- Hon. members, the South African budget guide and dictionary defines – expenditure as money paid out or spent by government, so the expectation of taxpayers is valid, that officials must be accountable.
- Notwithstanding, the Hon. Premiers statement earlier that gave a pat on the back of some departments on reducing irregular expenditure, in billions, mind you but Hon. members this still presents this Hon. House with a moral hazard if we do not resolve on stringent, timeous consequence management by culprit departments.
- This Hon. House needs to keep departments discipline on performance budgeting and Provincial Treasury should work on such a business toolkit, giving departments a practical handbook on sound fiscal management.
- Our experience tells us that procurement processes are tested and evaluated by the Auditor General and this exercise classifies the amounts of irregular expenditure. Condonation rejection by Provincial Treasury only confirms that every bottleneck needs to be pursued by portfolio committees, as the Hon. SCOPA Chair, Hon. M. Govender has stated in this report.
- The Minority Front has repetitively argued that IT investment must be a separate line-item in all departments because condonation is rejected because of poor record keeping practices. Departments show resistance to digital culture and this Hon. House must resolve to make digital transformation solutions mandatory to enhance automated-assisted decision-making for tracking, monitoring and accountability.
- With these remarks the MF supports this SCOPA report.
- Thank you.
DETAILS
Debated by: Hon. Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi
Minority Front Leader (KZN Legislature)
Date: Thursday 4 August 2022
Time: 09:00 to 12:30
Word Count: 234 Words