Des van Rooyen’s Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs bled almost R500m in irregular expenditure as the cash-strapped South African Post Office received a qualified audit in the 2015-16 financial year.
Government departments and their entities incurred billions in irregular expenditure and lost millions to fruitless and wasteful spending at a time when the state has called for belt-tightening.
Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu conceded to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday his office was encountering increasing hostility from government departments and entities that hindered his work. Van Rooyen’s department had been given an unqualified audit with findings and the Post Office received a qualified audit with findings in 2015-16, he said.
The department incurred R482m in irregular expenditure. The Post Office incurred R127.1m in irregular expenditure and R7m in fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the 2015-16 financial year. The entity was the subject of a damning public protector report over widespread supply chain weaknesses.
The Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), Airports Company SA and the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation received unqualified audits. But Prasa incurred R13.9bn in irregular expenditure and bled R255.32m in wasteful expenditure. Overall, national departments and state entities incurred R183bn in irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The state also lost R25bn in 2015-16, for which it cannot account.
Makwetu said threats of legal action were becoming commonplace among departments and entities that wanted to contest audit outcomes. "It would be unhealthy for an audit to persist in an environment where it will be contested," Makwetu said.
"Some of the contestations … were without substance. It makes for a very unpleasant environment to do an auditing exercise within. Many of those in the yellow and in the red find themselves having spent irregularly," Makwetu said.
The Treasury is mediating between Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and Makwetu’s office after she contested his findings against her department. This delayed her department tabling its annual report. It is in the company of the departments of transport, home affairs and public works, as well as South African Express.
"Scared people get pushed around and given all types of flamboyant reasons for things that shouldn’t happen. But we have determined people who do not back down when something is smelly," Makwetu said.
Scopa chairman Themba Godi said: "It is unprecedented that four departments and a handful of entities missed their deadlines. In the past we would have one department which missed the deadline because we knew it was in trouble."
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