North West corruption continues unabated
The North West provincial government continues to be a picture of corruption and the misappropriation of funds.
This came to light after the Public Service Commission (PSC) highlighted that many government employees were either doing business with the state or sat on bid committees to award tenders to their cronies.
The PSC commissioner in the North West, Dr Moeletsi Leballo, said this during a joint meeting of the North West provincial legislature’s standing committee on oversight,and the standing committee on provincial public accounts.
The PSC was accounting on progress with reported financial misconduct cases during the 2020/21 financial year in the province on Wednesday in Mahikeng.
“We decided to cover the three financial years, which are 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21. Every government employee is expected to fill the financial disclosure form to be scrutinised.
“As the PSC, we realised that there are many employees who are doing business with the government or sit on bid committees that award tenders. If they do so, this constitutes a conflict of interest,” Leballo said.
He further said this had led to many departments incurring irregular, unauthorised, wasteful and fruitless expenditure audits.
According to Leballo, more than R76-million was frivolously spent during the 2020/21 financial year.
“Also, R1957615.20 was squandered during the 2017/2018 financial year and has not yet been recovered. However, only four departments reported financial misconduct cases against their employees.
“The North West department of agriculture and rural development reported one employee, while North West education also reported one employee. The office of the premier reported two employees. These four financial misconduct cases were concluded but no disciplinary action was taken”
Leballo added that it was a concern to see departments under-reporting financial misconduct cases.