Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities
With regard to the Fiscal Transitional Support Facility, since its establishment:
- How many applications has the Provincial Treasury received for funding of departmental projects;
- whether any additional applications have been approved since he outlined the approval of four project in his 2021 budget speech; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
- how much funding has (a) been allocated to the Fiscal Transition Support Facility over the MTEF period (2020, 2021 and 2022) and (b) already been allocated, per approved project, over the MTEF period (2020, 2021 and 2022)?
- The Fiscal Transition Support Facility was introduced as part of the 2021 Budget process with the purpose of enabling Votes to address spending pressures through proactive restructuring measures. The Facility provides fiscal support for the once-off, upfront costs of investment in new service delivery approaches and technology that will achieve long-term savings and improved outcomes over time. As part of the 2021 Budget process, the Provincial Treasury received a total of 109 applications from departments amounting to R5.731 billion over the 2021 MTEF with R1.759 billion in 2021/22; R2.382 billion in 2022/23; and R1.593 billion in 2023/24 (see Table 1).
Table 1. Fiscal Transition Support Facility requests from departments
Source: Provincial Treasury
- No additional applications have been approved since the 2021 Budget. Applications to the Facility are only dealt with as part of the budget process rather than on an ad hoc basis. Budget Circular 2 – 2022/23: Preparing for the Integrated Provincial Government Medium Term Expenditure Committee 1 Engagements, once again communicated the requirements for proposals from departments to access the Facility for allocations to be made over the 2022 MTEF period. Any additional applications to the facility will therefore be considered as part of the 2022 MTEF Budget process.
(3) Table 2 below indicates that R248.579 million has been set aside within the provincial reserves for the Fiscal Transition Support Facility in the 2021 MTEF (R156.761 million in 2021/22, R45.600 million in 2022/23 and R46.218 million in 2023/24).
Table 2. Fiscal Transition Support Facility Allocations
Source: Provincial Treasury: Overview of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure, 2021
3 (b) As part of the budget allocation process, R142.830 million was appropriated in the 2021 MTEF (R51.012 million in 2021/22, R45.600 million in 2022/23 and R46.218 million in 2023/24) with an unallocated amount of R105.749 million for 2021/22 kept in the Provincial Reserves. Details of approved projects are also shown in Table 2.
