Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday said that there were no consequences for corruption in the form of deviations and expansions taking place in departments, municipalities, and entities.

Scopa called on National Treasury to develop systems to prevent such corruption from occurring and urged Treasury to also establish an approvals process so that there is collective agreement in decision-making.

This comes after Auditor General Kimi Makwetu found a more than 70% increase in irregular expenditure at municipalities.

Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said in a statement that the committee wanted government to start instituting charges against corrupt officials.

Scopa revealed that departments and entities are currently not required to report on deviations of less than 15% and said that it was important for Treasury to have detailed reports on all deviations and expansions, irrespective of the amount.

“Scopa has noted that the top three entities and departments in deviations for quarters three and four of 2017/18 were the Department of Defence at R734-million, Eskom at R553-million and the State Information Technology Agency at R288-million,” said Godi.

Godi further stated that the top three entities and departments for expansions for quarters three and four of 2017/18 were Eskom at R11.3-billion, the South African Revenue Service at R917-million and South African Post Office at R313-million.