MTBPS: Treasury saves R6.7 billion through TARS initiative

National Treasury has managed to save R6.7 billion through its targeted and responsible savings (TARS) initiative, introduced by the finance minister this year.

The TARS initiative has recommended that several government programmes be scrapped immediately, phased out over a short period or subjected to further scrutiny.

Government has also launched a process to remove ghost workers from the payroll, with more than 8,000 cases identified for receiving multiple payments from more than one department.

FULL SPEECH | 2025 Medium-term budget policy statement

The TARS initiative identified low-hanging fruit or underperforming programmes for reduction or closure, as Treasury tries to minimise waste.

These savings will be rechanneled within various sectors, according to the finance department.

Treasury said that the measures were intended to protect frontline services while creating space to increase spendingon the government’s priorities including infrastructure.

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Minister Enoch Godongwana said that the initiative would also address social grant fraud.

"The TARS initiative systematically identifies duplication, eliminates waste and reorganises programmes to deliver value for money. We are implementing medium-term savings of R6.7 billion by closing or scaling down low-priority and underperforming programmes immediately. More than half of this involves identifying people who are double-dipping and defrauding the social grants system."

Godongwana said they were also scaling down the public transport network grant, after some cities failed to get their integrated public transport systems off the ground.

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