Cogta sitting on drought relief funds

THE provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has been caught out.

It appears that the department misled a finance portfolio committee meeting at the provincial legislature late last year about all important drought funding for affected KZN communities.

The department told the committee in November that it had spent over R124 million of the R150 million allocated for drought relief.

It had been reported then that the department had only spent R7 million at midyear, six months into the financial year.

Now with just about a month before the end of the financial year, it appears that the department has failed to spend at least 50% of their drought relief allocation.

In a letter written by Finance MEC Belinda Scott to Cogta portfolio committee chairperson Gloria Ntombela, Scott warns of the possibility of under-spending money meant for drought-stricken KZN communities and farmers.

Scott said this indicates poor planning on the side of the department when it comes to drought implementation.

According to the correspondence, despite failure to spend R33 million in drought relief funding during the 2015/16 financial year, the department asked Treasury to transfer R55 million to drought relief on March 29, 2016.

DA spokesperson on Cogta, George Mari said this meant Cogta MEC Nomusa DubeNcube was sitting on almost R200 million in drought relief funding.