Premier must answer
THE DA in the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature said that it will ask the MEC for Finance, John Block, and the Acting Premier, Grizelda Cjiekella, parliamentary questions on which officials, if any, will be held accountable for the provincial audit outcomes.
The DA’s spokeswoman on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Karen de Kock, said “the buck stops” with Block and Cjiekella.
“The DA will be holding the ANC administration to account for the financial misconduct revealed in the Auditor-General’s briefing to the Legislature yesterday.
“Fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the Province has nearly doubled from R1.3 billion in the previous financial year to R2.4 billion in the 2011/12 financial year. It is clear that Operation Clean Audit 2014 is nothing but a pipe dream,” De Kock said.
“The Department of Health has received a consecutive disclaimer and is again the biggest offender of fruitless and wasteful expenditure. Meanwhile the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs has seen the greatest increase in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
“It is hardly surprising that hospitals like the one in Kuruman, which have at times turned away patients due to insufficient staff and funding, struggle to keep their doors open when one considers the amount of money wasted by the Department of Health,” she added.
“Also deeply disturbing is that there has been an increase in the number of officials doing business with the State with a total of 843 instances of non-compliance picked up by the AG.
“Even more concerning is the increase in the awarding of busi- ness to close family members such as the case of a R41 000 contract in the Department of Economic Development. This may point to a crony network of government insiders awarding themselves State contracts,” De Kock said.
“It is untenable to have a situation whereby the Northern Cape under the ANC government continuously fail to receive a single clean audit report, whereas the DA-run province of the Western Cape managed a clean sweep of audit outcomes within its first year of administration.
“The DA believes that it is crucial that public money is properly accounted for and ultimately spent correctly. There were seemingly no consequences following the previous year’s wasteful and irregular expenditure of R1.3 billion. Ultimately, the buck stops with the Acting Premier Grizelda Cjiekella and MEC John Block, who control theProvince’s finances,” De Kock said.