifically in the Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Western Cape. They suggested that the Committee should meet again next year to follow up on the progress that provinces had made. The main question to the National Treasury was whether the provinces could be provided with budget plans before the beginning of the year to assist in the procurement of equipment, and to ensure that the delivery of services was of good quality.

Each province responded with its plan to mitigate the challenges and meet expenditure, training and vacancy targets. The Department responded with details of the monitoring process followed. The National Treasury gave an overview of how challenges could be avoided, and indicated when the budgets were allocated for each year.

Meeting report

Members of the Committee elected Mr E Njadu (ANC, Western Cape) as the acting Chairperson of meeting. He welcomed National Treasury and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to brief members concerning learners with profound intellectual disabilities, and on grants for maths, science and technology.

National Treasury on expenditure performance

Mr Emmanuel Pillay, Director: Provincial Budget Analysis, National Treasury, presented the briefing on learners with profound intellectual disabilities (LPID), and the maths, science and technology(MST) grants during the fourth quarter of 2021/22 and the first quarter of 2022/23.

The purpose of the MST grant was to provide support and resources to schools, teachers, and learners in line with the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for improving mathematics, science and technology teaching and learning at selected public schools. The intended achievements were school support, provision of computer hardware and software, provision of workshop machinery and equipment, and the provision of maths, science and robotics kits. Learners were supported through camps, additional teaching and support materials, and teachers were provided with training.

The allocation of the grant was broken down into administration (1%), science and technology programme (6%), teacher support (15%), pilot schools (14%), workshop machinery (15%) and information communication technology (34%).

The spending across provinces differed, with only two provinces coming close to reaching their spending budget, and the remaining provinces’ spending was lower than the budget:

Eastern Cape: Budget: R59 696 000  - Spent: R38 691 000
Free State: Budget: R46 773 000- Spent: R42 895 000
Gauteng: Budget: R58 811 000 - Spent: R58 642 000
Kwazulu-Natal: Budget: R67 855 000 - Spent R67 857 000
Limpopo: Budget: R52 245 000 - Spent: R48 656 000
Mpumalanga: Budget: R42 584 000- Spent: R33 283 000
Northern Cape: Budget: R27 458 000 - Spent: R25 517 000
North West: Budget: R41 592 000 - Spent: R38 747 000
Western Cape: Budget: R54 742 000- Spent: R45 869 000

The performance statistics of information communication technology (ICT), workshop equipment, and teachers trained were also presented. The challenges and risks of MST were outlined. Most provinces had met the target or come very close with ICT, except for three provinces. For workshop equipment, three provinces exceeded their target, two met their target and the rest underperformed. Two provinces met their target for teachers trained, four provinces exceeded their target and three provinces underperformed.

The first quarter spending was extremely low for each province. National Treasury presented the challenges. Equipment at some schools was installed late or not at all, machinery could not be used for teaching and learning, inadequate needs analysis per school was done before the procurement of the ICT or workshop equipment, there was inadequate provision for maintenance or the repair of the existing equipment in technical schools, poor monitoring of the MST programme in addition to late and inconsistent reporting by provincial departments, and procurement delays in the delivery of kits for maths and science, and coding and robotics, resulting in deliveries late into the financial year.

Learners with profound intellectual disabilities (LPID) grant:

The purpose of the LPID was to provide the necessary support, resources and equipment to identify special centres and schools for providing education to children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities. The intended aims were the transversal itinerant team members appointed to support target schools, training provided to team members, caregivers and teachers, and the provision of outreach services.

The allocation of the budget was broken down into administration (12%), training (5%), LTSM, furniture and equipment (18%), and compensation (65%).

