Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has revealed how government will be spending its budget across the three spheres of government in an effort to reduce duplication in the management of programmes, as well as to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending.
Godongwana made the announcement to Parliament during his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday.
According to the Finance Minister, this is how government proposes the allocation of revenue for the 2025/26 period:
– 47.9% of available non-interest spending to national departments
– 42.3% to provinces
– 9.8 to local government
Godongwana in his MTBPS address said that the share of nationally raised revenue has moved towards local government.
“Over time, the share of nationally raised revenue has steadily shifted towards local government,” Godongwana said.
In 2014/15, 8.9% of non-interest main budget expenditure was transferred to local government.
Now, for 2025/26 local government will now receive close 10%.
Godongwana said that during the 2025 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period, the first phase of implementing recommendations from the recent conditional grant review, completed by the National Treasury earlier this year, will commence.
“This includes the merging of various conditional grants, such as the Education Infrastructure Grant and the School Infrastructure Backlogs Grant.”
According to the Finance Minister, they are also undertaking amendments to the Public Finance Management Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act.
“This process of modernising public financial management was started by the previous administration and will continue over the next months. We will publish the draft pieces of legislation next year,” Godongwana said.
IOL Business