Annual report turns heat on SABC board
Shoddy bookkeeping practices, irregular spending was order of the day
ACURSORY reading of the SABC’s annual report shows a parliamentary inquiry into the fitness of the board to discharge its fiduciary responsibilities – as proposed by ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu this week – would have no trouble finding grounds to dissolve the board, even before it addresses the question of Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s controversial reappointment.
Not only has the SABC racked up R5.1 billion in total irregular expenditure (R441.2m of it in the 2015-16 financial year) and allowed Motsoeneng’s salary to balloon to an annual package of R4.19m despite the public protector having found his previous increases ‘irregular’, but it understated irregular expenditure to the tune of R35m and failed to provide supporting documentation to verify the disclosure of a further R141.3m in irregular expenditure.
It also revised figures for irregular expenditure reported in previous years without checking whether supply-chain management processes had been followed or not, leading auditor-general Kimi Makwetu to complain that he was unable to determine whether any further adjustments to irregular expenditure were necessary.
These shoddy bookkeeping practices formed the basis for Makwetu’s qualified opinion.
In his notes on compliance with legislation, Makwetu said goods, works or services were not procured through a process that was fair, equitable, transparent and competitive, as required by the Public Finance Management Act. In ter ms of the act, the board is the accounting authority for the SABC and takes responsibility for ensuring adequate systems of internal control are in place.
Makwetu also noted that disciplinary steps had not been taken against officials who made and permitted irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The board faces a grilling by Parliament’s communications oversight committee on Wednesday on what it has done to implement the recommendations of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report in which she found not only that Motsoeneng had lied about his qualifications when he applied for a job at the SABC, but he irregularly inflated the salaries of himself and senior staff close to him, while he purged those opposed to him.
Madonsela recommended that Motsoeneng be disciplined and the money wrongfully spent recovered but, after initially resisting the instruction to hold a disciplinary inquiry, the SABC ultimately did so after a judgment in the Western Cape High Court found it could not ignore her findings.
In a process widely ridiculed as a sham, Motsoeneng was absolved by the inquiry and there has been no attempt to recover the money.
The committee will also be asking what actions the board has taken in light of the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling setting aside Motsoeneng’s appointment as chief operating officer and the processes it followed in subsequently appointing him as group executive for corporate affairs.
Meanwhile, neither Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, who is in Mauritius for a TV networking conference, nor the SABC, have responded to a cabinet instruction for Motsoeneng to be shown the door.