Gauteng housing MEC attacks report
BDFM Online
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
GAUTENG housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane lashed out yesterday at a report by the provincial legislature which accused her department of poor financial management and a lack of co-operation with other departments, which was allegedly affecting delivery.
Speaking after the legislature's oversight committee on housing delivered its report on the department's performance for the 2005-06 financial year, Mokonyane said the report was not a true indication of her department's performance.
She said it contained "serious unsubstantiated comments, gross misrepresentations of facts and inconsistences", and a lack of knowledge of the department's operations.
She said contrary to perceptions in the report, the department had spent 99% of its budget and had exceeded some of its targets.
"The auditor-general only had two matters of interest, which were applications to treasury for rollovers of funding for projects not completed during the financial year, and not meeting contractual obligations by not paying contractors on time," she said.
The Gauteng housing department has come under fire from nongovernmental organisations and opposition parties, which feel the department is not delivering homes fast enough.
The province, with a population of 9,4-million and growing, has a conservative housing backlog of 600000, which would mean it would have to build 66000 houses a year for the next nine years to address this shortage.
It is estimated the department delivered 38000 structures last year, but the department gave no comprehensive figures yesterday.
The committee said the department needed to improve its financial reporting, including procurement and employment equity targets, and clarify cost-cutting issues and procurement targets.
It also asked for feedback on housing beneficiaries, and in particular what motivated people to sell their subsidised homes and rent backyard shacks.
The committee criticised the department's key empowerment initiatives, the People Housing Process and Community Builder programmes, for not creating the required number of jobs.
It was also critical of the delivery of hostel units. The department delivered 765, but had aimed at 1800.
Mokonyane said the People Housing Process had exceeded its target by 30%, delivering 1865 homes. However, it created only 170 jobs, which was 55% below target.
Mokonyane attributed this to a lack of funding.
