KZN Social Development's under-spending raises service delivery concerns
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has raised issue with the under-spending by the KwaZulu-Natal Social Development Department.
The department under-spent over R33 million for the 2019/20 financial year.
The party's KZN spokesperson for Social Development, Les Govender says this means some people didn't get service.
"What we have found is that the department was not able to give us a suitable explanation as to why these programmes were not rolled out to the communities across the province. Now, this is money that will have to be returned to National Treasury.
"The IFP is very concerned because this department over the last few years has not been able to meet certain priority targets that it set for itself at the beginning of the financial year," says Govender.
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Social Development's Mhlabunzima Memela says because of the coronavirus lockdown - they weren't able to fill vacant posts and procure vehicles for service delivery.
"The public funds must be accounted, so therefore if the NPO has not been doing any job because of the lockdown, they cannot then come and send invoices and claim to have been doing the work.
"The department is in negotiation with the treasury to ensure that the R33 million is actually being diverted to the programmes of COVID-19," says Memela.
