Chairperson and colleagues, the IFP will also support the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill, but we have a few concerns. One of them is the huge inefficiencies in government. We trust that Treasury can look at this, particularly when it comes to the Department of Public Works and its relationship with other government departments. Last week we heard, right here, a report from the Justice committee in which they suggested that they should rather be carrying out their capital works projects and maintenance themselves. I think this holds equally true for other departments because delays mean costs, and there are huge inefficiencies when it comes to Public Works and other departments.
Also, I think Treasury needs to look at cost-effectiveness, in regard to building a classroom, for example. At one stage in KwaZulu-Natal, with public-private partnerships, we could build a classroom for about R80 000 and it could be done in double-quick time. Yet if a similar classroom were to be built by Public Works, it would cost you R280 000 and take double or triple the amount of time. So, I think we really need to start looking at efficiency.
I also believe that the problem with the ability of municipalities to raise their own income are cause for concern. Provincial governments and municipalities should not continually rely on the Division of Revenue Act and wait for national government to dispense funds to them. The whole question of payment of outstanding rates and service charges in many of the municipalities, which run into billions of rand, needs to be seriously addressed.
On the question of conditional grants, we believe that there needs to be a continuous evaluation of these grants. At least every quarter there should be reports that are monitored, not just reports given for the sake of ticking a box to say, "Yes, we've given a report." I mean, these are funds! We welcome the fact that Treasury has now taken it upon itself to transfer to others conditional grants of provinces or municipalities that don't spend this money. This kind of initiative is very, very welcome.
We also applaud the fact that Treasury has taken measures to encourage and reward municipalities and provincial departments that accelerate the implementation of cost-effective service delivery to our citizens. This is also a positive step.
Lastly, there's a lot of talk about toll roads and their high costs. Although we know that fuel levies are distributed to metropolitan municipalities, maybe it is time to come up with some innovative thinking about how conditional grants can ease the burden on some of the motorists, because at the end of the day this infrastructure is needed. South Africa is one country and whether the road is in Gauteng or going to the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape, these roads are needed and we've got to find ways of ensuring that the roads are paid for. We will support the Bill.