Page 97 - DSD ANNUAL REPORT 2022-2

CONDITIONAL GRANTS PART B: PERFORMANCE INFORMATION 34
4. Early Childhood Development Conditional Grant: KwaZulu-Natal DSD

Department/ Municipality KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Social Development
to whom the grant has been
transferred
Purpose of the grant • To increase the number of poor children accessing subsidised ECD services through centre and non-
centre based programmes.
• To support ECD providers delivering an ECD programme to meet basic health and safety requirements
for registration.
• To pilot the construction of new low cost ECD centres.
Expected outputs of the grant The grant has two components with detailed outputs, conditions and responsibilities for each compo-
nent specified in separate frameworks.
Outputs reflected in the respective frameworks for the following two grant components outline the
number of:
Subsidy

• Eligible children subsidised, as agreed in the service level agreement (SLA).
• Children attending ECD services in fully registered centres.
• Attending ECD services in conditionally registered centres.
• Subsidised from the grant in fully registered centres.
• Subsidised from the grant in conditionally registered centres.
• Days subsidised for centre based programmes.
• Children subsidised through provincial own revenue including equitable share that are prof the
top-up grant.
• Equitable share children benefiting from the top-up grant.
• ECD Practitioners and other staff employed in registered ECD centres benefitting from the grant.
Infrastructure
• ECD centres assessed for infrastructure support and health and safety standards.
• ECD centres whose registrations status improved as a result of the infrastructure component.
• Low cost ECE centres constructed.
Actual outputs achieved Subsidy
• 1 416 ECD centres with 46 475 children benefitted from the ECD Conditional Grant subsidy for the
2021/22 Financial year.

Infrastructure
• At the time of assessment, the Department was able to assess 66 ECD centres and submitted to
national DSD on the 30 September 2021.
• 27 ECD maintenance projects to be completed by no later than 31 May 2022.
• Three (03) low cost ECDs are at construction stage and anticipated to be completed by 29 July 2022.
Amount per amended DORA R265,276
Amount transferred (R’000) R265,276
Reasons if amount as per DORA N/A
not transferred
Amount spent by the depart- R268 038 (Inclusive of expenditure against funds rolled over from the 2020/21 financial year)
ment/ municipality (R’000)
Reasons for the funds unspent The reasons for unspent funds per grant component are as follows:
by the entity Subsidy
• The largest contributing factor was caused by ECD Centres not being operational anymore and bank
accounts closed. As a result, funds bounced back to the Department once paid.
• As a result of allegations of the mismanagement of funds at some of the ECD centres, and current
investigations currently taking place, these ECD Centres were not paid for all the quarters of the
financial year.
• Delayed processes resulting in the late payment of the grant in respect of the approved applications.
Infrastructure
• Under expenditure was due to limitations due to the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in delays in
the procurement of working tools for staff supporting the implementation of ECD Conditional Grant;
• Maintenance projects hindered as a result in procurement processes by implementing agent.
Monitoring mechanism by the The department uses monthly, quarterly and in-year monitoring reports to monitor progress.
transferring Department

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ANNUAL REPORT 2021/22 97