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Parliament on irregular expenditure warpath

Parliament’s finance watchdog, the standing committee on public accounts, has warned that billions of rands that have been lost in irregular and wasteful expenditure because departments did not follow proper tender procedures. The committee said this was unacceptable and Scopa would get to the bottom of it. The auditor-general will on Wednesday give a briefing on several departments which have incurred irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the 2015/16 financial year. The Department of Water and Sanitation tops the list with a total of R2.4 billion in irregular expenditure. It is a cumulative figure from R782 million in irregular expenditure in the last financial year. Next on the list is Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, with irregular expenditure of more than R1bn.

Other departments incurred irregular expenditure of between R2m and R494m. Scopa chairman Themba Godi said it would not accept such irregular expenditure from departments. There must be justifiable reasons for departments to incur irregular expenditure, he said, adding that they were concerned that in some instances this was not the case. “Our concern about irregular expenditure is that it is expenditure incurred without following tender procedures,” said Godi. “Whilst we can accept instances of emergencies, we cannot accept there are amounts of R100m, R1bn and so on incurred in one financial year,” he said. “We will monitor this because it is becoming a trend,” he said. There was leadership required at all levels. He said it appeared managers were unable to rein in officials in procurement processes.

Scopa has been complaining for years about lack of action against officials who flout the rules and regulations of supply chain management. “We need a sense of urgency and outrage when public finances are not managed prudently,” he said. Every year it was more of the same with public funds not being properly used. The AG will give a full picture of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in government when he presents his report to Scopa on Wednesday.

Source: www.iol.co.za

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Parliament on irregular expenditure warpath

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