Slow progress in Limpopo finance probes‚ NCOP hears

National government took over the administration of five provincial departments in December 2011 when Limpopo was burdened with a huge bank overdraft and was not able to pay its debts. It subsequently emerged that the financial management of provincial affairs was chaotic.

More than 20 months later investigations of malpractice‚ fraud and corruption are still under way‚ the National Council of Provinces select committee on finance was told. Only 13 disciplinary cases involving the non-disclosure of business interests had been completed by provincial departments.

Democratic Alliance committee member Alf Lees described the outcome of all the investigations after such a long time as "farcical".

African National Congress member Buoang Mashile said he was "seriously disappointed" by the slow progress made in turning the province around. The failure to take disciplinary action meant that officials who had question marks hanging over them were still working for the Limpopo government and possibly compromising its delivery of services.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is investigating 18 procurement contracts involving more than R1bn‚ of which R986m related to procurement irregularities in the health department‚ R61m in public works and R15m in education. Two matters have been referred to the National Prosecuting Authority for prosecution to far‚ the committee heard.

Obstacles encountered

A number of obstacles to investigations were highlighted by the SIU‚ namely the lack of co-operation by forensic firms that were in possession of crucial information; the unavailability of documents; a lack of capacity; a lack of co-operation by all the agencies involved in the investigations; and the non-payment of invoices.

Independent consultant Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi - the former chairwoman of the National Consumer Commission who is assisting the Department of Public Service and Administration with the process of cleaning up Limpopo - stressed the need for disciplinary processes to speed up as officials were leaving government service.

In a briefing to the committee she said that once this occurred‚ disciplinary action was no longer possible. Mohlala-Mulaudzi said the SIU planned to hasten its investigations and hoped the matters could be finalised within the next two months.

A total of 303 cases were referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and forensic firms for investigation.

Of these the SIU had referred 41 cases to the Department of Public Service and Administration for disciplinary action and forensic firms had referred 47 cases (in the latter instance only in June this year).

The breakdown per department of these cases was: health 26‚ education 21‚ public works 13‚ treasury 16‚ and co-operative governance‚ human settlements and traditional affairs 12.

Mohlala-Mulaudzi said the Department of Public Service and Administration had concluded 18 of these cases - 11 in the health department and seven in the provincial treasury. Two heads of department had received precautionary suspension letters and had been charged by the premier of Limpopo‚ and 42 other senior and middle managers had also been charged.

She said that 41 of these cases related to remunerative work outside the public service and 47 involved fraud and corruption. The SIU said that a further 48 disciplinary cases still had to be referred to the department.

It had investigated 216 cases of non-disclosure of business interests by provincial officials. Of these 114 cases had been closed.