Treasurer discusses Budget delivery

TREASURER Charles Abel says that the credibility of the Budget is determined when it is delivered.
Abel said during the budget lock up yesterday that the trend over the past few years had been of supplementary budgets and lots of the perimeters and commitments in the budget not being met.
“It’s so important that we meet commitments in the recurrent budget,” he said.
“One of the critical points is the functional grants to provincial governments.
“It is so important to have an effective public service machinery.
“Payroll continues to be an issue but they need their functional grants and GST commitments so that frontline services are able to function effectively.”
Abel said he wanted to make sure that “you are delivering on the expenditure side”.
“Don’t sacrifice functional grants. They are critical,” he said.
“I’m pleased to say that 90 per cent of the warrants have gone on functional grants and 78 per cent have been expended.”
Abel said no provincial government was below 60 per cent.
“The department is releasing K50 million a week and intends to meet that commitment,” he said.
“The only thing to me that has marred the fantastic story is the ongoing issues around personal emoluments.
“We had to cater for some blowout in the personal emoluments side of the budget.
“Some of that is related to under budgeting issue.”