HIGHLIGHTS
	National Budget Speech 2008: Finance Minister for South Africa State of the Province Address 2008: Premier of the Western Cape Western Cape Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2009-2012 and Adjusted Estimates of Provincial Expenditure 2008 Speech Western Cape Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2009-2012 Western Cape Adjusted Estimates of Provincial Expenditure 2008 Western Cape Adjusted Estimates of Provincial Expenditure 2008: Local Government Allocations
	IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS
	Annual Reports 2004/2005 Western Cape Appropriation Bill 2008/2009 Western Cape Public Entities Provincial Annual Performance and Strategic Plans Latest Treasury Newsletter Perceptions of Government Performance and Service Delivery: A Population Survey of the Western Cape Department Budget Speeches
	LINKS
	Western Cape Provincial Parliament (WCPP) Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) Western Cape Language Commission Western Cape Heritage Committee Western Cape Cultural Commission Wesgro CapeNature Provincial Development Council (PDC) Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board Western Cape Liquor Board (WCLB) Casidra

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The Provincial Treasury manages the purse strings of the Western Cape province. It is responsible for ensuring efficacy in financial, budgeting and supply chain management and must provide financial and resource management policy advice to support government in delivery of its policy outcomes and in proposing a balanced set of choices in resource use, contributing towards improving the living standards of and quality of services required by citizens of the Western Cape Province.

Find out more about the work of the Department:

• Introduction
• iKapa elihlumayo
• Historical background
• Strategic objectives/functions

The Provincial Treasury, through its mandate in terms of the Public Finance Management Act and related legislation, assists the Minister/Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to develop and broaden the economic base of the Province.

It does this by

• improving synergy, equity and efficiency in service delivery
• reducing economic and social inequalities
• creating employment through incentives
• redirecting resources and opportunities to those who needs them most.

The success of these endeavours will result in meeting the Western Cape Government's defining objectives of providing hope, service delivery and dignity to all and to give reality to the concept iKapa elihlumayo - the growing Cape.

iKapa elihlumayo is Western Cape Province's strategy for addressing the needs of the people. Its priority is to increase support to the poor, while at the same time ensuring that a larger number of people can gain income through paid employment.

The goals of iKapa elihlumayo are to reduce unemployment, poverty and income inequality by stimulating economic growth and participation in the province. Greater provincial spending on skills development and investment in large infrastructure projects will be used to attract private investment and stimulate the economy. The Province will balance this long-term strategy by increased support of the poor through the payment of grants and improved delivery of social services.

South Africa's first democratic election in 1994 resulted in a new political dispensation with nine new Provinces. But there were no provincial structures in place to bring about the necessary transformation. We had to create a Province, and a key part of this was the creation of a working Treasury - so the Western Cape Provincial Treasury was born on 1 April 1995 as part of the new Finance and Corporate Services Department. It was also charged with ensuring that similar governance structures came about in the Northern and Eastern Cape Provinces.

The running of the provincial government depends heavily on the proper functioning of the Provincial Treasury. To ensure that the Western Cape was operating efficiently and effectively, the Department embarked upon a process of restructuring to synchronise its structure with the National Treasury.

The restructuring process required policy objectives and strategic objectives to be identified and brought into operation. This was done by creating specialised components, such as Public Finance and Accounting, Asset Management, Human Resource Management and Resource Management.

This process was finalised during the first half of 2003 and included phases of:

• preparing and initial implementation of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA)
• decentralising financial management
• preparing the Province for dealing with real delivery and intra-provincial equity
• building the Provincial Treasury to fulfil its role as an independent and professional department
• full implementation of the Public Finance Management Act.

The current approved organisational structure should cater better for the Treasury's strategic goals and will help it to address the socio-economic challenges of the Province with the other departments, municipalities and other stakeholders.

The Treasury's (strategic) objectives are:

• To develop, implement and enforce financial norms and standards.
• To ensure effective internal and external communication on financial matters.
• To perform IT audits and conduct internal audits on a risk-analysis basis.
• To determine and evaluate economic parameters and socio-economic imperatives within a provincial and macro-economic context.
• To perfect the utilization of provincial resources, conforming to the nominal (basic) and substantive requirements of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999.
• To enable financing of provincial obligations and ensure optimal allocation of resources to improve adverse socio-economic conditions in the Province and, though the intergovernmental fiscal system, to actively contribute to the same ideals at the national sphere.
• To ensure financial transaction processing and reporting that will fully reflect the financial position and performance of the Provincial Government.