Home

Free State records 4 000 cases of irregular expenditure

ANC members
Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Free State Department of Treasury says 4 000 cases of irregular expenditure amounting to R4.3 billion have been investigated by Price Waterhouse Coopers in the Department of Health. The investigations into the finances of the Department goes back to 2007 until the current financial year of 2017/2018.

Free State government departments are expected to appoint reputable companies to assist them in making sure that their finances are in order. Head of Department of Treasury, Godfrey Mahlatsi says some of the challenges they faced in the past is the use of implementing agents, who failed to give documents on finances used.

Mahlatsi says as part of the government moving forward, they will now use less tenders, but insource some of the functions of the departments.

“We are doing away with some of the old practices within the departments that were using implementing agents just to acquit ourselves of the situation we find ourselves in. The Free State Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Destea); Department of Agriculture and Department of Sport, arts and recreation will not be utilising implementing agents anymore. The departments will be implementing the projects on their own.”

Opposition parties have expressed their unhappiness on the release of the Auditor-General’s report.

EFF MP Kgotso Morapela says that the people of Free State must liberate themselves by voting correctly.

“We are calling upon the people of  Free State to really liberate themselves by voting correctly next year… and vote for the EFF because we are going to arrest people, and make sure that we root out corruption in Free State province. That is our intention as the EFF – it can’t be business as usual. Last week we had a problem in one of the hospitals here in Bloemfontein. There were no lights, no water… you go in our rural areas, you go in some of our small towns,  there’s nothing happening there… its ghost towns. People are eating money, nothing is happening, irregular expenditure year in year out, and nothing is said about the people that are actually misusing the finances of government and tax payers money.”

The DA Provincial leader Patricia Kopane says they are disappointed by the government’s spending.

“It’s clear that the Department of Health has used about R140 million. You’d remember the Department spent about R1.5 billion additional to that… Now Department have to cough that money that was supposed to be used for services. The same department again, they used R1.8 billion to defend themselves against poor service that they’ve been rendering to the people.”

Vryheid Front Plus MP Tammy Wessels says that the people of Free State need to fight against maladministration

“I also think that in future the people of the Free State need to fight back against maladministration, they need to fight back against poor service delivery by the ruling party, and they need give other opposition parties the opportunity to prove their worth. They need to make their crosses and put their vote to opposition parties, and the parties who are willing to take on maladministration, and who are willing to sort out the poor service delivery issues of the Free State.”

 

Watch related video below:

Author

MOST READ