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The Free State government is currently conducting an intensive performance review of its infrastructure and Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) which kicked-off on Wednesday, 18 February 2026, in Bloemfontein.
The Free State Treasury and sector departments convened to receive updates from provincial departments on the performance of infrastructure, conditional grants, and the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) for the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year. The review meeting took place at Tsebo Building in Bloemfontein.
Key aspects of the Free State performance reviews included:
Infrastructure management:
Seeks to address issues related to unfinished projects, vandalism and to tighten security measures, contractors with a bad reputation for not completing projects, lack of business plans and recovery plans.
EPWP:
The provincial EPWP programme has reportedly successfully registered 46000 participants to date, slightly below the set target of 50000 participants.
According to the EPWP champion, the province is performing exceptionally well. Both departments and municipalities are now effectively managing and submitting reports in a timely manner.
On day 2:
Conditional Grant and Infrastructure Performance Review engagements for the third quarter of 2025 to 2026 Financial Year. The purpose of the engagements is to assess the quarter performance of conditional grants and infrastructure against the value created and to foster compliance as well as accurate reporting by all departments.
Once more, the performance review is necessitated by the expenditure trends, progress on active projects, progress made against infrastructure Annual Performance plan targets and compliance with the legislation.
The infrastructure performance review seeks to address issues related to unfinished projects and vandalism in government properties and to tighten security measures. These reviews focus on moving beyond merely treating expenditure to assessing the realized value for money addressing bottlenecks in project implementation and aligning grant spending with long term development plans.
In conclusion the objectives of these engagements include:
Ensuring Compliance and Accountability
-Improving spending efficiency
-Enhancing project performance
-Strategic alignment and integration
-Rationalization and Reforms
-Supporting Service Delivery
