Cape Town - South Africa is not getting enough "bang for its buck" when it comes to service delivery, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan disclosed in his medium-term budget policy statement on Thursday.
"Over the past decade, the redistributive and pro-poor character of public spending has significantly improved, alleviating poverty and advancing social development," the minister said.
"But there is an increasing concern within government that additional budget allocations do not result in commensurate improvements in service delivery."
Gordhan said the goal would be to improve the quality and composition of spending.
The plan was to shift from consumption to capital investment.
Over the next three years, spending growth would remain stable and "well contained", while continuing to support social priorities.
Cementing a commitment to lessening "unproductive" spending, Gordhan said there would be no upward adjustment of the overall spending projection set out in the 2012 budget for the next two years.
In monetary terms, this would mean the budgeted non-interest expenditure of R953bn for 2013/14, and R1.03 trillion for 2014/15, would not be revised.
"This marks a necessary shift from the pattern of additional spending allocations that had come to be taken for granted over the past decade," he said.