Cape Town - Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has deployed a team of experts that will oversee the use of funds in KwaZulu-Natal and conduct real-time audits to prevent corruption in the allocation of the funds.
This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government wanted to close the tap on corruption during the national state of disaster and would deploy the auditor-general to curb any form of corruption.
Maluleke said on Thursday they would be sending a team to focus on the work as they did during the allocation of R500 billion for the Covid-19 relief.
“We have an important role to play in providing independent assurance that public funds are accounted for and are being used as intended,” said Maluleke.
“Our multi-disciplinary teams of forensic, information system, performance and financial/regularity auditors working in a co-ordinated manner will conduct a focused and meticulous audit to ensure that any potential fraud, wastage, and theft are identified and reported immediately to accounting officers, who as the appointed stewards over public funds, must take the necessary corrective action,” she said.
The government warned that those who found themselves stealing public funds during the national state of disaster in KZN and the Eastern Cape would be dealt with.
Opposition parties this week said they would keep an eye on those trying to steal from the public purse through the ad hoc committee set up by Parliament to oversee the implementation of the national state of disaster.
Parties said people were tired of corruption in the country.
Ramaphosa said R1 billion would be allocated immediately with more funds to be channelled to KZN later.
This will be to provide relief to victims of the floods and fixing the collapsed infrastructure and houses.
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