The spending statistics were presented as follows:

Eastern Cape: Budget: R33 909 - Spent: R23 924
Free State: Budget: R29 354 - Spent: R21 190
Gauteng: Budget: R34 518 - Spent: R34 487
KwaZulu-Natal: Budget: R32 576 - Spent: R32 576
Limpopo: Budget: R34 151 - Spent: R26 406
Mpumalanga: Budget: R30 780 - Spent: R30 115
Northern Cape: Budget: R13 664 - Spent: R13 664
North West: Budget: R19 527 - Spent: R20 976
Western Cape: Budget: R28 892 - Spent: R21 450

The statistics of the performance of the transversal team members, assistive devices, caregivers in centres, and caregivers trained were provided. The most important statistics were the caregivers trained. Only one province exceeded the target, and the remaining provinces all underperformed in training caregivers. The spending of the first quarter was also very low compared to the budget. The challenges and risks were presented. These were the inadequate training of caregivers, some being under pressure due to not being able to cope with the varying behaviours of learners, and inadequate LTSM storage leading to materials being lost, damaged or stolen. There was a high turnover of trained caregivers leaving centres due to some care centres not receiving subsidies from the Department of Social Development. Many parents could not afford to pay for transporting children to the centres and back home, which resulted in absenteeism and dropouts. Care centres lacked proper infrastructure; some had no restroom for learners to sleep during the day and some had no kitchen to prepare meals for the learners. There were also procurement delays and challenges, such as procuring assistive devices.

At the end of the presentation, some recommendations were made for MST. Planning must take into account the full delivery cycle, including the installation of machinery. A thorough needs analysis per school must be conducted, so that procurement is based on what schools need. The Department needed to augment its monitoring and reporting capacity to ensure efficient service delivery and compliance with the Division of Revenue Act.

Recommendations were made for LPID too. Training of the caregivers, who were at the frontline of service delivery, must be conducted as planned. Appropriate storage facilities must be prioritised for centres, making the LSTM accessible when required. Learner transport should be considered. All care centres should provide appropriate infrastructure so that learners are in a safe environment that suits their needs and is conducive to learning.

See presentation for further details

Minister’s overview
 

Ms Angie Motshekga, Minister of Basic Education, said that the Department was monitoring the expenditure with the utmost diligence, especially because it was related to servicing children with special needs. She admitted the Department was not yet at its best in catering for children with special needs, and therefore close monitoring was necessary. Regular monitoring was performed to evaluate the progress of provinces in spending their allocated budgets. The provinces had to be supported because it was a recently developed fund, leaving some room for improvement on the part of the Department. She assured the Committee that the provinces were finding their feet. The biggest challenge at the moment was that where money was not spent, it got rolled over. The money allocated from National Treasury did not address all the needs that that sector had. On a positive note, educators, therapists, caregivers and officials had been provided with training. The Department was working on addressing the issues faced, and working on ways to develop the programmes.

Eastern Cape briefing

Mr Mahlubandile Qwase, Head of Department, Eastern Cape Department of Education, presented the statistics on the conditional grant for learners with severe and profound disabilities. The statistics presented contained the expenditure report, accruals incurred, service delivery performance, the 2022/23 first quarter expenditure, and challenges and mitigation strategies. The Eastern Cape spent 88% of its allocated budget, leaving a 12% balance for rollover.

Accruals were incurred for assistive devices, storage containers, tools of trade (laptops), vehicles, and sleeper foams for care centres. All required posts were filled, except one vacant post for a chief educational therapist. The service delivery for performance was provided, detailing therapeutic services, special care centres, tool procurement, and learning and teaching support materials. The training statistics were presented, showing the target and the actual number reached. The number of transversal itinerant outreach team members trained was 30, which met the target. The caregivers trained were 308, while the target was 350. There were 47 teachers trained against the target of 150. Four therapists were trained were four, while the target was 30. 15.49% of the allocated budget was spent on service delivery. The targets were also met for the response to Covid-19 service delivery.

The challenges presented were late deliveries of goods procured, which had led to under-expenditure. The under-expenditure in the cost of employment (COE) resulted from Joe Gqabis's municipal district team that assumed duties four months behind the scheduled time. The reason for under-expenditure in quarter one was a result of unspent COE that arose due to four vacant positions.

The province said its mitigation strategies included a procurement plan which had been put in place and endorsed by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to ensure that the services were delivered within the specified time frames. They were putting more pressure on the service providers for quick turnaround times of deliveries. The recruitment process had started, and the vacancies would be filled in quarter three within the set management plan. The Provincial Department was in the process of requesting a deviation of unspent COE funds to be used for the procurement of assistive devices for learners.

