Daily Dispatch

Counting the costs of graft

BEHIND so many news articles over the past year lies a story of a massive failure in governance, public administration and public service.

Tiny school pupils forced to learn on the floor or under trees, the tragic and unnecessary deaths of the uncared and uncatered for – the mentally and physically disabled, the aged and children.

One reads of places like Mnquma, where millions of rands are forked out for a testing station that was never built and for vital road maintenance that never took place.

Or there is the story of a tender for an essential water and sanitation project in Mdantsane left incomplete after ballooning to more than double the tendered price.

There is the egg and spoon race for which the state was billed R250 000, the cable ties and plastic black rubbish bags sold to the state at hilariously inflated prices and R330 000 spent on a Christmas tree.

There is a municipality which reportedly spent R1.3-million on protective clothing for workers – but closer inspection exposed the protective clothing to include nine fashionable Timberland jackets at a cost of over R3 000 each and 24 pairs of Caterpillar boots at R2 090 a pair.

These are usually the same places where municipal water is not available in taps, where rubbish is not collected, where Eskom has not been paid for electricity provision and where the roads are so potholed people need a 4x4 to traverse them.

In places like these there is not even a pretence of spending money legitimately.

There is no sophistication to the crookery whatsoever and the Auditor-General does not have to dig deep to expose the horror taking place.

And while the failures continue, there are few consequences for any of the politically connected crooks involved.

The degree of maladministration, fraud and corruption is staggering.

The Hawks have been investigating three municipalities, including Mnquma, for gross irregularities and overt flouting of the laws governing procurement.

Whether or not any individuals are successfully prosecuted is yet to be seen.

Ironically, as the administration expands, the level of public service and productivity declines. The bloating of our public service has been described by some as monstrous.

It starts at the most senior level of our executive branch of government and stretches down to the tiniest parastatals and municipalities.

One thinks back fondly to the mere 28 ministers in power at the end of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency in 2008. It has since ballooned to over 72 ministers and deputies under President Jacob Zuma today.

Economists Adèle Breytenbach and Jannie Rossouw found that our civil service bill grew by a staggering 145.6% between 2005 and 2012.

The wage bill and accompanying corruption and maladministration are crowding out other public sector spending priorities. This has consequences. The cost is not just in the children who never get an education, the youth who never get jobs or the vulnerable lives carelessly lost.

It is costing us our hard-won freedom and our fragile democracy.