The auditor-general will conduct real-time audits of the expenditure of emergency flood relief funds to ensure they are used for their intended purposes, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in parliament on Tuesday.
“This will provide independent assurance of whether public funds have been appropriately accounted for and were used for their intended purposes. These audits aim to prevent, detect and report on the findings to ensure an immediate response to prevent leakage, potential fraud as well as wastage.
“They will equip accounting officers and accounting authorities to act quickly on weaknesses in controls and prevent further losses. They will also enable immediate oversight as well as consequence management,” Ramaphosa said in a joint sitting of the National Assembly (NA) and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on the catastrophic floods that caused major destruction and loss of life — mainly in KwaZulu-Natal but also in the Eastern Cape and North West — which have been declared a state of national disaster.
The real-time audits is just one of several measures that being taken to strengthen oversight and accountability and ensure that disaster funds are spent effectively.
Ramaphosa noted that it was a source of great shame that the most burning public debate after the floods was about fears that the resources allocated to deal with the disaster would be misappropriated or wasted.
“This shows us just how tired the people of SA have become of corruption. It is a stern reminder to all of government and businesses providing goods and services that the people of SA will not stand for acts of self-enrichment,” the president said to applause by MPs.
He said the Treasury was tightening reporting requirements for expenditure on disaster relief. To improve monitoring and to ensure greater transparency, the details of all disaster-related procurement by public institutions will be published on the Treasury website to allow public scrutiny.
Substantial funding
Ramaphosa said substantial funding would need to be mobilised to address the flood damage within a “severely constrained” fiscal environment and at a time when SA was just recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and the July looting and civil unrest.
“Some of the funding needed to refund to this disaster is available in existing budgets of departments, provinces, municipalities and our public entities. The Treasury is providing guidance to the relevant institutions on how they may reprioritise resources in their budgets, how they can access disaster-response grants and the requirements for the reallocation of conditional grant funds.
“Another source of funding is the contingency reserve for 2022/2023, which can be used for the repair and rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and other disaster recovery,” Ramaphosa said, but pointed out that that would only become available when the 2022 Appropriation Act was enacted.
The Treasury was also assessing what additional funding was required to respond to the disaster. “It is clear that more money will be needed to deal with the reconstruction and rebuilding work that we must undertake.”
If widespread access to clean water is not resolved urgently [in KwaZulu-Natal], we will soon see the outbreak of a second disaster in the form of deadly diseases.
— DA leader John Steenhuisen
MPs from a number of opposition parties raised concerns about corruption and welcomed the use of real-time audits. FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald noted that Ramaphosa had promised to ensure corruption-free procurement ahead of expenditure on the Covid-19 pandemic, but corruption had taken place. He said the “incompetent” ANC government would not be able to prevent corruption.
KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala's speech began with his justification over the water tanker outside his home, which he insisted was for use by the community. He then outlined what was being done to address the damage and gave the undertaking that the provincial expenditure would be corruption-free and that all contracts were pre-audited.
DA leader John Steenhuisen criticised national and provincial government and the eThekwini city council for failing to address the needs of those affected by the floods.
He also emphasised the need for water to be provided. “It’s been over two weeks since the flood, and many communities are still without water and electricity. In many areas there is still no sign of water tankers, which could’ve easily been brought in from other provinces. If widespread access to clean water is not resolved urgently, we will soon see the outbreak of a second disaster in the form of deadly diseases. The urgency of restoring these services — and particularly clean water — cannot be overstated,” he said.
In his reply to the debate, Ramaphosa was emphatic that work was being done and that water was being restored to areas that needed it. He also said a multi-stakeholder oversight mechanism would be established to increase transparency and accountability.
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