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Parly’s dodgy expenses worry auditor

Parliament has received a clean bill of financial health from Auditor-General Terence Nombembe, but his report for 2010/11 raises concerns about irregular expenditure, supply chain management failures and the practice of splitting purchase orders to avoid putting these to tender. After expressing an unqualified opinion on the institution’s books, he drew attention to several “matters of emphasis”, including the more than R12 million in Travelgate money that had been written off as “irrecoverable” debt. Despite numerous undertakings to do so, Parliament failed to pursue the money owed by MPs, instead announcing last month that debts of about R12m would be written off, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. Nombembe also noted that “goods and services were not procured by means of a competitive bidding process… primarily due to orders being split to avoid the tender process”.

He found goods and services had also been procured in contravention of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act. “The non-compliance has resulted in irregular expenditure of R10m.” In its financial statements, Parliament said an investigation was under way to determine how the figure for irregular expenditure had jumped almost tenfold from R1.9m last year to R10.1m this year. The institution managed to clear its books of unauthorised expenditure this year, but reported fruitless and wasteful spending of R1m. This included R170 000 in “cancellation fees” – for the late cancellation of hotel and travel bookings – R187 000 in interest charges on late payments for internet services, and R116 000 in “fees for courses that did not meet expectations”. This waste was being investigated, according to Parliament’s financials.

With a 2011 budget of about R1.5 billion, Parliament spent R419m on staff salaries and R7m on performance bonuses. The salary bill for MPs was R376m; R209m went towards “constituency allowances”, which parties use to establish and maintain constituency offices. Parliament’s four top officers – the National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker and National Council of Provinces chairman and deputy chairperson – together took home R7.2m in salary, allowances, and benefits. “General expenses” of R463m accounted for the lion’s share of other costs, including advertising spending that almost tripled from R8.1m in 2009/10 to R22.3m. Parliament spent R25m on “communication”, R66m on “consultants, contractors and special services” and a whopping R234m on travel and subsistence, up from R193m.

Source: iol.co.za

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Parly’s dodgy expenses worry auditor

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