NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 2688
DATE REPLY SUBMITTED: Monday, 31 October 2011
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: FRIDAY, 16 SEPTEMBER 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: NO 29 â 2011)
Mr S B Farrow (DA) asked the Minister of Transport:
(1) With reference to the Sâhama Sonke Dedicated Road Maintenance Fund
that has recently been established, what (a) is the total allocations
for each year over the proposed three year period, (b) are the names
of the (i) implementing authorities and (ii) subcontractors of these
authorities and (c) is the total number of jobs that are expected to
be created;
(2) whether this funding to the provinces is in addition to the funds
annually budgeted for out of their equitable share; if not, why not;
if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) whether his department have put in place (a) criteria for accessing
and prioritising these funds and (b) any monitoring mechanisms to
ensure effective spending; if not, why not, in each case; if so, what
are the relevant details in each case;
(4) whether he has been informed of any provinces that have appropriated
funds from conditional grants outside of their intended purposes; if
not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant
details? NW3148E
REPLY:
The Minister of Transport:
1) (a) The total allocations for each year over the proposed three year
period are as follows:
|PROVINCE |2011/12 |2012/13 |2013/14 |
| |Allocation |Allocation |Allocation |
| |(Râ000) |(Râ000) |(Râ000) |
|Eastern Cape |1 034 086 |1 215 920 |1 312 210 |
|Free State |447 165 |525 794 |567 433 |
|Gauteng |566 917 |583 226 |625 542 |
|Kwa-zulu Natal|1 236 648 |1 454 099 |1 569 251 |
|Limpopo |934 208 |1 098 478 |1 185 468 |
|Mpumalanga |1 016 603 |1 253 564 |1 449 002 |
|Northern Cape |308 760 |363 053 |391 803 |
|North West |501 826 |590 067 |636 795 |
|Western Cape |411 141 |483 437 |521 720 |
|TOTAL |6 457 354 |7 567 638 |259 224 |
(b) (i) The implementing authorities are the following:
⢠Eastern Cape Department of Roads and Public Works.
⢠Free State Department of Police, Roads and Transport.
⢠Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport.
⢠KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport.
⢠Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport.
⢠Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport.
⢠Northern Cape Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison.
⢠North West Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport.
⢠Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works.
(ii) The role of sourcing sub-contractors is for the implementing
authorities.
The Department of Transport (DoT) will not be in a position to provide
the names of the subcontractors in this response, because it has to
consult with the implementing authorities to provide the list with
names and such a process will take considerable time. Therefore the
information on the names of the subcontractors can be provided at a
later stage, if still required.
(c) The total number of jobs that are expected to be created are as
follows (Source: Information extracted from the business plans
submitted to the DoT by the provincial departments):
|PROVINCE |NO OF JOBS TO BE CREATED |
|Eastern Cape | 32 965 |
|Free State | 10 370 |
|Gauteng | 5 636 |
|Kwazulu-Natal | 47 100 |
|Limpopo | 23 976 |
|Mpumalanga | 15 740 |
|Northern Cape | 1 568 |
|North West | 6 427 |
|Western Cape | 1 946 |
|TOTAL |145 728 |
(2) Yes, the Provincial Road Maintenance Grant (PRMG) allocation is an
addition to the funds annually budgeted for out of their equitable
share. The PRMG is a Schedule 4 grant, which means these are
allocations to provinces to supplement the funding of programmes or
functions funded from provincial budgets. This means that the
allocation may only be utilized for the purpose stipulated in the
Schedule and in accordance with the published framework. The purpose
of the PRMG grant is to supplement provincial roads investments and
support preventative maintenance on provincial road networks, and to
ensure provinces implement and maintain road asset management systems.
The equitable allocations for the provincial departments are as
follows (Source: 2011 Estimates of Provincial Revenue and
Expenditure):
| | |
|PROVINCE |EQUITABLE SHARE 2011/12 (Râ000)|
|Eastern Cape | 2 021 600 |
|Free State | 449 083 |
|Gauteng | 4 091 675 |
|Kwazulu-Natal | 4 433 772 |
|Limpopo | 2 183 326 |
|Mpumalanga | 2 265 359 |
|Northern Cape | 134 433 |
|North West | 1 842 999 |
|Western Cape | 1 612 252 |
|TOTAL |19 034 499 |
(3) (a)
Yes, the DoT has put in place criteria for accessing and prioritizing
the PRMG. Conditional grants are governed by conditions from the Division
of Revenue Act 2011 (Act No 6 of 2011), and provincial departments need
to adhere/comply to those conditions before funds are transferred.
Allocation criteria include performance in relation to key performance
indicators as agreed to between the DoT and the provinces. In addition
to this Act, the DoT developed guidelines for the preparations of
business plans where departments were required to state the key
deliverables/outputs that are aligned to the DoT outcomes. For the
allocations of the 2011/12 financial year, the condition for the transfer
of the first installment was for the departments to capture the final
list of projects on the Infrastructure Reporting Model (IRM), and to
submit to the relevant Provincial Treasury and the DoT by 21 April
2011. The payment of the second installment of the PRMG is dependent
on receipt by the DoT of the quarterly performance reports for the
fourth quarter of the 2010/11 financial year. The third installment
is dependent on receipt by the DoT of the first quarter report for the
2011/12 financial year, and the final installment is dependent on
receipt of the second quarterly performance report for the 2011/12
financial year.
b) Yes, the DoT has put in place monitoring mechanisms to ensure
effective spending of the PRMG. On the guidelines developed by the
DoT, it also included monitoring mechanisms and it stated the
following:
⢠Update monthly expenditure reporting in terms of Section 40 (4) (c)
of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999), the
Infrastructure Reporting Model (IRM) and through electronic
spreadsheets.
⢠Submit quarterly performance reports within 30 days after the end
of each quarter to the DoT, relevant Provincial Treasury and the
National Treasury, including reporting on:
⢠Maintenance activities and quantities;
⢠length of roads reclassified and/or proclaimed and number of
job
opportunities created;
⢠number of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME)
developed;
⢠traffic volumes;
⢠lifespan of the road (based on original design life, traffic
and weather
patterns); and
⢠accident statistics,including reduction figures.
Before the end of the first year, all business plans are to be
reviewed, so that all future allocations can be determined on a
project priority listing system and aligned to the following
information:
⢠Network condition data analysis from the Pavement Management
System (PMS);
⢠maintenance backlogs;
⢠improvement of access roads to schools, hospitals and clinics;
⢠optimization of labour intensive methodology;
⢠creating contracting opportunities or the promotion of SMMEâs
development and cooperatives; and
⢠addressing road safety issues.
In order to keep track of the progress of each and every project
approved, provinces are required to submit monthly data and progress
reports. Quarterly reports are due at the end of each quarter.
(4) The DoT is currently busy with the process of finalising site visits,
where they will have meetings with the provinces to check if the
allocations have been used according to what was stated in the
approved business plans. The North West Department of Public Works,
Roads and Transport is the only Department that has requested to amend
their 2011/12 - 2013/14 Table B5 (list of projects) from the
approved/gazetted list of projects. They stated that their gazetted
list of projects were not aligned to the Sâhamba Sonke Programme and
have invariably omitted some of the projects, which must form part of
the top priorities of the Department for the 2011/12 financial year.
This matter is under review and discussion by the DoT and provincial
departments and is not yet finalised.