Unspent capital budgets point to project readiness, not a lack of money — and IDMS is still not compulsory.
More than R5 billion in infrastructure budgets comes back to Treasury each year unspent, not because the money ran out but because departments cannot get projects ready to spend it. Lindsey Schutters in Daily Maverick on Sunday, and Noxolo Majavu in Business Day the next morning, both had Public Works saying that in public. Fixed investment is stuck at 13.75% of GDP against a 30% target; R206 billion of the pipeline is still in documentation; projects are still being announced before feasibility, land, and funding are resolved. The work now is getting projects into procurement, including at municipalities that already function but cannot package an investment. That is already the parliamentary debate. The Infrastructure Delivery Management System, mandated since 2015, is still only proposed as a compulsory professional project-management rule, adopted by fewer than 40% of departments, last in committee on 5 August.