Education wastes more funds

Weekend in cop cells for ‘extortionist’ students

THE Department of Basic Education has seen its unauthorised expenditure shoot up to R131.8-million from R103.2-million compared to the previous financial year.

This was revealed in the consolidated report on the national and provincial audit outcomes for the financial year ended on March 31, presented by auditor-general Kimi Makwetu this week.

The report said the department (DBE) failed to “take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and this was consistent with the previous year’s auditing findings”.

“This unauthorised expenditure was a result of expenditure incurred in contravention of the provisions of the school infrastructure backlog grant.

“The approval was not granted by the National Treasury for the DBE to deviate and redirect the grant allocation to other essential goods and service,” reads the report.

The report also revealed that the department had fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R44.3-million as a result of expenditure incurred in the Kha Ri Gude programme. Kha Ri Gude is a mass literacy campaign by the department to teach adults how to read and write.

The report said the wasteful and fruitless expenditure comes from overpayments to tutors for stipends.

“This was as a result of inadequate monitoring by the department of the work performed by the appointed external service provider for the implementation of the Kha Ri Gude programme,” reads the report.

The department further incurred irregular expenditure of R599.7-million, and 63% of this was as a result of noncompliance of supply chain management.

“The extent of noncompliance by the DBE is indicative of weaknesses in the accounting and internal control environment and lack of robust monitoring disciplines that should ensure compliance with legislative requirements regarding financial management and procurement activities.”

The report, among other things, said the accounting officer must compile action plans from recommendations made by the auditor-general in previous years and implement consequence management for non-performance.

Department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said steps have been taken to remedy the situation.

He said, however, that the interventions the department had taken will only reflect in the next report.

He said, for example, the department has instituted a forensic investigation into the wasteful and fruitless expenditure in as far as Kha Ri Gude is concerned.

He also said that senior managers have signed a new performance agreement which says that their performance will also take into account their financial management.

“The approval was not granted by the National Treasury

THREE Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) students arrested by the Hawks over an alleged extortion attempt will spend the weekend in police cells.

The trio made a brief appearance at the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court yesterday. They were arrested on Tuesday.

Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the students allegedly attempted to swindle a security firm owner out of R100 000.

They allegedly promised the unnamed owner that his or her contract with TUT would be extended upon payment.

TUT’s spokeswoman Willa de Ruyter has rubbished claims that students could influence the awarding of the institution’s contracts.

A Hawks undercover operation led to the trio’s arrest, allegedly after they had received R40 000 in cash.

Mulaudzi said the students were believed to be members of the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC) at TUT’s main campus.

In court yesterday, prosecutor Peter Serunye told magistrate Martin van Wyk that the case had been remanded to Monday.

Serunye said this would give the state a chance to check if the three have previous and/or pending cases against them and also confirm their addresses.

Each has been charged with a count of extortion, Serunye told the court.

The students’ lawyer, Advocate Matome Seima, said he would bring a formal bail application on Monday.

“I confirm that we have arranged that the matter be remanded to Monday.

“My instructions are that my clients don’t have outstanding cases or warrants of arrest,” Seima said.

“My instructions are to apply for bail for my three clients. We’ll take it from there. At this stage, I cannot comment on the merits of the case.”

The trio cut sombre figures in the dock. The court’s small gallery was filled with TUT students.

Many were members of the EFFSC but some were from the ANC-aligned SA Students Congress.

This is the latest round of arrests of students across the country this year.

Almost 1 000 are facing charges related to the

protests. Deputy chairman of the EFFSC at TUT, Javis Valoyi, said their comrades should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.