Province faces litigation of R1,8 billion

During the Provincial Executive Council (Exco) meeting last Wednesday Exco directed that there was a need to pay serious attention to litigation cases, the potential of which amounted to R1,8 billion, against government departments in the province.
Provincial Government Spokesperson Phuti Seloba at a media briefing on Thursday said it was decided that consideration should be given to provide more hands-on internal support to larger departments such as the Departments of Education and Health in terms of legal matters.
He did not elaborate on the cases at hand and which departments had the most cases against it.
“It was also decided that the office of the Premier should intervene and assist the State Security Agency to improve their turnaround time in the processing of vetting of senior management service (SMS) members and that MECs should provide a more hands-on support to the filling of vacant SMS posts in their respective departments considering this function has not been delegated to accounting officers,” Seloba said.
Seloba informed that the Central Audit Committee in their second quarter report for the 2016/17 financial year presented to the Exco stated that the quality of the financial reports was up to standard and addressed issues of performance at a level allowing meaningful input from Audit Committee members.
“Overall there was systematic cohesion in the manner in which the departments were discharging their responsibilities,” the report stated.
It highlighted key trends, findings and recommendations for those areas that show potential risks that have to be monitored and managed closely. Detailed findings per department were outlined to the Exco.

Story: NELIE ERASMUS
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