Hon Speaker, the Bill before us presents us with an opportunity to reflect upon the general management and direction of government departments as reflected by the state of their finances.
We are disappointed that expenditure on infrastructure development, which is critical for job creation, has been riddled with persistent cost overruns and underspending. As we've highlighted many times before, it is concerning to see that of the R260 billion planned infrastructure spending for 2010-11, only 68% or R178 billion was spent. This clearly points to a lack of capacity on the part of government to appropriate allocated funds, and this negatively affects the job creation agenda. Government needs to capacitate relevant entities such as state-owned enterprises, SOEs, and others to ensure that they are able to deliver on the 2012-13 infrastructure-led growth the country requires.
In conclusion, the huge public sector wage bill is a cause for concern. Compensation of public sector employees continues to outpace all other expenditure items on the Budget. Obviously, the excessively high public sector wage bill diverts resources away from service delivery.
What is even more depressing in this matter is the lack of returns on this investment. If we were getting good value for the money spent on the compensation of public sector employees, the many service delivery challenges and riots besetting South Africa today would be a thing of the past.
The UDM supports the Bill. Thank you.