The Impact Of Underspending And Overspending On Service Delivery

The Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education consumes a huge chunk of the Eastern Cape Provincial Budget and consequently any misspending has an impact on the Provincial Budget. The Eastern Cape Province is one of the rural provinces and has huge service delivery backlogs. The Auditor-General has over the years given opinions, which indicated that there are no proper controls in the finance management of the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape. This study presents a case study of the Eastern Cape Department of Education in the financial year 2008/2009, to highlight the impact of both under- and over-expenditure in service delivery in the public sector. At the end of the study, scientific solutions are recommended, which the researcher believes can serve as a blue print to assist, not only the department under study, but also the public sector as a whole.