Cape Town – Statistician General Pali Lehohla says an increase in capital expenditure (capex) by public institutions means that more citizens are receiving basic services.
The Statistician General released a report detailing capital expenditure by the public sector 2015 in Pretoria on Tuesday. Lehohla said there has been an upward trend in capital expenditure over some time.
The report breaks down the amounts spent by public sector institutions (including government departments, municipalities, universities and universities of technology, and state-owned enterprises, among others) on capital expenditure items such as new construction works, refurbishments and maintenance of land and existing buildings, as well as the purchase and maintenance of transport equipment.
According to the report, capex by public sector institutions increased by R14 billion, from R258 billion in 2014 to R272 billion in 2015.
Lehohla said the lion’s share of the total capex was spent by public corporations, who expended 53.9%, or R146.5 billion. This is compared to R144 billion that was spent in 2014.
He said municipalities were the second highest spenders, with R59 billion, or 21.7%, followed by provincial governments (11.4% or R31 billion) and national government (5.9% or R16.1 billion).
Higher education institutions had the smallest share of the total capex at 2.2%, or R5.9 billion.
Approximately R13.4 billion, or 4.9%, was spent on extra-budgetary accounts capex.
This includes:
- An expenditure of R3.4 billion on construction, renovations and repairs of the parliamentary complex;
- Approximately R2.8 billion spent on De Hoop Water Treatment Works and rehabilitation of dams;
- R1.2 billion on the acquisition of land parcels;
- R535 million on the installation of the integrated cargo scanner at the Durban Harbour; and
- Some R330 million on equipment that was acquired for the construction of MeerKAT antennas for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.
While the report revealed an increase of R26.1 billion in new construction works - from R130.7 billion in 2014 to R156.8 billion in 2015 – decreases were recorded for capex on plant, machinery and equipment – from R94.7 billion in 2014 to R90.1 billion in 2015.
Expenditure on land and existing buildings also went down from R14.8 billion to R9.7 billion in the same period, while less was spent on transport equipment (from R9.2 billion in 2014 to R6.6 billion in 2015).
Public institutions also spent less on leased assets and investment property – R2.3 billion in 2015 compared to R2.5 billion in 2014.
More spent on power plants, locos
Zooming in on the actual projects where capex funds were disbursed, the Statistician General said public corporations spent R35.7 billion on the power generation projects at Kusile, Ingula and Medupi.
He said a greater portion of R30 billion of the overall capex was spent on locomotives, tugs and dredgers.
R9.1 billion was channelled towards strengthening, improving and constructing new facilities on non-toll roads, while a greater portion of R6.1 billion was spent on the overhaul of coaches, signalling and telecommunications. – SAnews.gov.za
