‘NC department is a temp agency’
THE NORTHERN Cape Department of Education has denied allegations that the department is functioning as a “temp agency” as a result of the growing mismanagement of funds, with irregular expenditure ballooning to more than R323 million.
The DA’s Safiyia Stanfley yesterday accused the department of incurring increased amounts of irregular expenditure because supply chain management processes were not being properly followed.
“The latest audit report indicates that the department incurred irregular expenditure of more than R323 million, which is up from irregular expenditure of R220.8 million incurred the previous year. On top of this, the accumulated irregular expenditure of the department for the past 14 years now stands on R2.578 billion,” said Stanfley.
She added that if the department was really serious about teaching, it would by now have made “a concerted effort to tackle its excessively high irregular expenditure and stop the inherent looting of funds that takes place within the education sector”.
“Instead, funds intended to beef up capacity at schools are freely spent on filling the pockets of corrupt officials and their friends, who blatantly ignore the prescripts of the Public Finance Management Act, with little to no consequence management taking place.
“If the people’s money wasn’t mismanaged, the department could by now have made significant inroads into permanently appointing 600 teachers in the Province, who continue to be employed on a contract basis or who serve as substitute teachers.”
Stanfley stated that instability at schools was on the rise.
“The temporary nature of the employment of contract and substitute teachers is unsettling to teachers, who are shunted from one class or school to another. These teachers aren’t able to give their best, as they must jump around according to the whims of the department. Understandably, they become demotivated and this rubs off on the pupils.”
Robbed
She added that at the same time, pupils who were consistently schooled by different teachers were robbed of the benefits of fostering good working relationships with their teachers.
“They are constantly in flux, not able to get used to one style of teaching. This is confusing and does not create an environment conducive to quality education.”
The Northern Cape Department of Education yesterday vehemently denied the allegations.
“As per the stringent audit procedures performed by the auditor-general’s office, as well as other oversight bodies, for the current and previous financial periods, the department obtained an unqualified audit opinion for three consecutive years,” department spokesperson, Geoffrey van der Merwe, said yesterday.
He pointed out that for the current, as well as previous, financial period, the expenditure incurred by the department had been in line with the terms of the objectives of the department as per the strategic plan and was spent on service delivery items of the department.
“Irregular expenditure, as disclosed in the annual report for the 2016/17 year, mainly emanates from our infrastructure implementing agencies, which perform procurement processes and procedures on our behalf. We have implemented further control measures in this regard for the current financial year to eliminate and reduce the occurrence. Irregular expenditure, as stated in the relevant policies and procedures, does not entail that funding was pocketed or mismanaged as alleged.”
Van der Merwe accused the DA of acting in bad faith.
“It was resolved by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and the Education Portfolio Committee that a separate meeting would be convened to address the matters of concern, as the department was not afforded the opportunity to respond during the sitting where the matter was discussed.