Water and Sanitation dept ‘risks becoming another Eskom’

The Department of Water and Sanitation will submit a qualified audit report for the 2018-2019 financial year on 20 March almost seven months after the legislated deadline for annual reports.

The department’s late tabling of the report in parliament prompted chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) Mkhuleko Hlengwa to suggest that the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) should be tightened so that it is not open for abuse by the department and South African Airways (SAA), who also tabled its report late.

The department appeared before Scopa on Wednesday to account for the late tabling of its report. Human Settlement and Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu wasn’t in attendance as she was at a Cabinet meeting.

“We must be blunt,” Hlengwa said at the start of the meeting. “We are not going to allow non-submission as the norm.”

“So DG (director general)… I hope you understand very well, as far as we’re concerned, non-submission is non-compliance,” he said to acting director general of the department Mbulelo Tshangana.

He said in November they had a meeting in the very same committee room, where a commitment was made that the report would be tabled, but this did not happen.

Tshangana said the late tabling is “not something that sits very well with us”.

He explained that there were “significant differences” between the Auditor-General and the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) – an entity of the department – over the nature of the TCTA’s payments to the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority and the Lesotho Highlands Water Commission.

This would have led to a disclaimed audit finding for TCTA, and therefore the department.

“If TCTA’s financials are not in order, the cost of borrowing is going to be high,” Tshangana said.

TCTA’s annual report has since been tabled, and the department is busy finalising its own, which will be tabled on 20 March.

DA MP Alf Lees asked what audit finding the Auditor-General gave them.

Tshangana hesitated before answering. He said they received a qualified audit.

Lees said the presentation they delivered in November didn’t mention a disclaimer, as they did in Wednesday’s presentation, but a qualification.

Lees said they were heading the same direction as Eskom.

ANC MP Bernice Swarts said she was very disappointed by their presentation.

“The presentation is very empty, very dodgy with information,” she said.

“This type of presentation does not assist us. The people responding to us, they are speaking in circles.”

MPs were furnished with the TCTA’s annual report during the meeting.

Lees said apart from the qualification dealing with the Lesotho Highlands project, there were also two other qualifications that they did not discuss.

“Yes, there were other issues,” said Tshangana. He said there were more issues with the Lesotho project.

“It is unprofessional to miss deadlines. It is not something we enjoy,” he said.

He said they would meet the 30 August deadline for the 2019-2020 annual report.

“If we came across as if we’re hiding information, it is not our intention.”

Hlengwa said they need to amend Section 65(2) of the PFMA to prevent the “opening of the floodgates” with departments not submitting their annual reports to prevent adverse findings.

“The PFMA cannot play second fiddle,” he said. “The PFMA is the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral.”

He said after they receive the annual report, they will schedule a hearing with the department.

“We will not allow water to fail,” Hlengwa said.

“If you do not get your affairs in order, you run the risk of becoming another Eskom.”

The meeting was delayed by more than an hour after parliament was hit by a blackout.

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