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A briefing by the Auditor-General (AG) to the Standing Committee on Appropriations revealed that national government incurred R1.52 billion in wasteful and fruitless expenditure over the past 5 years.

The DA will submit parliamentary questions to the 41 departments responsible for this astronomical waste of taxpayer money. The various Minister and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) must be held accountable for this travesty.

The Department of Defence (DoD) is the worst offender with R460 million in wasteful and fruitless expenditure, followed by National Treasury wasting R339 million.

Just the past few weeks the DoD wasted R1.6 million to charter a flight to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as subscription fees to ensure the VIP fleet remain airworthy were not paid. And this on the heels of Defence Minister Thandi Modise’s foolish attendance of a security conference in war-mongering Russia.

The AG identified the causes of the wasteful and fruitless expenditure as weak project management, unwanted goods and services, unoccupied property, and damages to State property due to negligence.

There were R8.6 billion in material irregularities brought to the attention of accounting officers:

• non-compliance in procurement processes resulting in overpricing of goods and services procured or appointed supplier not delivering;
• overpricing of goods and services procured or poor-quality goods that are unusable; and
• asset losses and penalties due to non-compliance.

It seems clear from the AG’s presentation that the country currently lacks any Ministers that has the skill and political will to turn their Departments around. Instead, there is a culture of waste with little care or thought on how the staggering financial losses impacts the growing millions of vulnerable South Africans.

Issued by Ashor Sarupen MP - DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance