Cosatu demands those misusing taxpayers' money be held accountable

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"It is outrageous and unacceptable that at a time when the economy is on its knees and the tax revenue is shrinking, so much money cannot be accounted for," said spokesman Sizwe Pamla.

He was referring to the R45.6bn the Auditor-General announced was lost to irregular expenditure in the last financial year. "What makes things worse is that the Auditor-General has warned that this figure is still likely to go up because other departments and state-owned enterprises are still being audited," he said.

If the report was anything to go by, it was highly unlikely that wrongdoers would be punished as government departments and entities were, at times, turning a blind eye to allegations of financial and supply chain mismanagement and fraud, Pamla noted.

While the required mechanism to report the illegalities exists, these tend to be ineffective, the Auditor-General said. "Our audits showed that only 43 auditees (13%) did not have all the required mechanisms for reporting and investigating transgressions or possible fraud, which included a lack of policies for investigation (20 auditees) and poor record keeping (26 auditees). Although 87% had the required mechanisms, these had not necessarily been successfully implemented."

Some 33% of all the reported incidents of fraud and mismanagement took longer than three months to investigate; 32% of all reported incidents were never investigated, according to the Auditor-General.