Johannesburg -
Maintenance on Gauteng roads will suffer as about R300m
has been diverted from the province's road maintenance fund to pay
for unexpected expenses, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday.
Neil Campbell, DA spokesperson on roads and traffic, said more than
R300m had been diverted from Gauteng's road maintenance and
construction programmes to fund expenditures to duplicate the
offices of Roads and Transport and Infrastructure Development,
which previously fell under the same department.
Funds had to be raised to duplicate the offices of the MECs with
new heads of departments, chief financial officers and other
positions.
"The full cost of this exercise has not yet been quantified
although the MECs' offices cost R1m," said Campbell.
Money was also needed to make up the shortfall for subsidised
bus services inherited from the North West Province, following the
re-incorporation of the Khutsong area into Gauteng.
This, Campbell said, amounted to R32m over the whole
year.
A further R151m was used to facilitate the Gauride
operation which provided free transport to soccer fans during the
Confederations Cup.
"This amounted to R10m in administration costs and R141m actually paid to taxi owners," said Campbell. "Further
costs will be incurred for the World Cup."
He said the closure of the unsuccessful Impophoma Infrastructure
cost the department extra, as well as R8.8m for additional
salaries.
Cobie van Antwerpen, acting chief financial officer of the
Gauteng department of roads and transport said the figure of R300m was not correct.
"The assertion that 'potholes in Gauteng will remain' is not
necessarily true," said Van Antwerpen.
"What he [Campbell] fails to mention is what we said in terms of
our plan to restructure our maintenance programme and the fact that
we are going to finance them better than in the past."
Van Antwerpen said the department had sought an alternative
funding approach in the form of public -private partnership.
"To this effect, we have secured a funding commitment to the
tune of R5.5 billion towards road construction, rehabilitation and
maintenance programme for the next five years."
Van Antwerpen said funding within the department was
reprioritised to fund the two new departments from the existing
budget.
He said most of the shift from infrastructure was for the
Confederations Cup.
"The funding in respect of the Confederations Cup was mainly
sourced from the Infrastructure branch. However, in respect of
World Cup expenditure to be incurred, a special allocation was made
to the department for the 2010/11 financial year," he said.
He said the R8.8m for additional salaries was not taken
from the maintenance and infrastructure budget.
"In general, the adjustments made to the budget as tabled in
legislature in June 2009 were to align the actual budgets of the
units to what should be published," said Van Antwerpen.
- Sapa