EARD COMMITTEE ANALYSIS OF DEPARTMENT’S 2022/23 ANNUAL REPORT

MEDIA STATEMENT

TO: ALL MEDIA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: 31 OCTOBER 2023

EARD COMMITTEE ANALYSIS OF DEPARTMENT’S 2022/23 ANNUAL REPORT

The Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Environment, Agriculture & Rural Development (EARD) recently assessed the 2022/23 Annual Report of the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment (GDARDE). Focus was on the department’s financial performance and service delivery in the 2022/23 financial year.

The Committee is concerned that both the Agriculture & Rural Development and the Environmental Affairs programmes which underspent and used 81,0% and 93,7% of their budgets respectively, which meant that large sums of monies intended for service delivery were returned to Treasury.

The Committee has noticed a trend of underspending on various programmes and has urged the department to put measures in-place to ensure efficient utilisation of the allocated budget.

Furthermore, the state of the nature reserves managed by the GDARDE need improving so that they not only help in improving the wellbeing of humans, but further help with improving tourism in the province.

Speaking to GDARDE officials at the committee’s recent oversight visit to Roodeplaat Nature Reserve, in Tshwane, Committee Chairperson Honourable Kekana said, “Once the private sector comes on-board, in two days this place will be transformed, and they’ll generate more money from the facility”. Chairperson Kekana also emphasized that the department needs to be proactive in ensuring that it maintains these nature reserves noting the current budgetary constraints.

The ongoing Avian Influenza (AI) outbreak has led to the culling of large numbers of poultry, which has impacted on the financial returns that farmers will realize, as well as threatening the entire value chain of the poultry industry in the Gauteng province. The committee pleads with the department to ensure measures are in-place to help fight the Avian Influenza (AI) in the province.

The portfolio committee is concerned about the recent Auditor General Report, which awarded the GDARDE an unqualified audit outcome with findings that relate to irregular as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditures. The committee calls on the department to ensure due diligence is performed before appointing service providers, as service providers that can’t meet their contractual agreements have an adverse effect on the department’s key deliverables.

Lasty, the portfolio committee highlighted the importance of food security programmes that the GDARDE draws-up, and to ensure that such programmes draw-in broader stakeholders to maximize participation of civil society and communities in such programmes.

ENDS

ISSUED BY THE GPL COMMUNICATIONS UNIT ON BEHALF OF CHAIRPERSON OF THE EARD PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE, HONOURABLE REFILOE KEKANA.

For more information or interview queries, please contact: Mr Sinethemba Sibiya on 0737626809, email: ssibiya@gpl.gov.za