Money wasted in health, education
AUDITOR-GENERAL Kimi Makwetu has listed the Eastern Cape departments of health and education as among the country’s worst culprits when it comes to wasting money.
They blew more than R1.1-billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the 2013-14 financial year, according to an audit report Makwetu tabled in Cape Town on Wednesday.
The Eastern Cape’s education department “wasted” R69-million while the health department wasted R51million.
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure is incurred when the state has to pay interest on overdue accounts and late payments, as well as penalties and payments for litigation costs and claims.
The education department received R26.5-billion while health received R16.5-billion.
Topping the list countrywide for incurring the wasteful and fruitless expenditure was Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s department of defence, which wasted R304-million. This was followed by Limpopo’s department of education (R168-million) and Gauteng’s health department (R16- million).
But these recent figures are a remarkable improvement compared to the previous year ending in March last year, when the auditors discovered R2.4-billion in wasteful and fruitless expenditure.
The Daily Dispatch reported yesterday that Makwetu was very concerned that reckless spending patterns were being practiced by departments which received the biggest budgets from government.
He also fingered the Eastern Cape province as one of the four provinces, along with Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, for being responsible for irregular expenditure of more than R10-billion during the 2013-14 financial year.
He also highlighted weaknesses in the internal audit, especially with regard to supply chain management. “Leadership had to correct internal controls. Skilled people had to be brought in to improve financial and performance management. Audit committees were failing because the right controls were not in place. The quality of submitted financial statements was a risk area,” he said. —