Money wasted - but how much?

It's difficult to know exactly how much taxpayers' money has been wasted in the past year because media reports all vary wildly on the subject. News24, for example, says that Auditor-General Terence Nombembe has unearthed R25bn in wasteful expenditure in national and provincial government departments for the 2010/11 financial year.

However, IOL says that R20bn was wasted while Business Day says that the unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure grew from R3,9bn in 2009/10 to R4,5bn in 2010/11.

One thing is certain, though: a lot of money is being wasted every year by government and provincial departments and by state-owned enterprises.

Business Day quotes Nombembe as saying that only three national government departments and 88 public entities received clean audits last year. The Department of Public Works was the most shambolic and its financial reporting was so poor that it was impossible for the Auditor-General to form an audit opinion.

News24 says the "exact figure" of R25,44bn includes spending in public entities such as Eskom and the South African National Roads Agency Limited. Nombembe says that government officials failed to record the correct amount spent during the year.

IOL says that the departments of Defence and Justice and Constitutional Development were the biggest culprits in terms of irregular expenditure with figures of R799,3m and R420m respectively.

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