Cape Town - Auditor-general Shauket Fakie served a second qualified report on the department of transport yesterday, slamming it for failing to produce statements of transactions relating to the production of credit card format driving licences.
The contract to produce the licences is at least partly in the hands of Nkobi Holdings, owned by Schabir Shaik, who is sentenced for fraud and corruption.
The auditor has drawn attention to a number of instances of failure on the part of the department to keep its books adequately.
He listed problems that include wasteful and fruitless expenditure. About R78 000 in transaction penalties had to be paid by the department and there was irregular expenditure of almost R20 million. This does not include the irregular expenditure of R7.2 million from the previous financial year, which remains unresolved.
Fakie criticised the department for unauthorised expenditure of R24 million, which came before the implementation of the Public Finance Management Act. This has not been adequately resolved and has not resulted in any disciplinary action.
The auditor-general was not able to verify the income received from drivers' licence testing centres due to botched record keeping. Many of the centres fell foul of the National Road Traffic Act, meaning that some licences issued by these centres could be null and void. Various internal control weaknesses, including those relating to procurement policy, were identified.
The Democratic Alliance's Stuart Farrow intends to question director-general Mpumi Mpofu about these weaknesses at the department's annual report presentation in two weeks.
Earlier this year, Mpofu was given a hard time by the standing committee on public accounts for last year's failings. At that time she said the department was renegotiating the contract for credit card-style driving licences. The contract is currently held by Prodiba, one-third of which is held by Kobitech, owned by Nkobi Holdings. A further one-third is held by IDmatics, wholly owned by Thomson CSF, the French arms firm named in the case against Shaik.
Mpofu was accused of breaking the law by failing to comply with rules relating to the accounts. "The committee is concerned about the total disregard of the law, the lack of financial discipline and ineffective management of contracts," said MP Pierre Gerber.