Cape Town - The Social Development Department has blamed budget cuts and non-compliance by some non-profit organisations (NPOs) for delays in the payment of their subsidies.
The explanation was given by Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, when she was responding to IFP MP Liezl van der Merve after reports surfaced that children’s homes in Gauteng were facing closure due to the late payment and/or non-payment of departmental subsidies, despite some having submitted compliance documents by June 2022.
Van der Merve wanted to know the number of NGOs that were paid their full subsidies for 2022 and steps taken to ensure that the late payment would not recur this year.
Zulu said her department viewed the NPOs as important stakeholders in the delivery of services.
“While acknowledging that there were delays with few provinces, it should be taken into consideration that the payment of organisations is a dual responsibility for both the department and the NPOs.
“For NPOs to be paid they need to be compliant and to submit the relevant reports and claims, failure to the department is unable to process their payment,” she said.
The minister said most of the non-payments related to non-compliance, especially in Gauteng.
Zulu said the reasons for the delays in payments for KwaZulu-Natal emanated from budget cuts during the medium-term expenditure framework, which seriously affected the payment of organisations and consequently hampering service delivery.
“The department’s budget for 2021-22 financial year was R3 897 485 billion while for the 2022-23 it is R3 332 172bn.
“The 2022-23 budget is R565.313 million less than the previous financial year,” she said.
Zulu said the budget cuts implemented by the provincial treasury were done without due consideration of the existing long-term agreements the department had signed with the NPOS.
In the Western Cape, quarterly payment dates had been set and measured for compliance against the payment dates.
Cape Times