Irregular expenditure at Agri a concern

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development incurred irregular expenditure amounting to approximately R90 million in the previous financial year and this had a negative impact on many projects meant to benefit farmers and residents in the province.
It was learnt when the department appeared before the Legislature’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) last Thursday that the Fetsa Tlala programme which aims to promote food and nutrition security and address structural causes of food insecurity did not bear any fruits as R11 083 million was incurred in irregular expenditure.
The department responded by saying they followed a deviation route which had a standard fixed rate for ploughing at R1 000
per hectare. The deviation was applicable to all registered service providers who are in good standing on the central supplier database and the objective was to plough on time while the moisture content still allowed them.
The department incurred irregular expenditure amounting to R20,986 million for fencing,
R2,617 million meant for local content, R4 million caused by a contract with Mvula Trust, R6,525 million for security and R24,216 million in evaluation criteria, R19,398 million for remunerative work outside the public service (RWOPS) while R1,418 million was wasted in the Performance Management Development System (PMDS).
The committee expressed concern about the reoccurrence of irregular expenditure at the department and requested that relevant measures should be put in place to deal with the issue.
Departmental head Jacquiline Maisela indicated that they were also concerned and further outlined that the root cause is that there was only one person signing off activities hence the check list was not effective.
She however assured the committee that they have developed a system which requires every official responsible for a certain activity to approve and sign it off for them to account when things did not go accordingly.

Story & photo: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za