The time to respect public money has arrived

There are those out there suggesting that, despite the fact that “fruitless and wasteful” expenditure by government spiralled by 200% over the past financial year, we should somehow be grateful that this looted money amounts to “only” R2.5 billion.

What place has South Africa reached as a country when this is regarded as somehow insignificant?

Against the background of all “irregular” spending – by government and major parastatals – over the past year, which totals almost R80 billion, perhaps R2.5 billion is a mere “drop in the bucket”.

There are also those who point out that not all “irregular” expenditure would have been “fruitless and wasteful” and that some may have ended up where it should … albeit illegally.

That is the crux of the issue: the government and those in its ranks do not care about the money they are handling on behalf of long-suffering citizens, a number of whom are taxpayers – and those who aren’t, are those in biggest need of those mishandled billions.

We have a determined public purse monitor in Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu, but many government departments deliberately break the rules when it comes to spending. The rules are there to prevent looting. Not obeying them opens the door to corruption. That’s why we’ve ended up in the tentacles of state capture.

There is a silver lining, though. The new Public Audit Amendment Act gives the Auditor-General power to recover money from official accounting officers – including directors-general, municipal managers and boards of state-owned enterprises.

When those new rules are enforced, public officials will finally begin to treat our money with respect.

And when that money saved from the wrongful is applied properly, we can start to really change this country.

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