THE Eastern Cape government awarded contracts worth more than R113-million to its own officials and their relatives in 2011-12.
Further, it cannot account for 213 contracts worth over R850- million. This was revealed by national auditor-general (AG) Terence Nombembe as he presented audit reports on departments and state entities on Tuesday.
The province has 27 entities that are audited – 15 departments including the provincial legislature and the provincial revenue fund, and 12 public entities.
Nombembe said that based on the previous year’s commitments he had expected a move towards clean administration in the Eastern Cape, but instead departments had regressed, and very little progress had been made in strengthening internal controls.
“D espite a number of interventions by the AG, auditees do not address the root causes when attending to audit findings but rather address symptoms at a reporting level ,” he said .
Nombembe said the provincial treasury was ineffective in implementing the budget, and in promoting and enforcing transparent and effective management of revenue, expenditure, assets and liabilities.
“Pro cedures are in place to get information from the departments to enable monitoring, but this information is not credible or complete. In most cases, the compilation of information and interim financial statements by departments and entities results in malicious compliance and inaccurate reporting. As a result, the information sent to the executive leadership, on which decisions are based, is not credible and could result in inappropriate decisions being taken.
“With only one improvement and three regressions, it is evident that the commitments made by the provincial leadership during the 2010-11 roadshow of the AG had not been fulfilled.”
Nombembe said the root causes included lack of professionalism and lack of knowledge of – or deliberate non-compliance with – legislation. He also blamed lack of political will, strained relationships and ineffective legislature portfolio committees.
The 213 contracts – 77 from education, 78 from health and 58 from roads and public works departments, with a combined value of R851-million – could not be accounted for as documentation could not be provided
Another 211 tenders amounting to more than R26-million were awarded to government employees, with more than R19-million of that raked in by 37 roads and public works employees.
More than 290 tenders worth a combined R30-million and 304 contracts also worth more than R30-million, were awarded to officials and suppliers who did not declare their interests, as required by legislation.
A further 18 contracts valued at R19-million were cited as remuneration to employees for work that was never approved.
“This blatant disregard of the supply chain management legislative framework has an impact on all spheres of service delivery in the province,” Nombembe warned.
He said only 117 of the 536 government institutions (22%) he had evaluated across the entire country had achieved clean audits, none of them in the Eastern Cape.
The province blew R2.5-billion in irregular expenditure, R306- million in unauthorised expenditure and R158-million in wasteful expenditure . —
Another abysmal EC audit
Further, it cannot account for 213 contracts worth over R850- million. This was revealed by national auditor-general (AG) Terence Nombembe as he presented audit reports on departments and state entities on Tuesday.
The province has 27 entities that are audited – 15 departments including the provincial legislature and the provincial revenue fund, and 12 public entities.
Nombembe said that based on the previous year’s commitments he had expected a move towards clean administration in the Eastern Cape, but instead departments had regressed, and very little progress had been made in strengthening internal controls.
“D espite a number of interventions by the AG, auditees do not address the root causes when attending to audit findings but rather address symptoms at a reporting level ,” he said .
Nombembe said the provincial treasury was ineffective in implementing the budget, and in promoting and enforcing transparent and effective management of revenue, expenditure, assets and liabilities.
“Pro cedures are in place to get information from the departments to enable monitoring, but this information is not credible or complete. In most cases, the compilation of information and interim financial statements by departments and entities results in malicious compliance and inaccurate reporting. As a result, the information sent to the executive leadership, on which decisions are based, is not credible and could result in inappropriate decisions being taken.
“With only one improvement and three regressions, it is evident that the commitments made by the provincial leadership during the 2010-11 roadshow of the AG had not been fulfilled.”
Nombembe said the root causes included lack of professionalism and lack of knowledge of – or deliberate non-compliance with – legislation. He also blamed lack of political will, strained relationships and ineffective legislature portfolio committees.
The 213 contracts – 77 from education, 78 from health and 58 from roads and public works departments, with a combined value of R851-million – could not be accounted for as documentation could not be provided
Another 211 tenders amounting to more than R26-million were awarded to government employees, with more than R19-million of that raked in by 37 roads and public works employees.
More than 290 tenders worth a combined R30-million and 304 contracts also worth more than R30-million, were awarded to officials and suppliers who did not declare their interests, as required by legislation.
A further 18 contracts valued at R19-million were cited as remuneration to employees for work that was never approved.
“This blatant disregard of the supply chain management legislative framework has an impact on all spheres of service delivery in the province,” Nombembe warned.
He said only 117 of the 536 government institutions (22%) he had evaluated across the entire country had achieved clean audits, none of them in the Eastern Cape.
The province blew R2.5-billion in irregular expenditure, R306- million in unauthorised expenditure and R158-million in wasteful expenditure . —
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