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Johannesburg - Gauteng departments spent 99% of their total adjusted budget for the 2012/13 financial year, the provincial finance department said on Friday.
"This expenditure, which amounted to R74.7bn, represents a substantial improvement on the previous year," the department said in a statement.
"[It] shows that... departments continue to improve spending to meet the service delivery needs of the people of Gauteng."
This was according to the provincial treasury's state of finances report for the fourth quarter.
The departments of health and education were the main drivers of expenditure, accounting for 36% and 38% respectively.
Money representing 1% of the budget had not been spent by the end of March.
However, it had already been set aside for payment of invoices in line with established Treasury budget processes.
This showed that departments were enhancing their measures to make sure money was spent in an efficient and effective manner, the department said.
Finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe said: "It is critical for... departments to institutionalise - at strategic and operational levels - financial discipline, and continue with the implementation of cost-cutting and cost-containment measures to ensure that the available resources make a significant impact on service delivery."
Although the province managed to keep expenditure on compensation of employees within the budget, more work needed to be done to manage personnel numbers.
"In other words human resources/capital management should continue to receive prominent attention within departments, from planning, budgeting and implementation," Nkomfe said.
The department said infrastructure expenditure continued to improve in the province. This was due to various initiatives which were being implemented.
At the end of the financial year, the provincial government had spent R8.7bn on infrastructure. This represented 96% of the total budget for infrastructure.
Total expenditure increased by 8% compared to the previous year, Treasury said.
The departments of education and agriculture and rural development spent the most.
Nkomfe said some projects and programmes were affected by supply chain management processes.
"This resulted in these projects commencing towards the latter part of the financial year, thereby exposing them to the rainy season and the builders' break in the December and January months."
Nkomfe said provincial treasury would present proposals soon on how to improve supply chain management processes for all infrastructure departments.
