SCOPA: Education’s copy and paste answers
The Education Department, got off to a rocky start when representatives felt the scrutiny of members of the portfolio committee of education.
POLOKWANE – The performance of Limpopo government departments are currently under the spotlight as hearings conducted by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) got underway on Tuesday.
The Education Department, which received a disclaimer (qualified) from the Auditor-General (AG), got off to a rocky start when representatives felt the scrutiny of members of the portfolio committee of education.
Questions raised included matters on immovable and movable, and tangible capital assets, financial management, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, irregular expenditure, employee benefits, underspending of the budget, achievement and planned targets, procurement and contract management, expenditure and consequence management, governance, unauthorised expenditure as well as issues relating to the Section 8 intervention by Limpopo Treasury.
From the onset, several key representatives, who had to account on key matters, were not present.
EFF’s Jossey Buthane raised the matter, suggesting action should be taken against those who were absent.
Then, the department’s HOD, Beauty Mutheiwana, and the MEC, Ishmael Kgetjepe, were under fire for what they themselves described as the root of the department’s problems, namely poor management.
Their repeated explanation to key questions, namely that investigations were ongoing in the department, seemed not to impress the committee, and was termed as “copy and paste excuses”.
The HOD and MEC were unable to give answers as to why there was an apparent delay in charging those who transgressed.
The committee also wanted to know why, despite the department having many qualified employees in key positions, the department failed to achieve a clean audit report.
A recommendation was made towards a skills audit.
The MEC conceded that they agreed with the findings of the AG, and that officials doing as they please in the department have been left to do so “for far too long”.
He said with the recent intervention by Treasury, the Section 8 intervention was “reluctantly” received by the department, “When you have been doing something wrong for so long, any form of control is something that you will automatically go against.
“That is why officials are reluctant or taking their time to do the things they should and implement the processes given to them”.
The hearings on Tuesday were cut short with several questions remaining.
The hearings continue, with the Health Department in the hot seat today (Thursday).
