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The Democratic Alliance (DA) strongly condemns the collapse of financial management and executive integrity at the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), under Minister Pieter Groenewald. A serious regression to a Disclaimed Audit Opinion for the 2025–26 financial year, is the most damning audit outcome possible under South African law.

This audit failure is no administrative oversight; it is a direct indictment of compromised leadership.

Financial documentation submitted by DCS management was allegedly altered, falsified, and tampered with, fundamentally destroying the audit trail, as revealed by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AG)

To make matters worse, as revealed in investigative reporting by Sunday World, senior DCS officials actively attempted to pressure and persuade the Auditor-General to withdraw the Disclaimer before the report was final. This is a deeply concerning accusation against the Department.

The DA rejects the false defense the Department has raised for years that it suffers under “budgetary constraints”. DCS is not underfunded; taxpayer money is being systematically bled dry through fiscal indiscipline, procurement looting, and sheer administrative negligence.

The financial metrics paint a damning picture of mismanagement:

— R1.9 Billion Unauthorised Overspending: DCS breached statutory parliamentary allocations by overspending R637 million in 2025–26, pushing cumulative three-year unauthorized spending to an astonishing R1.9 billion.

— Supply Chain Management has broken down & Food Tender Looting: Irregular expenditure escalated to R144.3 million, with R136 million tied directly to non-compliant food supply contracts. This feeds into a wider food procurement network involving 115 service providers, alongside R170.85 million in potential price-gouge overspending identified on a single nutritional products tender (Bid HO 04/2023).

— R12.6 Million Waste of Public Money: Fruitless and wasteful expenditure surged to R12.6 million, including R6.4 million in default judgments granted against the state simply because DCS officials failed to show up to court, plus R6 million in avoidable late-payment interest and penalties.

— R1.38 Billion Consequence Management Backlog: Despite assurances from Minister Groenewald on numerous occasions that he takes consequence management very seriously and that misconduct will be delt with severely, the facts paints a very different picture.

— The department failed to investigate 75% of historical irregular expenditure due to a deliberate failure to build internal investigative capacity, allowing transgressors to escape accountability.

The DA calls for an urgent turnaround of this financial crisis, under Minister Groenewald, and we demand:

— Immediate SAPS and SIU criminal investigations into the departmental officials implicated in altering, falsifying, and tampering with financial audit records.

— An immediate, independent forensic audit into all national and regional food supply contracts, including Bid HO 04/2023 and agricultural feed tenders.

Where the DA governs, public money is protected and spent on transparent, high-quality service delivery. The same cannot be said of Correctional Services, under Minister Pieter Groenewald.

Issued by DA Spokesperson on Correctional Services Janho Engelbrecht