The charges levelled against police commissioner Fannie Masemola for allegedly flouting the Public Finance Management Act have elicited much public comment.
Masemola’s guilt or innocence will be ventilated in court — and it goes without saying that it is premature to pass judgment at this stage.
What has been troubling in the ensuing brouhaha is the attempt to minimise the breaching of PFMA prescripts to a non-event.
This is the attitude of a nation that has set the accountability bar low for public officials in charge of the national purse.
People appointed to roles of accounting officers must be of unimpeachable integrity. And in this endeavour, there must be no holy cows.
Good stewardship of public resources must be a non-negotiable prerequisite, and failure must not be downgraded to mere failure of proper oversight.
Taxpayers deserve better.
The mass looting during Covid-19 underscores the levels of perversion that public officials can stoop to when entrusted with public resources.
Most of the ills in public procurement are the flagrant disregard of the PFMA. Breaching the PFMA prescripts is not a victimless offence.
More often than not, money that was meant to build houses for the poor, clinics and hospitals and ensure safe streets often ends up in the pockets of the corrupt — men and women driven by unfathomable greed.
It seems like a lifetime ago that Maria Ramos, then the National Treasury’s director-general, ushered in the PFMA to modernise financial management and enhance accountability.
The ideals of the act were — and continue to be — noble for a country still grappling with reforming the public sector to enable it to meet the needs of the people and the objectives of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).
Most of the ills in public procurement are the flagrant disregard of the PFMA. Breaching the PFMA prescripts is not a victimless offence.
Given the enormous demand for services and the limited resources available to satisfy that demand, all available resources must be used as effectively and efficiently as possible.
The elusive ideal of a “better life for all” very much depends on good stewardship of public finances, an area the government has failed dismally in over the past two decades.
The state spends about R1-trillion a year procuring goods and services. This gives rogue elements in all three spheres of government R1-trillion reasons to loot taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
And South Africa is not short of men and women of low moral capacity, whose thirst for public resources knows no bounds.
The Constitutional Court has consistently affirmed that compliance with the PFMA is not optional but rather a constitutional imperative rooted in sections 215, 216, and 217 of the constitution, which demand transparency, accountability and sound financial management in all spheres of government.
To maintain the integrity of the PFMA, law enforcement must not shy away from charging accounting officers found to have turned a blind eye to graft — even if they are not direct beneficiaries of it.
Charging a sitting national police commissioner with breaching the PFMA is a good start. However, this must be applied consistently and ruthlessly within the ranks of government.
The auditor-general, in her latest consolidated national government and provincial government report, calls out the poor quality of spending that is not receiving the urgent attention it requires.
“With the limited funds available, wastage should not be tolerated, and any opportunity to recover money lost should be prioritised. High levels of non-compliance with legislation continue with little consequence,” the report reads.
We would do well as a nation to heed this warning and be intolerant to either acts of incompetence or flagrant abuse of the PFMA.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.