Chairperson, the MF notes with great sadness those affected by the disastrous floods in KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces and welcomes the funds made available for restoring damaged infrastructure for this financial year.
The three new grants - the agriculture, housing and transport infrastructure grants - will play a pivotal role in addressing poor infrastructure and the eradication of poverty. The additional allocation to education means that we must get value for money. The MF hopes to see the education backlog grants eradicate inappropriate school structures.
It is vitally important that there be proper monitoring of expenditure and also of outputs and services that are funded by government. The MF is concerned about rollovers, as this will make service delivery regress. We further note that in order to achieve the ultimately desired result, it is important to build institutional and human resource capacity, which will translate into efficient and effective service delivery. The MF will support the Bill.