POLOKWANE – Members of the Limpopo Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) met at the Parliamentary Village in the city on Friday to go over the Auditor-General’s (AG) report on Limpopo Tourism Association (LTA) for the 2020/21 financial year.
The report reflected that irregular expenditure to the amount of R4.3m was incurred of which the majority was for payments made to a service provider whose tax compliance status was not verified before awarding the contract.
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure to the amount of R96 314 was incurred, mainly for no-shows on bookings for accommodation, missed flights, changing of bookings and interest or penalties on late payments. The agency, however, recovered R7 946,13.
Scopa chairperson Scopa Rogers Monama allowed the MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (Ledet), Thabo Mokone and the chairperson of LTA’s board, Andrew Dipela to provide feedback and comment while being assisted by officials. Assurances were given that appropriate action was taken where possible.
The AG indicated that LTA’s audit outcomes remained stagnant when compared with the previous financial year when the entity again received an unqualified audit opinion with findings on the Audit of Performance Information (AoPO) and compliance with legislation.
“The prevalent instances of non-compliance are in the area of supply chain management (SCM).
The quality of the financial statements submitted for audit improved from the prior year and an overall reduction in the number of financial misstatements was identified,” the AG remarked.
The AG advised that the agency should focus on SCM, compliance issues and AoPO to improve the outcomes in the next year.
“The accounting authority should exercise oversight over the action plan to allow sufficient time for review of the implementation,” the AG stated.
The AG cited inadequate controls to prevent non-compliance with procurement legislation, lack of Smart performance indicators relating to AoPO and lack of consequences for poor performance and non-compliance as the key root causes in the internal control environment.
The AG recommended that the agency should strengthen preventative controls to identify non-compliance and to attend to vacancies in the SCM department.
“The accounting authority must continue to involve the audit committee to ensure that management implements and enhances review processes for the annual performance plan and annual performance report,” the AG stated and emphasised that effective monitoring and oversight by the audit committee is essential to ensure that consequence management is implemented.
