by Kingsol Chabalala MPL – DA Gauteng Team 1 Spokesperson on Corruptio
The failing ANC-led Gauteng administration is not serious about improving financial management and adhering to the Supply Chain Management (SCM) requirements in the province.
The Auditor-General this week released his general report on the national and provincial audit outcomes for the 2017/2018 financial year which showed that Gauteng only achieved a 52% clean audit rate.
This is exactly the same as last year.
Irregular expenditure remains high at R6,4 billion of which R4,9 billion related to non-compliance with SCM requirements.
This clearly means that Gauteng departments are failing to abide by SCM requirements.
Of the R4,9 billion in irregular expenditure related to SCM, R2, 1 billion was due to the extension of the bus subsidy legacy contracts at the Department of Roads and Transport.
While R2 billion in irregular expenditure by the Department of Health and Education was due to multi-year non-compliant contracts awarded in the previous years.
This indicates that there is serious financial mismanagement in our provincial departments.
The Gauteng provincial departments still do not have a proper supply chain management rotation system in place.
The DA calls on the Gauteng Province to implement the supply chain management rotation system to ensure that suppliers on the database are fair and equal access to work.
The current SCM system in place is still open to human manipulation and there is a need to strengthen the oversight and monitoring system to ensure that the departments abide by the SCM policies.
Where the DA governs in the Western Cape, we have achieved an 83% clean audit rate, while the failing ANC-led Gauteng achieved a 52% clean audit rate – a 31 % difference between the two provinces.
This clearly indicates that the DA is committed to adhering to SCM requirements, to ensure that there is transparency, accountability and honesty in terms of the handling of public funds.
It is clear that the DA is the only party that can bring real change to Gauteng by building One South Africa for All, where the people’s money is invested into bettering the lives of the people.