Limpopo -
The government and Limpopo have finally signed an agreement to end the intervention that has seen part of the administration being placed under Pretoria’s direct control.
The agreement will restore Premier Stan Mathabatha’s executive powers in the five provincial departments that the national government took control of in December 2011 due to maladministration and financial mismanagement.
But, Mathabatha and his executive still have to account to the national government.
His signing of the memorandum of understanding with the inter-ministerial committee headed by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene converts the direct intervention under section 100 (1) (b) of the constitution in the province to section (100)(1)(a), which enables the national government to issue directives to the province.
The signing was delayed by six months because Mathabatha was not happy with the clauses that apparently restricted his executive powers in the provincial departments of health and public works.
On Monday, the premier’s office confirmed that he had signed the agreement with the inter-ministerial committee after a meeting the same day.
“This effectively brings back the powers of both heads of department and MECs of the five affected departments, pending ratification by the National Council of Provinces early in 2015,” the statement said.
The premier’s office said it was satisfied with the work done by the administrators.
This is despite the fact that the ANC provincial executive, which Mathabatha chairs, appeared to level corruption accusations against the administration team headed by Monde Tom in October.
The resentment flared into the open in October when the ANC provincial executive committee publicly fired salvoes at the administration team.
“The clear electoral mandate indicates the confidence people have in the elected leadership of the ANC to lead the province and not some government functionaries,” the party said.
It stopped short of accusing the administration team of corruption.
“The ANC in Limpopo has noted the serious allegations of looting, maladministration and (poor) service delivery made against the administrators,” the party said.
Tom dismissed the claims as defamatory, saying they were informed by desperation.
Monday’s signing of the agreement will see Tom and his team exit the province after running it for three years.
The team’s failures and achievements were outlined in the latest audit outcomes report by Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu.
None of the five provincial departments and their entities that had been run by the administration team since December 2011 received a clean audit opinion.
“Education remained disclaimed, while the Limpopo Roads Agency Limited (also run by the administration team) regressed from a qualified opinion to an adverse opinion in the current financial year,” said Makwetu.
He said the administration team had had no significant effect on the province’s internal control environment.
“Despite an improvement in the audit outcomes of Roads and Transport, Public Works and Health, the sustainability of the outcomes is in question once the administration team withdraws from the province as skills were not transferred.”
Makwetu said the administration team had succeeded in reducing unauthorised expenditure from R325 million in the previous financial year to R16m currently.
But irregular expenditure - incurred because Treasury regulations and applicable laws were flouted in the awarding of tenders and contracts - ballooned from R2 billion to R3.5bn under the watch of the administration team.
“The significant irregular expenditure… was mainly due to non-compliance with supply chain management requirements,” said Makwetu.
The Star