Cape Town - MPs were up in arms in Parliament on Thursday because the Third Party Fund, which is holding R3 billion in maintenance fees, bail, fines and other payments, was in a shambles and failed to account for millions of rand.
Members of the justice and correctional services portfolio committee said they were surprised that for 15 years the fund had not been submitting financial statements to the auditor-general.
It was only now that the fund had started to get its house in order by procuring a new system that would synchronise all maintenance payments in 400 courts across the country.
Director-general in the Department of Justice Nonkululeko Sindane said on the sidelines of the meeting that the new system would be up and running in the next 18 to 24 months.
Sindane said it was not all doom and gloom as they had been submitting financial statements for the past five years.
She admitted there were problems about lack of accountability and their systems in different courts not sharing information on account payments.
Senior manager in the office of the auditor-general Yusuf Essack told the portfolio committee earlier that the fund must instil discipline to ensure there was submission of financial statements.
He said there were many problems in the system.
“Currently we have a situation where there are unreconcialiables, which are called system errors and no one can explain what are system errors,” said Essack.
Once the funds started using a new system, to be implemented by the State Information Technology Agency (Sita), all the funds would be verified, he told the committee.
ACDP MP Steve Swart said it was worrying that the fund had not been submitting financial statements over the last 15 years.
ANC MPs Mathole Motshekga and Makgathatso Pilane-Majake said they thought the problems had been resolved, but were surprised by the auditor-general’s findings. It was bad that a fund handling R3bn had not been able to account for some of the money, including R60m.
But Sindane said they had to integrate all the country’s court systems, including those of the former bantustans.
Each of these courts was using a different system.
“It was not as if it was a shambles. You were working with different systems. We are developing a new system. Between 2007 and 2010 we were trying to buy a new system. It was unaffordable,” she said.
Sita will now procure a new affordable system for them to be able fix all the problems.
Sindane said the Third Party Fund was in better shape than before.
“We are doing great work. We are paying a lot of money to a lot of people. Women are getting money a lot quicker. Children are getting their money a lot quicker,” she said.
Cape Times