INLSA

General Secretary of Cosatu Zwelinzima during the launch of the Corruption Watch campaign. Picture: Leon Nicholas

SA last year failed to spend a whopping R82 billion – money that was ready to be well spent on roads, railways, power stations and many more crucial projects.

This was explained by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday, who admitted, on the subject of the country’s infrastructure: “In the past, spending has lagged behind plans.

“Our estimate is that in 2010/11, R178bn was spent out of a planned R260bn, or just 68 percent.

“We have to do better than that – state enterprises, municipalities and government departments all need to improve their planning and management of capital projects.”

Gordhan promised an improvement, saying: “We shall step up the quality of planning, costing and project management, so that infrastructure is developed on time, and on budget.”

Crucial to this was also ridding the state machinery and the private sector of corruption.

“We call on ordinary South Africans not to sit back and accept bribery when you come across it, whether in the public or private sector. Contact the hotline in government departments. Don’t accept bribery. Don’t become part of corruption,” he warned.

Gordhan had high praise for Cosatu for its “CorruptionWatch” initiative.

A range of measures would be implemented to keep government business honest. For example, the National Treasury planned to develop a national price reference system, to detect deviations from acceptable prices.

Also: “The tax clearance system will be strengthened to ensure that those who have defrauded the state cannot do business with the state.”

And in reference to the lease of buildings, he said: “The minister of public works and I have agreed to undertake a joint review of the validity and cost effectiveness of all government property leases.”

Among the major infrastructural projects are:

l R4bn for the Passenger Rail Agency of SA for coaches, as the start of a programme to replace the current fleet;

l R1bn for signalling and depot infrastructure related to this new rail transport programme;

l R1.8bn for municipal water infrastructure;

l R3.9bn for upgrading informal settlements.

A total of R3.2 trillion of infrastructure projects are under consideration, but not all will be approved for implementation.