Vote 3 Provincial Treasury Budget Vote

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker

Honourable Premier and Cabinet Colleagues

Honourable Leader of the Official Opposition

Honourable Leaders of Opposition Parties

Honourable Members of the Western Cape Legislature

Senior officials of the Western Cape Provincial Treasury

Citizens of the Western Cape

Ladies and Gentlemen

Honourable Speaker, today I rise to table the Budget for Vote 3 Provincial Treasury for 2016/17. The total budget for Vote 3 is R260.7 m in the 2016/17 financial year. This represents a growth of R10.3 m or 4.1 per cent compared to the 2015 adjusted appropriation of R250.3 m.

Honourable Speaker, when I delivered this Government’s 2016 Provincial Budget on 4 March 2016. I did so under the theme “Budget for Growth”. 

The Provincial Budget affirmed the Western Cape Government’s alignment to the National Development Plan 2030 and responded to the weakened economic and fiscal outlook and committed to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The 2016 Provincial Budget gave effect to the budget policy priorities of the Western Cape Government, which aims to support economic development and social progress and create public value for all, while managing service delivery risks.

Contributing to building a capable state and partnerships is one of the key priority areas articulated in the National Development Plan. Provincial Treasury’s 2016/17 Budget articulates this Department’s contribution to building the capable state.

Planned policy initiatives

Speaker, the budget and plans of this department supports Provincial Strategic Goal 5 which aims to give effect to the outcome of Integrated Management in the Province. One of the key policy initiatives is a more integrated planning and budgeting approach.  The objectives of the integrated planning and budgeting approach are as follows:

Ensuring strategic policy alignment, province-wide monitoring and evaluation as well as intergovernmental reporting.
Ensuring integrated financial governance, planning and budgeting.
Facilitating integrated joint planning between provincial and municipal spheres of government.
Driving spatial governance, alignment and performance management.
Facilitating partnerships and partnering for development.

With the above in mind, Honourable Speaker, the Provincial Treasury’s 2016/2017 Budget is aimed at building and further entrenching good governance and embedding integrated service delivery. More importantly, Speaker the budget follows through on our assurance to the people of the Western Cape that we will continue to pursue inclusive growth by mastering the science of deliverology, i.e. putting the correct systems in place and making the correct decisions to ensure irreversible change.

The aim is to strengthen coordination and alignment between processes and structures of Government and other key role- players, while improving service delivery, creating maximum socio-economic impact and building public value. 

Engagements and collaboration with provincial departments and municipalities will be further supported through structured engagements such as the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) Indabas, the Joint Planning Initiative, the MGRO and the Local Government (LG) Medium Term Expenditure Committee MTEC.

Speaker, Provincial Treasury embraces its responsibility to improve allocative efficiency, ensure value for money and maintain fiscal sustainability.

In line with the principle of fiscal consolidation the Provincial Treasury will issue new Treasury Instructions to all departments and provincial entities and new efforts will be undertaken to strengthen the financial oversight in municipalities within the framework of the legislation.

Speaker, post the 2016 Local Government Elections I will convene a Mayco- Member for Finance Workshop to share best practices in Local Government Finance.  This year I will be inviting the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) to what has now become an annual local government finance learning network, namely, the Min-May Finance Workshop.

Speaker, Provincial Treasury’s departmental budget structure consists of four programmes each of which receives the following budget allocations.

Programme 1: Administration receives an amount of R44.063 million. This programme provides efficient and effective departmental governance support services to enable the department to achieve all its goals and objectives and a clean audit outcome.

Programme 2: Sustainable Resource Management receives an amount of R121.9m. This represents a growth of R15.6m million or 14.6 per cent compared to the 2015 adjusted appropriation of R106.4m million which is mainly due to inflation adjustments and the reprioritisation of the capacity building initiative which forms part of the external bursary programme.

The programme will continue to provide an effective, efficient and sustainable management of provincial and municipal fiscal resources to enable service delivery and public value through:

The annual tabling of the provincial budget;
Assistance to municipalities in preparation of municipal budgets through the annual municipal budget assessments; and
Monitoring and quarterly reporting on the budget implementation.

Programme 3: Asset Management receives an amount of R57.9m million. This programme will focus on providing guidance and increased involvement over supply chain management in both provincial and municipal sphere.

Furthermore, the roll out and maintenance of financial systems as well as the clean-up and updating of data in the current systems is being done in preparation for the migration of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).

Programme 4: Financial Governance receives an amount of R36.7m. The programme uses different fora to build capacity and financial skills within departments and local governments.

In conclusion Speaker, the continued fiscal constraints faced by government and the Provincial Treasury calls for focused and appropriate management from all managers and officials within the Provincial Treasury. There is no doubt in my mind, honourable Speaker, that Provincial Treasury will continue to play an effective role in ensuring that it provides:

A credible medium term  fiscal framework supported by vigorous socio economic analysis resulting in budgets which promote shared growth and development
Records all financial transactions properly to comply with financial management norms and standards
Manages the built environment, physical and financial assets, financial systems and liabilities
Improves in-year expenditure management and analyse and improve intergovernmental financial systems, municipal oversight and capacity building.

Provincial Public Entity

Speaker, the department will continue to exercise oversight over  the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board (WCGRB) to ensure that gambling and betting activities conducted in the Province is in accordance with the prescribed legislations and regulating requirements.

Key priorities for 2016/17

In line with the above the following will be prioritised in 2016.

R21.5m is ring-fenced for municipal financial management improvement and capacity building support grants.
The development of Strategic Sourcing methodologies for certain commodities to enhance supply chain management efficiencies.
Continued preparation for the migration of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).
Further strengthening of the monitoring and reporting of Corporate Review and Outlook (CGRO) within departments and the coordination of the Municipal Governance Review and Outlook (MGRO) within local governments.
Two new capacity building initiatives will be introduced to build the financial skills in the provincial and local spheres of government. These will include a MFMA bursary and internship programme and a Chartered Accountant (CA) Academy.

Speaker, it now gives me great honour to table the budget of R260.7m million for Vote 3 Provincial Treasury for 2016/17.