Finance and Economic Opportunities

1. This question should be directed to the Secretary of Parliament and the Speaker to respond to in terms of the Financial Management of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act “FMPPLA”.
2. No, there is no one-stop-shop for PPE purchasing. The province operates from a centre-led and centre-enabled approach and not a centralised approach. It should be noted that the Accounting Officers of individual provincial government departments are ultimately responsible for the individual procurement decisions of their departments in terms of Section 38 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The Provincial Treasury (PT) plays an oversight and support role to Accounting Officers in this respect. The Western Cape Government (WCG) is committed to a strategic sourcing approach to procurement and has, over time, sought to progressively strengthen its supply chain management (SCM) systems and practices in line with the requirements of section 217 of the Constitution and associated legislation.
3. Yes, in 2012 PT issued a standardised set of norms and standards in the form of PT Instructions to strengthen governance and control mechanisms from a supply chain management perspective across departments within the Western Cape. PT also issued a blueprint Accounting Officers System in 2013. Since then departments were required and have put in place emergency procurement policies and associated delegations.   This operational model was therefore already well established and provided a sound platform for PT and key frontline departments to better respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In addition, in response to COVID-19, PT implemented the following precautionary measures to ensure compliance to the PFMA from a procurement and financial management perspective:

1. A COVID -19 coordination function within PT for the Finance and SCM Cluster to ensure financial governance, procurement and financial management requirements were met in terms of the Disaster Management Act and its regulations;
2. A Central Procurement Advisory Committee (CPAC) to guide emergency and lockdown procurement and financial requirements of essential products and/or services that were referred to it by provincial institutions for disaster relief needs of the Province.
3. PT provided logistics support and advisory services to the Humanitarian Relief Stream, Medical Supplies Stream and the Medical Admissions and Accommodation Stream.

4. The following SCM Treasury Circulars were issued to Provincial departments and entities:

• Treasury Circular No. 11 of 2020: Western Cape Government's Procurement Requirements in response to the Declaration of a National Disaster due to the CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) Pandemic on 23 March 2020;
• Treasury Circular No. 14 of 2020: Facilitating the receipt, reporting and accounting of cash donations to the Western Cape Government Departments and Entities, to inform Western Cape Government Departments and Provincial Public Entities of the arrangements related to cash donations, budgeting, accounting and reporting in response to the Covid- 19 pandemic. This circular complements the Western Cape Disaster Budgeting Procurement and Accounting Framework. (This Circular was repealed and replaced by Circular 22 of 2020/21);
• Treasury Circular 21: Issuance of National Treasury Instruction no. 05 of 2020/21: Emergency procurement in response to national state of disaster - covid-19;
• Treasury Circular No. 23 of 2020: Western Cape Government's Business Continuity Plan for Disaster Procurement Requirements in respect of COVID -19 Pandemic, including Annexures A-E, issuing the Finance and SCM Cluster Governance structure, CPAC TOR and SOP; Process for utilisation of the e-Procurement System for formal bids and guidance on how to deal with exorbitant pricing in terms of the GCC; and
• Treasury Circular No. 31 of 2020: National Treasury Instruction No.11 of 2020/21: Procurement in response to the National State of Disaster regarding COVID-19 Pandemic and Repeal of Instruction No.5 of 2020/21

1. PT further supports provincial institutions in respect of:
2. SCM via its longstanding helpdesk. There is further a whatsapp group to facilitate quick responses to key COVID related issues that is administered by a dedicated SCM specialist;
3. constant facilitation and management of registration of suppliers on the Supplier Evidence Bank. Various support provided in respect of compliance documentation and management of supplier profiles;
4. consistent management of PPE database of suppliers in terms of new entrants, compliance to NT requirements, pricing and supply and demand volumes;
5. consistent management of cloth mask database of suppliers in terms of new entrants, compliance to NT requirements, pricing and supply and demand volumes; and
6. availing and managing of security framework contract database of suppliers to facilitate and COVID-19 requirements as need by the Department of Health and other Departments.
7. Funding for the municipal response to COVID-19 comes from three broad sources.
8. First, all municipalities reprioritised resources within their own budgets to respond to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and lockdown. Second, several existing conditional grant transfers to municipalities were reprioritised or had their rules changed to allow funds to be spent on COVID-19 response activities. For example, funds from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant can now be used for the sanitization of public transport and for the provision of emergency water supply. Finally, municipalities also received additional transfers from the National and Western Cape Governments to support initiatives to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and social related relief packages as follows:
9. R7.93 million allocated to Western Cape municipalities through the Municipal Disaster Relief Grant (National Government) for immediate disaster relief. An excerpt of the gazette is enclosed as Annexure A.
10. R16.2 million allocated through the Local Government Support Grant (Western Cape Government, Department of Local Government) to strengthen humanitarian and feeding relief initiatives by Government, Private Entities and Municipalities in vulnerable communities. Enclosed find a copy of Provincial Gazette Extraordinary 8232 dated 24 April 2020, Annexure B, for ease of reference.
11. An additional R721, 698 million was allocated to municipalities in the Western Cape Local Government Equitable Share Allocation in the June 2020 Division of Revenue Amendment Act.
12. The amount of additional Equitable Share transfers per municipality is detailed  in Table 1 (below).

Table 1

3. In terms of the weekly COVID-19 expenditure reports submitted to the Provincial Treasury, the accumulated municipal expenditure reported for the period, 15 March 2020 till 02 October 2020 amounted to R628.32 million. A breakdown of the expenditure per category is set out in the table below. 

