Mpuma ‘spends over R21bn on salaries’

190210. Opening of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature in Nelspruit. The Premier of Mpumalanga Province David Mabuza during the salute by the SAPS members. Picture: Dumisani Sibeko

190210. Opening of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature in Nelspruit. The Premier of Mpumalanga Province David Mabuza during the salute by the SAPS members. Picture: Dumisani Sibeko

Published Feb 7, 2016

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Nelspruit - Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza needs to explain how the provincial government managed to spend 99 percent of its employee budget for salaries despite 17 000 funded posts being vacant, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.

“According to the 2014/2015 annual reports of all Mpumalanga departments, over R21 billion was spend on cost of employees (COE) during the 2014/15 financial year, despite a 19 percent vacancy rate,” DA Mpumalanga leader and MPL James Masango said.

“Premier David Mabuza must give a clear explanation on the expenditure of this amount during the next oral reply season in the provincial legislature,” he said.

This was in stark contrast to Mabuza’s recent statement that the provincial government had placed all departments on an ongoing moratorium to decrease the provincial wage bill.

“This exercise is now proving to be fruitless as the cost of employees budget has steadily increased by 14 percent since 2012,” Masango said.

Mabuza had stated that the moratorium on vacant funded posts would continue into the new financial year due to the provincial budget being cut by about R1 billion.

“It is clear that job opportunities are not being created for the unemployed as the unemployment rate in the province is at approximately 39 percent, including those who have given up on looking for employment.

“This is another indication of the Mpumalanga’s government’s inability to deal with unemployment. This province is in desperate need of change that can bring equal opportunities to the poorest of the poor,” Masango said.

The residents of Mpumalanga had been bombarded with media reports about government projects using up millions, and often billions, of taxpayers’ money and “most of them never get completed”.

Clean governance was a key requirement for, among others, successful service delivery.

Rooting out corruption in the public service was a key priority for the DA, Masango said.

African News Agency

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