THURSDAY, 5.45PM:
THE Mpumalanga portfolio committee for public accounts berated the province’s legislature on Thursday after it failed to explain mismanagement, inefficiency and financial irregularities over the last two years.
After provincial auditor-general Douglas Maphiri told the committee that the legislature had failed to address many problems of uncontrolled expenditure and waste reported by the auditor-general more than ten months ago, the committee cross-examined the legislature’s acting secretary, Wilson Ngwenya, and financial manager Jomo Siboza.
Ngwenya was reprimanded repeatedly by the portfolio committee when he admitted he could not explain the irregularities and his request for an additional three months to collect outstanding information was rejected with a warning that the failure to do so within two weeks will evoke a less “sensitive” response from the committee.