The province spent 64,8% of its MST conditional grant budget by the end of the fourth quarter. The reasons for under-expenditure were delayed procurement processes and delivery of ordered goods by service providers. The province provided the statistics for the tools that were provided to schools.

For the 2022/23 first quarter, 37.6% of the budget has been spent so far. The challenges faced were the finalisation of the contracts which had taken too long, and ICT procurement that had been delayed. The plan was to secure procurement by following the quotation route.

See presentation for further details

Free State briefing

Ms Bukelwa Qwelane, Provincial Director: Inclusive Education, Free State Department of Education, presented the statistics for the Free State’s Department of Education. The expenditure for 2021/22 reached nearly 86% of the allocated budget. The full amount was not spent due to payments that were not disbursed, procurement that was stopped by the national directive on preferential procurement, and under-expenditure on staff due to posts not being filled.

The vacant posts in the province were two educational psychologists, two chief educational therapists, (SP), one chief educational therapist (OT), and one chief educational therapist (Physio).

The service delivery performance of the province was presented, highlighting the tools of trade, learning sites, and learning material. The training statistics presented indicated mostly underperformance. 25 transversal itinerant outreach team members and 252 caregivers were targeted, but none were trained. 150 teachers were targeted and ten were trained, nine officials were targeted, but only one was trained. There was also underperformance in the therapeutic services provided. The targets for the response to Covid-19 were met.

For the 2022/23 first quarter, the commitment the province made exceeded the actual expenditure. The challenges that contributed to under-expenditure were the underdeveloped infrastructure at the South Coast College (SCC), resulting in a lack of safety and a high risk of theft. As a way to mitigate the situation, a bilateral meeting with the Department of Social Development (DSD) was held, and three administrative interns were allocated to the grant.

See presentation for further details

Limpopo briefing

Mr K L Napo (Limpopo) presented the statistics on the learners with severe to profound intellectual disability conditional grant. The province had spent 77.32% of the allocated budget. The reasons for under-expenditure were procurement challenges which have since been addressed.

The vacant posts remaining were for two educational psychologists. Statistics were presented on their tools of trade, learning sites and learners supported, and support material. The training statistics were presented, showing that the target was met for transversal itinerant outreach members and therapists. 108 of the 248 targeted caregivers were trained, 171 of the 200 targeted teachers, and 30 of the 100 targeted officials were trained. 184 of the targeted 560 therapeutic support was provided. The response to Covid-19 had targeted 90 thermometers and consumables, but none had been procured.

The expenditure of the 2022/23 first quarter was 16.71% of the budget. The challenges that contributed to under-expenditure were that six officials resumed duty only in May, so the CoE for April was not spent, there were two vacant educational psychologist posts, delayed submission of invoices by suppliers, and delayed payments. As mitigation measures, the province was in the process of submitting a deviation request to the DBE to use the money to buy assistive devices for the learners. The recruitment process was initiated by human resources (HR). It would be finalised in the next quarter, and a dedicated official had been tasked to manage the suppliers in order to expedite payments.
 
See presentation for further details

Mpumalanga briefing

Mr Elijah Nkosi, Director, Mpumalanga Department of Education, presented the statistics on the MST conditional grant. The 2021/22 fourth quarter expenditure was 78% of the target. The reasons for under-expenditure were that the laptops had been delivered and paid for from the current budget, pending approval for a rollover. Invoices were identified late and could not be paid. The statistics of the tools provided to schools were presented.

The expenditure for the 2022/23 first quarter was 11.1% of budget. The province planned to fast-track deliveries to ensure that 50% expenditure was achieved at the end of the second quarter. The challenges and the plans to improve had been noted. 80% of the requests for quotations had been submitted, and 50% of the quotations had been received and processed for orders. Activities for January to March 2023 which involved teacher training, would also be procured and committed by 31 January 2023 to ensure that 100% of the MST grant budget was spent by the end of the 2022/23financial year.

