Target of 10 000 jobs missed

Knock-on effect is that expected employment opportunities fall away.

- Masoka Dube

The Mpumalanga government has failed to complete many infrastructure projects due to poor budgeting planning, according to the auditor-general's (AG) recent report.

The identified backlogs led to the provincial government not creating jobs in the 2023-24 financial year.

The report released by auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke's office recently said: "The departments are prioritising many projects with limited budgets, leading to significant project delays and abandonment.

"Because of poor budgeting, more than 10 000 job creation targets were not achieved in the past financial year due to delayed and halted projects," Maluleke said in the report.

The AG further highlighted that within different departments, there was a significant increase in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure compared to the previous financial year.