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The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape says it expects the MEC for Finance and Provincial Planning, Phumulo Masualle, to announce a provincial budget in the region of R58 billion on Tuesday.
DA-MPL, Bobby Stevenson, says the dark shadow hanging over this year's budget is the issue of under expenditure on capital and the efficiency of expenditure, especially in the provincial department of education.
He says the consequences of the continued increasing cost of personnel and over expenditure each year means that the goods and services budget become less and less.
Stevenson says this impacts on the supply of medicines in clinics, blankets and equipment in hospitals, roads maintenance and the maintenance of schools and other buildings.
Stevenson said the foundation of a growth friendly environment is clean and efficient government.
"One again over expenditure in previous years will be top sliced off the total provincial budget (Top slicing occurs when you over expend in a previous financial year and you need to then subtract that amount from the total budget allocation in order to pay for that over expenditure). This means departments other than Health and Education will receive less than an allocation than they normally would. It also means the cost of personnel which is currently at about 80% of the equitable share, will continue to impact on service delivery," he said.
"The MEC needs to announce a fixed figure for the cost of personnel for this province and this needs to be rigidly adhered to," he added.
"The consequences of the continued increasing cost of personnel and over expenditure each year means that goods and services budget become less and less. This impacts on the supply of medicines in clinics, blanket and equipment in hospitals, roads maintenance and the maintenance and schools and other buildings. It means suppers stand a strong likelihood of not being paid timeously as payment for expenditure is delayed until the next financial year."
"The MEC also needs to announce tough measures to ensure that the alarming under expenditure on capital is dealt with. When we under spend on schools and hospitals we are destroying opportunity for people to get ahead in life.
Budgets are an ideological issue. However if we adopt the right policy choices this province can become the place of raising opportunity in which the quality of life of all our people can be improved. On Tuesday we will be watching very closely to what extent these policy choices are made," he said.