See presentation for further details

Western Cape briefing

Ms Berenice Daniels, Director: Specialised Education, Western Cape Education Department, presented the statistics on learners with severe and profound intellectual disability (LSPID). Mr Dhroonlall Haripersad, Director: Curriculum Development: Further Education and Training (FET), and Mr Leon Ely, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Western Cape Education Department, presented on the MST strategy.

The Western Cape did not spend 100% of the allocated budget due to supply chain challenges that had since been resolved. There were two vacant posts for educational psychologists. The statistics on learning sites and support material were presented. The training statistics indicated underperformance. There were 27 of the 30 targeted transversal itinerant outreach teams trained, 409 of the 618 targeted caregivers, 169 of the 450 targeted teachers, 42 of the targeted 100 therapists, and 24 of the targeted 60 officials. The target for therapeutic services was exceeded. The target for the Covid-19 response was met by more than 50%.

The expenditure in the first quarter of 2022/23 was R5 347 000 of the allocated budget of R33 451 000. The reason for the under-expenditure was a delay in supply chain processes. Dedicated staff had been identified to manage procurement regarding the LSPID grants.

Mr Haripersad and Mr Ely presented the statistics on the MST grant, showing that 100% of the grant was spent. Under-expenditure of R8 872 293 had been recorded for the 2021/22 financial year. However, the full amount was committed, including the order generated. The reasons for under-expenditure were that from the rollover, items to the value of R 4 943 255 had already been delivered to schools, and outstanding items were still to be delivered. The statistics on the tools of trade provided to the schools were presented. 1 813 teachers and subject advisors had attended training, and 759 teachers and subject advisors had participated in professional development.

See presentation for further details

Discussion
 

Mr M Moletsane's (EFF, Free State) concern was that the Free State had fewer trained caregivers, and he worried whether the province had enough manpower to carry the workload. The vacancies that had not yet been filled hampered the delivery of services. He asked the Free State to inform the Committee how soon they would fill the vacant posts. National Treasury had mentioned that some provinces had not reported on certain important questions, and he wanted to know which provinces those were. Trained caregivers were leaving centres because they were not receiving subsidies from the Department of Social Development, so he suggested that the programme should be migrated to the Department of Education so that the subsidy burden could be managed.

Mr D Ryder (DA, Gauteng) expressed disappointment at the underperformance of the provinces. The area of profound learning disabilities demanded absolute focus, and when money was made available, it should be spent on the very needy people and people who were otherwise forgotten. Urgency across all provinces had to be increased. All the provinces had indicated that they had a reasonable understanding of where their shortcomings were, or had taken steps to fix them. The Committee needed to monitor and ensure that the beneficiaries of the programme were represented. However, there was always a risk of looking at the set of numbers and taking humanity out of a topic like this. He requested that an overview be given of the number of people served through the grant on a national level, rather than a provincial figure. How many people with severe mental disabilities were outside the system and had not been catered for yet?

Mr F du Toit (FF+, North West) said that It was unfortunate that North West was not represented in the meeting. His concern pertained to procurement. He acknowledged the difficulty of planning after a budget had been received. He asked whether there was any way one could preempt or plan ahead to see what the requirements for the following year were, to start placing preliminary orders ahead of time. Planning could not occur without the availability of training tools and, unfortunately, the children lost learning time.

Mr Y Carrim (ANC, KZN) said that it was good that the Committee was focused on this topic. The real test was to what extent the commitments made by the provinces were being implemented. He suggested that the provinces and National Treasury needed to present again before the Committee next year to evaluate the progress that had occurred. Many times the commitments made were not fulfilled and no following-up was done. The Committee needed to perform oversight more critically, but should also avoid substituting the work required from the provincial committees responsible for finance and education. These committees understood their provinces and their expenditure well, and therefore had the upper hand in monitoring the provinces. He suggested that a report be drafted following this meeting to highlight the issues that had been identified. Following this, letters should be addressed to the Provincial Chairs and their counterparts, requesting them to monitor the issues monthly. The Provincial legislators needed to hold departments to direct account. The Committee should negotiate with the Provincial Chairs to meet again to hear about their commitments and progress. The aim was to create momentum and not lose focus on the programme and the quality it should provide. He acknowledged that provinces were overworked and understaffed, but it was an issue that money was not spent accordingly in the first quarter, and instead, spending was rushed in the last quarter and the quality of services produced decreased. This issue needed to be addressed to ensure the spending was spread evenly throughout the year.

