Barry Streek
Government departments do not always get their administration right – and even the institute set up to teach them how to do it has slipped up.
This was revealed when Auditor General Henri Kluever tabled his annual report for the 1997/98 financial year in Parliament.
The South African Management Development Institute was established to train senior civil servants to be good managers. Sadly, the audit “revealed a lack of internal controls over stocks and assets”.
Fortunately, “we have been informed that the concerns raised around the control of assets had been addressed suitably subsequent to the financial year-end”, Kluever said.
Even that exemplary minister, Kader Asmal, had his former department’s administration shown up: the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry had planted 5 100ha of exotic trees on the banks of streams in its commercial forests in contravention of its own official policy, the report said.