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The Auditor-General’s General Report on National Audit Outcomes for 2010-2011 indicates the extent of the growing financial management crisis in many national and provincial government departments. More than R20 billion rand which should have gone on projects to uplift the people of South Africa was found to have been unauthorised, irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure.

Something needs to be done and heads need to roll.

The representatives of the Democratic Alliance (DA) on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA)will, at the first opportunity, call for the Ministers and Accounting Officers of the worst performing departments to be summoned before SCOPA to explain what went wrong. In some cases, those responsible must be held accountable and fired if necessary.

Some of the worst-performing departments that must form part of this enquiry include:

• Public Works
• Water Affairs
• Mineral Resources

It has been proven time and again that service delivery cannot happen without sound financial management. The Western Cape was the only province that was found to have no unauthorised expenditure whatsoever and was the top-ranked province. This goes some way to explain why citizens of the Western Cape have more access to quality services than any other province.

The Auditor-General’s findings should be a massive wake-up call to our national government. It is time for Ministers and Accounting Officers to be held accountable for poor performance. We will certainly do everything in our power to ensure that the people of South Africa get the service delivery they deserve.