Publicise school audits – DA
Party wants details revealed
AUTENG MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi has defended the use of forensic audits as instruments to deal with the misuse of public funds and corruption.
He said the department had a responsibility to investigate any allegations of corruption or mismanagement that came to its attention.
The statement was made after a story in The Star yesterday revealed that R10 million was set aside each year for forensic investigations, fraud-detection reviews and tender-compliance reviews in schools.
A total of 159 audits had been conducted at schools in the past five years. DA provincial education spokesman Khume Ramulifho asked Lesufi a number of questions in the legislature about the status of financial audits conducted at schools.
Ramulifho said the outcome in many of the audits was that the school governing body (SGB) had been dissolved and no action was taken against the real offenders.
Lesufi said yesterday that the department allocated money to schools to fund curriculum delivery and it had a statutory obligation under the Public Finance Management Act to ensure the funds were spent as intended. He said they also had to protect taxpayers’ money. “It is unfortunate that the Democratic Alliance are the ones complaining about a process aimed at strengthening accountability, transparency and financial prudence,” the MEC said.
Lesufi said they had mentoring and coaching programmes for SGBs and were finalising regulations to standardise financial reporting for schools.
He said the department had conducted forensic audits at less that 1 percent of its schools each year and action had been taken against perpetrators.
“Over this period, the department has taken disciplinary action, opened civil cases, and reported perpetrators to the South African Revenue Service.”
The MEC said that at Glenvista High, the allegations were investigated, but new allegations were raised by the same whistle-blower, and they were being investigated.
At Brakpan High, the SGB was disbanded and action was being taken against several officials, he added.
In response, Ramulifho challenged Lesufi to make the forensic audits public.
“It is, in fact, the MEC who is guilty of double standards by actively taking the side of the wrongdoers. Currently, school governing bodies have no access to these reports, but are simply dissolved, and whistle-blowers are fired,” Ramulifho said.
He said the DA did not advocate an alternative to forensic audits, but action had to be taken against perpetrators.
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