State wastes, misspends R62bn

The big-spending provincial departments of health are among the worst culprits. (Image Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

This was revealed in Auditor General Kimi Makwetu's consolidated report for the 2013-2014 financial year, which he tabled in parliament this week.

Criminals

The report shows that 72% of government departments and public entities were ignoring or not complying with laws that govern the spending of taxpayers' money, such as the Public Finance Management Act.

Makwetu said it was worrying that 309 national and provincial government departments and entities were responsible for R62.7bn in irregular expenditure, which meant, he said, there had been deliberate flouting of the law for what could be sinister reasons.

He said 47% of the irregular expenditure, or R29bn, had been incurred in previous years but was uncovered only this year.

The auditor-general said it was worrying that the culprits were the big-spending provincial departments of health, education, and roads and public works, which were at the coalface of service delivery.

Offenders need to be punished

Makwetu fingered Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Eastern Cape as the biggest offenders, responsible between them for irregular expenditure of more than R10bn.

The embattled department of Transport and its National Roads Agency accounted for more than R3bn in irregular spending.

The irregular expenditure related to the procurement of goods and services without competitive bidding and the flouting of other procurement processes.

Makwetu said the government needed to recruit skilled and qualified financial managers.

He called for ministers and directors-general to punish those who had broken the rules.

ANC MP Cedric Frolic, the chair of committees in the National Assembly, said parliament's oversight committee must start to ensure that offending public servants were held to account for their actions, and should be subjected to public shaming.

"Who are these people who are responsible for this, and unless we start naming them ... you find that a certain official who's messed up in a certain department, as soon as action is taken they disappear, only to surface later in another department where the same offence would be committed."

Only 119 departments and public entities received clean audits in the past financial year.

Most departments and entities submitted financial statements that had to be materially corrected during the audit cycle.

Source: The Times, via I-Net Bridge