Latest news with #MPLs
IOL News
3 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Head count underway to find ghost employees as KZN's financial challenges revealed
Francois Rodgers, the KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC, at the Provincial Legislature on Tuesday. Image: KZN Legislature Salaries remained the biggest cost driver of Kwa-Zulu-Natal's government's over-expenditure, particularly in education, where ghost employees are now being filtered out. Francois Rodgers, the KZN Finance MEC, painted a bleak picture of the financial state of some municipalities when he briefed Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) on the unaudited 2024/2025 financial year close-out report for provincial government departments, on Tuesday. Rodgers said that together with his cabinet counterparts in the relevant departments he was undertaking a verification process of all employees. Rodgers said a head count is underway to deal with ghost employees. He also highlighted the pressure on the provincial fiscus, which continues to confront frontline departments such as Health, Education, and Social Development. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ He said that KZN had experienced equitable share budget cuts amounting to more than R64 billion since 2020. He explained that in the 2024/2025 financial year, provincial expenditure amounted to R151.9 billion, exceeding the budget by R158.6 million. An amount totaling R7.8 billion has been accrued for the 2025/2026 financial year. 'The amount accrued far exceeds accruals from the past two financial years. Added to this amount is a further R3.2 billion of payments approved but not released due to unavailable cash, highlighting the over commitment by departments without the required funding being in place,' Rodgers said. He told the committee that he was also concerned that from accruals, R3.2 billion is more than 30 days which is non-compliant with the Public Finance Management Act. Rodgers said this signals a negative impact on future budgets. 'We must ensure consequence management where there is clear evidence of financial misconduct,' Rodgers warned. He said that the provincial cabinet has recently approved the KZN financial recovery plan aimed at restoring financial stability, eliminating wasteful expenditure and enhancing revenue collection. Mthandeni Dlungwana, an ANC MPL and the Chairperson of the KZN Finance Portfolio Committee, said that the report presented the fiscal strengths and weaknesses in each KZN department. 'We will use the reports to assess the department's performance in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. This is part of the ANC's broader mission to strengthen democratic oversight and build a capable, ethical, and developmental state in KwaZulu-Natal," Dlungwana said. Tim Brauteseth, MPL and DA KZN Spokesperson on Finance, said the report reveals a pattern of unauthorised expenditure disguised as accruals, unrecovered staff debt and budgetary misalignment. He explained that the departments such as Education and Health are now forced to use 2025/2026 budgets to settle 2024/2025 debts. Despite these challenges, Brauteseth said that initiatives aimed at improving transparency and efficiency include: • The rollout of financial dashboards, which have enhanced visibility into departmental spending and enabled better decision-making
BBC News
6 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Some mineral prospecting paused as licences are relinquished
Five of seven mineral prospecting licences (MPLs) granted in Northern Ireland earlier this year have been relinquished, meaning prospecting under those licences will be paused for at least three MPL grants the holder permission to carry out activities like surveys and test drilling in a specific covers minerals like copper and zinc, but not gold and silver as these belong to the Crown seven licences were granted to four companies, including Dalradian Gold, in May. The four companies cover areas in at least three counties – Fermanagh, Tyrone and Armagh. The announcement from the Department for the Economy (DfE) comes as a deadline to lodge papers for any legal challenge is set to expire.A statement from the Department added that it had been instructed by Minister Caoimhe Archibald to write to the court to confirm it would not oppose the granting of leave for a judicial review if papers were she has also instructed "to advise the objectors and the court that it will write in support of any application to quash the remaining two licences".The applications may be resubmitted, followed by a 12-week consultation the seven licences were granted in May, a public notice of the intention to grant them was not published in the Belfast Gazette, as required by Belfast Gazette is an official journal of record where statutory notices are published, as well as the King's honours previously said the notices were passed to the Gazette but were not four companies – Dalradian Gold, Conroy Gold, Karelian Diamond Resources, and Flintridge Resources – were then asked to relinquish the licences, which they agreed to is awaiting confirmation from the holder for the remaining two licences would allow holders to prospect for minerals, excluding gold and could lead to full-time mining operations at a later date.
