Some R14,5-million of the kwaZulu/Natal budget for school library books is unaccounted for, reports Ann Eveleth
AS much as R14,5-million earmarked for the purchase of school library books in kwaZulu/Natal is unaccounted for, prompting an official investigation by the provincial government.
The Weekly Mail & Guardian has established that the province’s new library director, Sally Ballard, has been unable to trace R14,5-million — three-quarters of the budget — allocated for library book purchases during the 1994/5 fiscal year. This is despite repeated inquiries directed at senior officials over the 12 months she has been in the job.
Some of the money may have been used to pay for orders placed in previous financial years, and may be un-traceable because of chaotic accounting. But rumours are circulating in the book trade that at least some of the budget allocation may have vanished into the pockets of booksellers through “unauthorised purchases”.
Book trade sources insist that such unauthorised sales could not have taken place without the connivance of department officials.
The incoming kwaZulu/Natal secretary for education, Dr Sydney Shabalala, decribed the fracas as “embarrassing”. He said that although he was new to the post he could “not deny there are irregularities which need to be investigated”. The kwaZulu and Natal education departments are still in the process of being integrated.
Democratic Party MP Roger Burrows, who heads the provincial portfolio committee on education and culture, said he intended taking the matter to the relevant departmental officials before raising it in his committee at the next sitting of the provincial legislature in February.
“The allegations are extraordinarily serious and the situation requires the fullest possible investigation,” he said.
Shabalala’s predecessor and now acting superintendent general for the kwaZulu/Natal department of education and culture, WA Staude, said he was “aware of certain allegations that have been made concerning the disbursement of funds for the purchase of library books for educational institutions of the ex-kwaZulu department of education and culture”.
Staude said he had “officially requested that a formal investigation into the matter be made”. He stressed that the reports were “at this time, unproven speculation”, but he refused to disclose the current balance of the library department’s budget or to answer further questions.
Alarm bells sounded when Ballard discovered in November that funds had fallen to R3-million, when at least R9- million should still have been available. After a year of repeated attempts to obtain financial documents, invoices and order numbers detailing the department’s financial obligations, she has yet to receive answers from the relevant officials.
It is also understood that when Ballard, the former Natal Library Services deputy head, assumed her new post in January, she was inundated with invoices from book suppliers totalling more than R4-million for purchases of which she had no record.
Her unanswered questions come against the backdrop of reports that kwaZulu schools have received library books without ordering them, prompting fears that some booksellers could be “dumping” remainders — unsold and often inappropriate books — at a hefty mark-up.
Sources said that while experienced book buyers would normally vet such purchases from booksellers, an inexperienced purchaser with inadequate procedures could easily be taken for a ride.
The director general of the provincial education department, Professor Otty Nxumalo, said that while he was aware of efforts by the department to devise a system for ordering books, he was “not aware that any money has been spent. My own guess is that the R17-million has not been used.”
Unless Ballard placed orders, he added, he could “not imagine how else the money could be spent”.