He asked what Free State’s reasons were for not procuring the storage containers, and why Limpopo advertised only two vacant posts. The ultimate test was action, not words, and therefore commitments needed to be monitored.

Mr W Aucamp (DA, Northern Cape) said that National Treasury had indicated that most of the spending happened at the beginning of the year. Careful attention needed to be given to ensure that fiscal dumping and wastage did not occur at the end of the year. He was concerned that the Free State failed to meet its target of 252 caregivers, who were not appointed, as it hampered government’s efforts to create needed employment opportunities. He asked what the reasons were for the non-achievement, what impact it had on the delivery of services, and what was being done to address this. Limpopo had filled only two vacant posts -- why were these posts not filled as budgeted for, and when would they be filled? His next concern was why no thermometers were procured against the targeted 90. Why was there an underachievement in the training target of caregivers and teachers, and what was being done about the underachievement? Finally, he asked why the Western Cape had underachieved in its targets for teachers, caregivers, therapists and officials, and what would be done about it.

The Acting Chairperson said there was an issue in the planning and evaluation method used for spending. There was slow spending at the beginning of the year and towards the end of the year, the spending was fast-tracked. He asked the National Treasury to outline how they were dealing with this.

DBE's response

Minister Motshekga said that the Department’s main function was not to implement, but to monitor provinces' expenditures monthly. When there was a plan that the Department was not satisfied with, no money was released. There needed to be an assurance that the provinces had a proper plan before any money was allocated. Monthly monitoring was performed, where meetings were held with provincial heads. Each province had a different capacity and procurement contracts, as the same strategies did not work across all provinces. She acknowledged that spending in term one started slowly. The slow start was due to accruals. After accruals were paid, there was a slight dip, and things picked up again. Proper planning was required to mitigate these issues to ensure that the programmes were delivered accordingly and with great quality.

Mr Hubert Mweli, Director-General, DBE, responded to the question about the numbers that the programme reaches. The programme had reached 9 797 learners on a national basis, which was the aggregate of the numbers the provinces had presented. He acknowledged that there was an issue with planning, monitoring and execution. The Department strengthened the monitoring process by meeting with provincial heads monthly. These meetings assist in avoiding the large spikes Members were concerned about.

Eastern Cape’s response

Mr Qwase said that the Eastern Cape committed to improving the spending and addressing the issues that had been raised by Members and the Minister. The province would avoid poor planning so that improvements could be made. The province agreed that meeting in 2023, as Mr Carrim had suggested, was a good idea, to understand which plans to put in place for 2023 and to perform early procurement of the necessary tools.

Free State’s Response

Ms Qwelane said that the Free State had set 1 November as the date for filling the vacant posts. The challenge was that advertising the posts at a provincial level had not attracted enough qualified applicants. The last post advertised in June had attracted only two applicants. The province had planned, together with the DBE and the National Coordinator of LSPID, that the posts would be advertised widely on different departments' websites.

The province had 252 caregivers, but they were not trained in the last quarter of the financial year. The province had the capacity to train them, but there had been impeding factors. She assured the Committee that the non-training of caregivers had not impacted service delivery. The training concerned was cascade training which was done yearly. There was extra assistance that caregivers received on-site. Assistance was provided if the caregiver could not properly administer the programme. The province did not want to justify the non-training, but gave an assurance that it had not impacted service delivery. Training was conducted at the beginning of the academic year, and the turnover of caregivers was very high. The turnover disrupted the training and sometimes required multiple training or the redoing of training, which disadvantaged the training mandate.

The province did not buy storage containers due to the loss of four itinerant employees through resignation. There had been no needs analysis performed at the time. Other teams had now been consulted to assist, a needs analysis had been done, and containers would be procured.

