The Department had allocated an amount of R4.1 billion for programme 5 (Land Reform) but had spent R162 million or 4 per cent of this budget at the end of the first quarter. This slow expenditure on this programme was due to the fact that bulk of expenditure under this programme was used for operational expenditure. The rest had been shifted to the Restitution programme since the Department was focusing on resolving restitution court cases. The need to focus on the restitution programme was triggered by the fact that the Department had been issued with a notice of property attachment as a result of failure to settle restitution claims. In order for the Department to be able to deal with these settlements, funds needed to be shifted from the Land Reform programme to the Land Restitution. This shifting of funds, however, impacted negatively on other programmes resulting in the reduced spending on them. Furthermore, the high level of shifting of funds also defeated the original purpose of certain programme as the initially intended targets and objectives are not met by the end of the financial year.