Just like our dams, the department’s funds dried up
History of financial mismanagement may lead to criminal charges
THE DEPARTMENT of Water and Sanitation is bankrupt and has a R2.9 billion overdraft. Now Parliament’s watchdog on public accounts plans to lodge criminal complaints against the department because it is failing to account for millions of rands.
Chairperson of the standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) Themba Godi has supported the call from the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation for a full parliamentary inquiry into the department.
“Scopa had a scheduled hearing this morning with the department on irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The committee had to cut the hearing short due to the failure of the department’s officials to respond to the questions posed by committee members. The department was appearing before Scopa for the third time after failing to respond to questions at two previous hearings,” Godi said yesterday.
“This department has a long history of instability and financial mismanagement, and Scopa has resolved to open a criminal case against the department because of the R2.9bn overdraft that the department took with the Reserve Bank. The committee has also resolved to engage with the National Treasury on the overdraft,” he said.
“Scopa is concerned that it is ordinary people who are affected by the instability and financial mismanagement in this department, because South Africa is a water-stressed country. In reality, Minister Nomvula Mokonyane has left a department that has completely collapsed. It is worrying that she is now a minister of communications at a time when the South African Broadcasting Corporation is recovering,” Godi added.
Mlungisi Johnson, chairperson of the Water and Sanitation portfolio committee, said the complaint stem from their recommendation to pursue criminal proceedings.
The department’s national spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau, did not respond to calls and messages.
Premier Helen Zille said financial mismanagement within the department has had a severe impact on water security and the delivery of bulk water infrastructure in the province and elsewhere in the country.
“Although bulk water supply is its mandate, the department has not made funding available for augmentation in this crisis, because the National Treasury has literally turned off their funding tap following a disastrous audit outcome. As a result, the City of Cape Town has stepped into the breach with aquifer extraction, water reuse and desalination projects to the tune of some R5.9bn over the fiveyear medium term revenue expenditure framework. The provincial government, operating on a very constrained budget, has also diverted over R369 million from our core functions to supplement disaster funding since 2015/16,” said Zille.
For every high-risk municipality in the Western Cape, there was a failed, delayed or abandoned department water supply project, she said.
“This included the Clanwilliam Dam wall raising project, originally scheduled for construction from 2013-2018 with an allocated budget of R2bn. The department recently announced that it no longer has money for this project.”