Deputy Speaker, let me start by thanking members for the support they have given to the Division of Revenue Bill before us today. Members have drawn our attention to the fact that this is a legislative requirement in terms of the Constitution, in terms of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act and also in terms of the Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Act.
Most of the clauses in the annual Division of Revenue Bill of this year remain unchanged, with just three policy changes effected. The first is the inclusion of specific anticorruption conditions, which is the new section 13 in the Bill. This places additional responsibilities on the heads of provincial departments with infrastructure conditional grants. The second is the inclusion of a new subsection to provide Parliament with two weeks to comment on any proposed change to the frameworks of conditional grants prior to the Minister gazetting those changes. The chairperson of the committee, the hon Sogoni, referred to this. The third is the reconfiguring of the expanded public works grants due to the slow uptake. In-year calculations of the incentives' end have now been removed, hence there is no longer a need for a schedule to provide for this eventuality.
Different members in the committee raised a number of issues even though they supported the Bill. Among those is the hon Swart from the DA, who first bemoaned the growth rate not being enough and said the DA's alternative budget would address this; and that there is inefficient public service, corruption and misconduct, and nonpayment of the suppliers. I am glad he also responded to his concerns by saying he supported the ANC policy documents released. I want to invite him to attend our policy conference in June, because his party will not be releasing any documents any time soon, except the shadow documents he has tabled.
He also alluded to the capacity in the three spheres to spend and that there is underspending. This was echoed by the hon Ramatlakane and also the hon Singh. There are a number of capacity-building initiatives in place at national level to support provinces and municipalities and perhaps from the National Treasury's side I should draw these to the attention of members. One of the members, the hon Swart from the ACDP, actually alluded to our Infrastructure Development Improvement Programme. This provides technical and advisory support for capital expenditure planning and other technical advice, and support for all nine provinces. This programme also promotes best practice in infrastructure roll-out for the full lifecycle of infrastructure projects, which includes putting in place user asset management plans.
There is also the financial management grant, which promotes and supports reform in financial management and builds capacity in municipalities to implement the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act, Act No 56 of 2003, including, through funding, interns in municipalities to boost capacity. The third is the infrastructure skills development grant, which supports municipalities to create a long-term and sustainable pool of young professionals with technical and operational skills through deploying graduate engineers and scientists in municipalities.
The hon Bhoola has demonstrated his nonattendance at committee meetings, because all of these have already been tabled at the committee level. He must take it upon himself to attend committee meetings so that he can apprise himself of these developments. The hon Ntapane also raised the issue of capacity and the issue of revenue- raising, together with the hon Groenewald, who later submitted an apology that he was going to have to leave. He will read Hansard. I would like to indicate to him that as a responsible citizen and an elected representative in this House, he must also encourage people to pay their bills in their respective municipalities.
The hon Swart also alluded to the interventions that I have raised. The hon Ramatlakane also talked about the issue of spending in provinces. My thanks go to the hon Mashigo for responding that the alignment of provincial priorities with the national priorities is also a matter we assist with. She also raised the issue of the Gauteng provincial government. We are already in the process of assisting the department of health in Gauteng and we are beginning to reap the benefits of the support we are giving them.
The other matter that was raised was the issue of the eradication of mud schools. We have allocated a substantial amount to provinces to deal with that, including an amount of R159 million to KwaZulu-Natal for the 2012-13 financial year.
All in all, there was general support for this Division of Revenue Bill and I do not want to belabour this in this House. I want to take the opportunity to thank the committee for processing the Bill expeditiously and all the members who spoke for the support they have given the Bill.
Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Bill be read a second time. Bill read a second time.