By Angela Quintal
Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has called in the Treasury to help save her department from further financial mismanagement after a damning report by Auditor-General Shauket Fakie.
She announced the immediate intervention in terms of the Public Finance Management Act in her budget speech in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The law provides that the Treasury "may assist departments in building their capacity for efficient, effective and transparent financial management" and can "investigate any system of financial management and internal control".
'We have been candid in approaching these problems' Mapisa-Nqakula, who is politically accountable for her department, received the backing of ANC MPs who repeatedly said that the department, and not the minister, was responsible for the mess.
Continues Below ↓
The department received a disclaimer of audit opinion by Fakie for the 2004/05 financial year.
While the ANC blamed the legacy of apartheid and former Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi for some of the department's problems, the DA called for director-general Mzuvukile Maqetuka's head, saying as the accounting officer, he was simply not up to the job.
ANC MP and National Assembly Home Affairs Committee chairperson Patrick Chauke said that for the past 11 years the department had experienced serious problems.
He ascribed these to successive directors-general and also noted the dysfunctional relationship between Buthelezi and some of his directors-general, most notably Billy Masetlha.
Buthelezi is the leader of the IFP and served as Home Affairs Minister from 1994 to 2004.
Chauke also blamed the apartheid legacy for continuing problems.
DA chief whip Douglas Gibson questioned when the ANC would take responsibility for the problems instead of blaming others like the IFP.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