Limpopo’s response

Ms Lebo Mphahlele [unconfirmed], Chief Director: Strategy, Monitoring and Evaluation, Limpopo Department of Education, said that the province had advertised the posts of educational psychologists, but only a few applications had been received and therefore, the target of seven could not be met. The province worked with the human resources (HR) department to advertise the vacant posts. The plan was to complete the interview process by the end of December, and for the successful applicants to start their appointments by January.

She acknowledged that the province had not met the target for training. The target was to train 200 teachers and 248 caregivers, but this was not achieved. The reason for non-achievement had been the impact of Covid-19. The centres were closed and were reopened only in mid-2021. However, not all centres were opened -- only 57 opened and 42 were still closed. The province was working on implementing plans to reach the training target now that the centres had reopened. Only 171 of the targeted 200 teachers were trained due to health emergencies faced during the training.

The province had not procured the target of 90 thermometers because personal protective equipment (PPE) was not being used due to the closure of the centres. When they were reopened, there were still enough.

Mpumalanga’s response

Ms Lucy Moyane, Head of Department, said that the last year was an outlier for the province, and had resulted in delays in the procurement process and spending patterns. The province had always spent 100% of the grant, except last year. The province had faced issues with the grant, but this has since been resolved. The province’s expenditure had increased to 52%. It committed to implementing plans to spend accordingly. To improve the delivery of services, the province would continue to send its reports to the DBE for oversight.

Western Cape’s response

Ms Daniels responded to the question regarding service delivery performance, and the training of caregivers, therapists, teachers, and district officials. The year under review had seen the closure of special care centres, which had reopened only much later in July of last year. The province had trained 409 of the 680 caregivers due to the backlog caused by the closure of centres. Teachers returned to an overload of curriculum catch-up, and 169 had been trained. Half of the therapists were trained, which exceeded the annual target. Therapists provided therapeutic interventions to learners upon returning after a long absence from the special care programme. The training of officials had to deal with competing demands. The year was unusual, and the province had since been on track and doing the planned training.

Caregivers were paid via a subsidy from the Department of Social Development. There was a great deal of turnover, as the subsidy they received was quite low. The province agreed with the suggestion made by Mr Moletsane that the programme should be migrated to the Department of Health (DOH).

National Treasury's response
 

Ms Ogalaletseng Gaarekwe, Chief Director: Provincial Budget Analysis, Intergovernmental Relations, National Treasury, said that the DBE received expenditure reports monthly from the Department which was submitted through the Provincial Treasury. The financial information was published every quarter. The monitoring system developed for the conditional grants included meeting with the sector to evaluate issues raised. Provincial planning was concluded on 12 August. The sector regularly visited each province to gain an understanding of the expenditure of its budget. A close look was always given to the previous year to understand the mitigating factors. The process followed was in terms of the Division of Revenue Act (DoRA), which informs the process to be followed for approval requests. When no commitments were made and no evaluation was conducted, due process could not be followed. The Eastern Cape had indicated that it had an issue with accruals of around R4.4 million. When such commitments were made, a rollover to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) could be given. National Treasury monitored each province monthly, which assisted in overseeing the budgets.

Mr Pillay responded to the concern about certain provinces not reporting on certain indicators. In slide five of National Treasury’s presentation, two indicators were given where provinces had not reported. The issue was not that provinces were not reporting entirely -- it was just that they were not doing so on all indicators. The provinces that had not reported on all indicators were Gauteng and Limpopo. The Treasury had first-hand knowledge of the issues faced in provinces, and from this, it provided guidance where necessary. Treasury highlighted risks in provinces all the time and developed strategies to deal with them. It supports the National and Provincial Department of Education, and provides revenue used to enforce performance and compliance in terms of the Act. Requests were considered and granted if there was agreement.

He responded to the question of whether the plans for the next year could be preempted, as raised by Mr Du Toit, to avoid planning occurring late. The first year funds were appropriated, but the second and third years had the allocations indicated. The provinces, therefore, knew what to expect in the second and third years. Generally, there were no material changes to the allocations, and therefore planning was possible. Provinces received allocation letters before the financial year to assist in the planning.

The meeting was adjourned.

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