Sol Plaatje must turn streetlights on for festive season
| by Andrew Louw MPL – DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader |
| Error! Filename not specified. |
| Date: 31 October 2019 |
| Release: Immediate |
| The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern is deeply concerned by a regression in the audit outcomes of provincial government departments for the 2018-2019 financial year.Even more so given yesterday’s disclosure of the country’s dire financial situation.We are pleased that the Office of the Premier and Provincial Treasury managed to hold onto clean audits. It is non-negotiable that these departments must lead by example.Astute financial management by these two departments alone, however, is not nearly enough.When one considers that the national government is currently paying off more on interest on debt (R299 billion) than it is on education (R262 billion), healthcare (R222 billion), social grants (R206,8 billion) and police (R104 billion), then it goes without saying that each and every cent of government needs to be prudently and effectively spent in a manner that is beyond reproach.In the Northern Cape, this is not happening.The fact that the province’s key oversight body, by way of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature, failed to submit it its financial statements, is a serious indictment of the 6th Administration.It is unacceptable to claim that documentary evidence got lost in the recent relocation from the city centre back to the legislature precinct. In fact, we cannot help but wonder whether this is simply a convenient excuse for improper financial transactions.The late submission of financial statements by the Health Department is another critical failure of an ANC government that wants to implement a National Health Insurance (NHI) system but cannot even properly manage what it has.Instead its has successfully mismanaged its financial allocation, with Health on its own incurring R715 million irregular expenditure in the past financial year.The second highest contributor to irregular expenditure was the Education Department that, alongside the Department of Economic Development, regressed to qualified audit findings.It is then no wonder that we remain stuck with an unacceptably high unemployment rate, while the departments primarily responsible for growing the minds of our young people and growing the economy, are growing the debt mountain instead.While we appreciate the fact that Premier Zamani Saul is fast-tracking the appointment of an HOD to the Economic Development Department, which remained leaderless for the better part of the 5th administration, the DA is also of the view that, at the same time heads must roll across all departments that have failed to improve their audit outcomes. Afterall, the overall regression in the provincial audit outcomes points to unacceptably high levels of poor governance and the mismanagement of funds.As a political party, DA leaders have been held accountable for losing votes at the polls, surely the ANC government can muster up enough nerve to hold government officials accountable for losing millions of rands of taxpayers’ money through basic non-compliance to supply chain management (SCM) functions.The clock is ticking and money is running out. If the Northern Cape fails to turn its unsatisfactory financial state around soon, there will be nothing left but shells of government buildings and skeletons of service delivery initiatives. |
| Media Enquiries |
| Andrew Louw MPLDA Northern Cape Provincial Leader Shelley De WittResearcher082 847 1387 |
Related posts