Housing officials told not to “plead poverty”

Provincial housing ministers should not blame a lack of funds for slow delivery when they fail to spend their full budget allocation, the chairperson of Parliament’s finance select committee said on Monday.

“Don’t … plead poverty,” Tutu Ralane told the housing ministers of four provinces who reported on their spending.

Before complaining about an inequitable division of resources among provinces, provincial ministers should look at why available funds are not being spent, he said.

Among the provinces to give account on Monday morning, the Western Cape reported having spent 68% of its R532-million 2005/06 budget by December, while Mpumalanga missed its 75% expenditure target for the same period by 9%.

Mpumalanga housing minister Jabu Mahlangu was among those to complain of a skewed allocation of resources among provinces.

Ralane agreed the matter should be considered by national departments, but said provincial ministers’ focus should be on quality spending of available funds — and the effect of that spending on communities.

He criticised the ministers for not having specific information on challenges they reported on, including skills shortages.

“Don’t come here and generalise again,” Ralane said. “Don’t say you lack capacity. Say you lack engineers, for instance, and tell us what you are doing about it.”

There is a need for a comprehensive audit of capacity, he added.

One committee member pointed out that while provincial ministers lament a lack of skilled personnel, grant money intended for training has also been underspent.

Mahlangu said part of Mpumalanga’s skills shortage can be blamed on the firing of 25 housing-department officials for corrupt practices. Fifty-nine percent of posts in the provincial housing department are vacant.

Ralane pointed to what he termed the “Hollywood” problem, in which “almost everyone is acting”.

That creates uncertainty, instability and a lack of accountability in departments, he said. — Sapa