Durban - KWAZULU-Natal Transport senior officials were hauled before the legislature to explain how the department amassed R17.84 billion in irregular expenditure for the 2019/20 financial year.
The auditor-general’s (AG) report for this period also revealed that the department further underspent the budget for transport infrastructure by R1.64 billion due to delays in infrastructure projects. This got the portfolio chairperson and other legislature members hot under the collar.
The AG was presenting the state of the department’s finances to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) at the provincial legislature yesterday.
According to the report, the department did not record the full extent of irregular expenditure in the notes to the financial statements, as required by section 40(3)(b)(i) of the Public Finance Management Act.
A further R65.41 million in the departmental revenue could not be verified due to lack of accounting records.
“The root cause of the above is inadequate review of the annual financial statements prior to submitting for audit to ensure amounts disclosed agree to the underlying records. The management did not ensure that all valid outstanding traffic fines were disclosed as accrued departmental revenue. The department decommissioned the Trafman system on 30 November 2019. Adequate plans and processes were not put in place to ensure that the information relating to the system would be retained and available for audit purposes,” read the report.
“A monthly reconciliation between fines that have been issued and those that have been paid or written off should be done to identify fines that should be disclosed as accrued departmental revenue. Ensure that a data retention process is developed and adhered to when a system is being decommissioned,” recommended the AG.
Legislature members, including Scopa chairperson Maggie Govender, demanded answers on how billions were spent irregularly and why no one was held accountable.
In a statement on Tuesday, acting Transport MEC Kwazi Mshengu said the department was unable to transport all 150 000 pupils that needed the service due to budget constraints. He said only about 42 000 pupils would be provided transport.
“We are unable to extend the programme because of insufficient funding because the only grant that we receive for learner transport is R366 million and according to our cost estimates we need just over R1 billion to provide an effective transport service. We will continue to request for more funding so that we are able to extend this intervention programme to all the deserving learners,” said Mshengu.
Transport portfolio chairperson Sibonelo Mtshali was the first to call for heads to roll.
“The failure of the department equally reflects our role as the legislature. The department’s monitoring systems are not talking to each other and that prevents the detection of early signs that could enable leadership to prevent irregular expenditure. But equally, the acting HOD ought to apply a system that’s saying how do you intervene in terms of the finance department and being able to counter the challenges,” said Mtshali.
Transport CFO Wayne Evans’ presentation detailed how they have failed to meet some of the AG’s requirements due to one reason or another.
He said the department had started implementing some measures to counter the adverse AG findings.
The presentation was however shot down by Maggie Govender.
“There is R65.41 million that could not be verified. The underspending of the budget and the irregular expenditure which has been there for the past three years has come back. One of the few things is that the presentation is missing the issue of accountability, undertaking of responsibility for what is not correct in the department,” said Govender.
Some ANC, DA and IFP members said the department had been performing poorly both in administration and projects.
IFPs Mntomuhle Khawula said: “This could have been avoided if management was doing their work. Instead, during the same year in question, they gave themselves between R52 000 and R93 000 performance bonuses.”
Daily News