Scopa accuses KZN social development dept of underspending

Failure to spend funds meant to create jobs, depositing welfare monies into the personal accounts of government employees and failure to probe irregular spending by department officials.

These are some of the findings by the auditor-general (AG), which KwaZulu-Natal Legislature MPLs believe the provincial Social Development department is not taking seriously.

The MPLs, who are members of the KZN Legislature watchdog committee, Scopa, want the department officials to close the loopholes leading to the findings.

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The officials presented the department’s response to the AG’s finding during their recent meeting with the committee.

According to the department’s presentation to Scopa, R82,4 million in the form of a grant under the Presidential Employment Initiative Fund Allocation was returned to the national government after the department failed to spend the money.

DA KZN Legislature leader, Francois Rodgers, who is also a member of Scopa, said the department would have created about 10 000 jobs had the money been spent.

Unemployment is at its highest level ever in KZN, with our youth being affected the most. This funding could have made a big difference.

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However, the department’s spokesperson, Mhlaba Memela, said the department was not to blame for the unspent funds.

It’s the national government which was managing the project. The national government had appointed a consulting company to run the project. However, the contract between the national government and the company expired before the project was completed.

But the committee’s chairperson, Maggie Govender, who made it clear that the provincial Scopa was not satisfied with the department’s explanation, said MPLs were also concerned about the manner in which the department was managing its other programmes.

For example, the auditor-general also found that the department’s R111 million spending on security and catering for the current financial year was irregular.
Despite the fact that the department knew all along that the security contract was coming to an end, they did not appoint a new contractor, resulting in the department’s having to renew the expired contract on a month-to-month basis.
As Scopa, we find their explanation unacceptable.

The AG also found that the department, which also dispenses funds to NPOs in the province, had deposited money meant for one of the NPOs into a personal bank account of a government employee.

Our concern as Scopa is that there is the possibility that the payment was fraudulent.
There are a number of findings and recommendations made by the AG in her report. As Scopa we would like to know why some of the AG’s recommendations have not been implemented.

The AG also found that department transactions worth R50 million were unauthorised.

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While in its audit management plan the department has timeframes on which it intends to implement the AG’s recommendations, Govender said there were a number of instances where the department had failed to “adhere to its timeframes”.

As Scopa, we are expecting the department to give us an update by February next year demonstrating that the timeframes are being met.

The department, which in the past has been receiving qualified reports from the AG, received an unqualified audit opinion in the previous financial year.

However, despite the unqualified audit opinion, the AG also made some findings which the department needed to attend to.

Govender said Scopa was concerned that the department would slide back to the days when it received qualified audit opinions should it not address the issues highlighted by the AG in her latest report.