The South African National Treasury is currently dealing with 150 cases of unauthorised, irregular or fruitless and wasteful spending across the various government departments, involving amounts totalling approximately R1-billion, it emerged at Parliament on Wednesday.
In a presentation to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Nols du Plessis, chief director of the Treasury’s public finance management act (PFMA) unit, said that the Treasury would provide details on many of the misspending cases in a special report, to be submitted to Scopa by the end of October.
Of the total 150 cases, 123 amounting to about R250-million involved violations in terms of the 1975 Exchequer Act, Du Plessis revealed, which deals with payments made in government departments without provision by any law, payments exceeding the total amount appropriated, no appropriate Treasury approval or inconsistent with a provision of any law.
Another 26 cases amounting to R750-million involved violations in terms of the PFMA, which became law in 1999. Many of these included large amounts from departments such as Public Works, explained Du Plessis.
Under the PFMA, unauthorised expenditure can occur as a result of overspending of a vote or a main division of the budget, or expenditure not in accordance with the purpose of a vote or main division of the budget. The financial officers of each government department can be held accountable for incidents of misspending.
The Treasury report detailing the cases would provide explanations as to the amount involved, the item on which the funds were spent, background on how the case arose, and whether it concerned non-compliance, overspending or unauthorised expenditure, Du Plessis pledged.
The report would cover cases through the 2003-04 financial year. – I-Net Bridge