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I have received correspondence from the Public Protector’s office regarding the DA’s formal submission to request an investigation into the failure of the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD) to realise and promote the rights of people with disabilities.

The Public Protector has advised that this is a matter for the Auditor-General (AG), Mr Terence Nombembe. I will today be forwarding this submission to Mr Nombembe to investigate what clearly constitutes skewed spending priorities and financial mismanagement.

In our submission to the Public Protector in July, we presented evidence of the following:

• 66% under-spending in the “Rights of People with Disabilities” programme;
• overspending in the “Administration” Programme – with reports to the Standing Committee on Appropriations indicating that this programme has already spent 107% of its budget by the third quarter of 2011/12;
• overspending of 112% on employees’ salaries; and
• lavish spending on overseas trips, with the DWCPD forking out R6.8 million for a two-week trip to New York for a delegation of 49 officials in February 2011.

The Minister didn’t seem to perform any better this year.

In the 2011/2012 financial year, the Department incurred R28.9 million in unauthorised expenditure and R35 million in irregular expenditure. That is nearly half of the Minister’s R143 million budget down the drain.

The Department has also, once again, failed to spend their budget allocation in the program for the “rights of people with disabilities”, whilst over-spending by more than 50% (R23.3 million) on Administration. There was again massive over-expenditure (57.4%) on salaries.

It is clear that Minister Xingwana and her department do not yet have their priorities straight.  

I will request that the AG includes this year’s financial performance in his investigation.
I look forward to the outcomes of the AG’s investigation, and hope that this will be a step in the direction of getting this department working for the vulnerable South Africans it is mandated to protect.