Polokwane - Fears that Limpopo will again face a school textbook shortage have surfaced after an AG report on Thursday showed the provincial education department had failed to acquire half the books needed for the 2015 academic year.
“The root causes are that non top-ups were made since the 2013 academic year, a lower rate on book retrieval, and the delivery of books was not based on schools orders,” Auditor General (AG) Kimi Makwetu's report reads.
The report was titled “Synopsis on AG's Limpopo Department of Education Management Report”.
It said the department, which was under administration, had also failed to follow an internal management plan for the procurement and delivery of “learner teacher study material”.
The department failed to deliver textbooks on time this year, despite being run by administrators for the past three years.
The report states that the SA Post Office (Sapo) provided incorrect information on the quantity of textbooks delivered to the schools.
In one case, it recorded that 5700 books were delivered to Izikhali School while only 25 were signed for.
The report detailed how the department had over paid the Sapo by R3.3 million during the 2013/14 financial year, had incurred R332m irregular expenditure, and a combined R130m fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Sapa