The National Treasury has started to quantify the savings it is expecting from its Targeted and Responsible Savings (TARS) initiative, which seeks to identify low-priority or underperforming programmes for possible closure, as well as to weed out ghost workers.

The approach seeks to move away from the across-the-board cuts to budgets that have been implemented in previous Budget cycles, and which the National Treasury acknowledges eroded services and financial management.

“Changes are being implemented in phases, with savings of R6.7-billion included in the 2026 Medium-Term Budget Expenditure Framework.

“This includes savings realised from eliminating misrepresentation in social grants by using tighter income verification processes, and phasing out the public transport network grant - which has not met its objectives - and replacing it with better-targeted support.”

Director-general Duncan Pieterse indicated that about R3-billion of the figure related to social-grant fraud and that more details would be presented in the Budget.

A standardised matrix had been introduced to enable departments to identify low-priority or underperforming programmes for review and rationalisation.

The National Treasury also highlighted the following additional measures being undertaken in the Budget reform process:

Implementing the recommendations of the Department of Public Service and Administration's personnel expenditure review;

Reviewing the sector education and training authorities;

Assessing incentives managed by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition;

Reviewing several local government conditional grants to address inefficiencies in infrastructure service delivery; and

Reducing administration costs, including through expanding the use of transversal contracts - bulk-buying arrangements negotiated by the National Treasury to reduce costs - in high-value areas.

“Over the next three years, government will work to phase out and scale down low-priority and underperforming programmes, and improve efficiencies in operations across departments and provinces, while directing most expenditure towards the social wage.”

Work on weeding out ghost workers was also proceeding under TARS, with some 8 845 cases having been flagged, including individuals receiving payments from multiple departments and payment to inactive employees.

Pieterse said it was premature to provide a value for the losses associated with ghost workers as the cases were still under investigation.