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Speaking in the budget vote debate on National Treasury, Narend Singh, IFP
Spokesperson on Finance said, "Whilst South Africa is doing well, it can do
better. However, what we need to do is to recognise the challenges and deal
with them decisively, the emphasis on decisively."

He appreciated the frankness by the Minister of Finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan,
in decrying the state of governance in many municipalities. Singh said,
"The Auditor General has found that of 536 audited national and provincial
entities, only 22% received a clean audit, 55% unqualified,14% qualified, 3%
adverse and 16% outstanding due to non-submission of financial statements."

Singh reminded the House that the majority of these municipalities are
controlled by the ruling party the ANC. He went on and say,
"Notwithstanding this, one needs to not play politics over the issue but
every effort must be made to employ capable civil servant at the level. He
decried the fact that some of the interventions like Siyenza Manje
previously administered by National Treasury and now by COGTA are not having
their desired effects."

Singh went on to compliment SARS on the excellent work they were doing and
proposed that additional resources be allocated to them to boost their
non-compliance division . In particular, he appreciated the outreach
programme conducted by SARS, in particular Ms Venessa Pather and her Durban
outreach team.

Singh also implored SARS to focus on what happens at our porous borders and
poorly managed border posts. He quoted from the Annual Performance plan of
SARS wherein they stated, "South Africa is currently experiencing
significant losses in excise revenue, with over 10 million kilogram of raw
tobacco entering SARS controlled warehouse s for export being unaccounted
for."

In supporting the budget, Singh said, "National Treasury needs to carefully
manage allocations to departments who constantly under spend on their
budgets. He cited the example of the department of Justice that makes a
constant cry for additional funds to improve the situation in courts. Funds
must be allocated on the basis of well thought out plans and not be
influenced by Presidential announcements. He cited under spending the use of
the Rural Housing infrastructure Grant, the Jobs Fund and the School
Infrastructure Grant."