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Johannesburg - Gauteng is not spending its budget allocation, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday.
Gauteng should spend what was allocated to it by national government, and in a sense was being rewarded for not doing so, DA spokesperson Mike Moriarty said.
Instead, the province should be penalised.
"The fourth quarter financial report of the Gauteng provincial government shows a much improved financial position in the last three months of the 2012/13 financial year," he said.
"The province collected a record amount of R3.946bn between January and March this year, R166m more than the adjusted budget, and R328m more than was budgeted this time last year."
Much of this collection came in the form of interest on unspent money in the bank, with the Treasury accruing R95m more in interest than was originally budgeted, he said.
Departments had reported 99% budget expenditure, but it should be asked whether these budgets were spent effectively.
Income was reported at R78.7bn, R4.99bn greater than total expenditure of R73.76bn.
"The province's treasury reported that R500m worth of expenditure will have to be rolled over to the new financial year, purely because the administration could not process invoices in time," Moriarty said.
"This will impact negatively on service delivery."
The DA applauded the intention to spend 96% of the year's R9.1bn infrastructure budget, though spending increases over the next three years would not be in real terms.
"This is despite backlogs in road maintenance, health facilities, schools, and housing. It must be noted that infrastructure spending brings job opportunities," he said.
With the report showing R2.42bn sitting in the bank, the opportunity to provide more job-producing infrastructure was being lost, he said.
