Environmental Affairs announces (slight) name change

From 1 April, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (Deff) will be known as the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE). 

The department’s acronym change was said to be due to the completed amalgamation of forestry and fisheries functions. 

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This means both forestry and fisheries now officially form part of the department. 

The amalgamation began in 2019 which resulted in the first name change, from the Department of Environmental Affairs to the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries. 

Irregular expenditure

In February, the Office of the Auditor General (AG) found Deff and other entities within the department were not eligible to receive a clean audit. 

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The AG found R2.9 billion in irregular expenditure for the current and previous years, fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R76 million, and R149 million in unauthorised expenditure. 

Deff spent 98.4% of its annual budget, but underspent in oceans and coast, environmental programmes and chemicals and waste management. 

It found contributing factors to the qualified audit opinion to be owed to a high vacancy rate within the department, and leadership instability. 

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