Department top brass get lashed
SENIOR Department of Correctional Services management were rapped over the knuckles in Parliament yesterday, for not complying with legislation, resulting in more than R1 billion irregular expenditure.
MPs heard from the Office of Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA) that apart from irregular expenditure, the basis for the qualified audit opinion was also due to the reliability and usefulness of performance information.
This prompted justice and correctional services portfolio committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe to ask why they should believe the department’s presentations, since there were no systems for declaring irregular expenditure and their reporting of achievements was unreliable.
"For me, that is the biggest disclaimer. Why waste time and listen to the annual performance plan, when there is a problem with reliability of that information?
"It is a problem for me that I might read something that is untrue. Why should we allow you to report to South Africans if there are serious gaps, and whatever achievements might be there might not be true?” said Magwanishe.
Department senior officials, who were in attendance as AGSA briefed the committee on the audit outcomes, are expected to make presentations today.
The department obtained another qualified audit opinion, for the fourth year in a row, and the findings were the same as those made in previous years.
Briefing the portfolio committee, AGSA's Yongama Madolo said fruitless and wasteful expenditure rose from R518 000 to R3 million, as a result of interest paid relating to late payments and travel cancellations. He also said irregular expenditure increased from R159m to R1.004 billion.
"The department did not have an adequate system for identifying and disclosing all irregular expenditure incurred. As a result, we could not confirm completeness of irregular expenditure disclosed in the financial statement."
This was due to non-disclosure arising from the splitting of orders from the prior year, competitive bidding not being followed, non-compliance with State Information and Technology Agency Act, three quotations not obtained, and contract variations in excess of 20%.
Madolo said the department lacked accurate and complete records to support the percentage of overcrowding, in correctional centres and remand detention facilities, in excess of approved capacity.
He said the non-compliance with legislation was due to management of procurement and contracts, prevention of irregular expenditure and consequence management, among other things.
"We were unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence that disciplinary steps were taken against officials who had incurred irregular expenditure, as required by the Public Finance Management Act. This was due to proper and complete records that were not maintained as evidence, to support the investigations into irregular expenditure,” he said.