The split of the consolidated expenditure across the municipal districts is as follows:

1. This question should be directed to the Secretary of Parliament and the Speaker to respond to in terms of the Financial Management of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act “FMPPLA”.
2. No, there is no one-stop-shop for PPE purchasing. The province operates from a centre-led and centre-enabled approach and not a centralised approach. It should be noted that the Accounting Officers of individual provincial government departments are ultimately responsible for the individual procurement decisions of their departments in terms of Section 38 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The Provincial Treasury (PT) plays an oversight and support role to Accounting Officers in this respect. The Western Cape Government (WCG) is committed to a strategic sourcing approach to procurement and has, over time, sought to progressively strengthen its supply chain management (SCM) systems and practices in line with the requirements of section 217 of the Constitution and associated legislation.
3. Yes, in 2012 PT issued a standardised set of norms and standards in the form of PT Instructions to strengthen governance and control mechanisms from a supply chain management perspective across departments within the Western Cape. PT also issued a blueprint Accounting Officers System in 2013. Since then departments were required and have put in place emergency procurement policies and associated delegations.   This operational model was therefore already well established and provided a sound platform for PT and key frontline departments to better respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In addition, in response to COVID-19, PT implemented the following precautionary measures to ensure compliance to the PFMA from a procurement and financial management perspective:

1. A COVID -19 coordination function within PT for the Finance and SCM Cluster to ensure financial governance, procurement and financial management requirements were met in terms of the Disaster Management Act and its regulations;
2. A Central Procurement Advisory Committee (CPAC) to guide emergency and lockdown procurement and financial requirements of essential products and/or services that were referred to it by provincial institutions for disaster relief needs of the Province.
3. PT provided logistics support and advisory services to the Humanitarian Relief Stream, Medical Supplies Stream and the Medical Admissions and Accommodation Stream.

4. The following SCM Treasury Circulars were issued to Provincial departments and entities:

• Treasury Circular No. 11 of 2020: Western Cape Government's Procurement Requirements in response to the Declaration of a National Disaster due to the CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) Pandemic on 23 March 2020;
• Treasury Circular No. 14 of 2020: Facilitating the receipt, reporting and accounting of cash donations to the Western Cape Government Departments and Entities, to inform Western Cape Government Departments and Provincial Public Entities of the arrangements related to cash donations, budgeting, accounting and reporting in response to the Covid- 19 pandemic. This circular complements the Western Cape Disaster Budgeting Procurement and Accounting Framework. (This Circular was repealed and replaced by Circular 22 of 2020/21);
• Treasury Circular 21: Issuance of National Treasury Instruction no. 05 of 2020/21: Emergency procurement in response to national state of disaster - covid-19;
• Treasury Circular No. 23 of 2020: Western Cape Government's Business Continuity Plan for Disaster Procurement Requirements in respect of COVID -19 Pandemic, including Annexures A-E, issuing the Finance and SCM Cluster Governance structure, CPAC TOR and SOP; Process for utilisation of the e-Procurement System for formal bids and guidance on how to deal with exorbitant pricing in terms of the GCC; and
• Treasury Circular No. 31 of 2020: National Treasury Instruction No.11 of 2020/21: Procurement in response to the National State of Disaster regarding COVID-19 Pandemic and Repeal of Instruction No.5 of 2020/2

1. PT further supports provincial institutions in respect of:
2. SCM via its longstanding helpdesk. There is further a whatsapp group to facilitate quick responses to key COVID related issues that is administered by a dedicated SCM specialist;
3. constant facilitation and management of registration of suppliers on the Supplier Evidence Bank. Various support provided in respect of compliance documentation and management of supplier profiles;
4. consistent management of PPE database of suppliers in terms of new entrants, compliance to NT requirements, pricing and supply and demand volumes;
5. consistent management of cloth mask database of suppliers in terms of new entrants, compliance to NT requirements, pricing and supply and demand volumes; and
6. availing and managing of security framework contract database of suppliers to facilitate and COVID-19 requirements as need by the Department of Health and other Departments.

4. Funding for the municipal response to COVID-19 comes from three broad sources.
5. First, all municipalities reprioritised resources within their own budgets to respond to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and lockdown. Second, several existing conditional grant transfers to municipalities were reprioritised or had their rules changed to allow funds to be spent on COVID-19 response activities. For example, funds from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant can now be used for the sanitization of public transport and for the provision of emergency water supply. Finally, municipalities also received additional transfers from the National and Western Cape Governments to support initiatives to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and social related relief packages as follows:
6. R7.93 million allocated to Western Cape municipalities through the Municipal Disaster Relief Grant (National Government) for immediate disaster relief. An excerpt of the gazette is enclosed as Annexure A
7. R16.2 million allocated through the Local Government Support Grant (Western Cape Government, Department of Local Government) to strengthen humanitarian and feeding relief initiatives by Government, Private Entities and Municipalities in vulnerable communities. Enclosed find a copy of Provincial Gazette Extraordinary 8232 dated 24 April 2020, Annexure B, for ease of reference.
8. An additional R721, 698 million was allocated to municipalities in the Western Cape Local Government Equitable Share Allocation in the June 2020 Division of Revenue Amendment Act.
9. The amount of additional Equitable Share transfers per municipality is detailed  in Table 1 (below).

Table 1

3. In terms of the weekly COVID-19 expenditure reports submitted to the Provincial Treasury, the accumulated municipal expenditure reported for the period, 15 March 2020 till 02 October 2020 amounted to R628.32 million. A breakdown of the expenditure per category is set out in the table below. 

The split of the consolidated expenditure across the municipal districts is as follows: