The Department of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has budgeted R1-billion to update its management of money in trust programme (MMIT), its chief operations officer Khotso De Wee said on Wednesday.
His remarks come after Auditor General Shauket Fakie tabled a report in Parliament on Tuesday identifying serious financial and administrative inefficiencies in the MMIT.
The mismanagement of maintenance, inheritance, fine and other moneys controlled by the department resulted in a total shortfall and unreconciled balance of R178-million.
De Wee said the current MMIT programme and processes were introduced 40 years ago and the department had started looking at ways to update it three years ago.
”It is an historical problem. Advances in technologies have resulted in current manual processes not being able to cope with the requirements of financial management,” he said.
He said Fakie’s investigation, which was done at the request of the department, had confirmed the problems with the system.
He announced that the department has shortlisted six consortiums to help them address the problem. The project has a budget of R1-billion over the next 10 years.
”It is targeted to award a tender by the end of this year, and would require full implementation covering all areas of South Africa by 2007,” he said.
The new electronic system will create an audit trail showing from whom and to who money is paid out, help in balancing accounts and speed up service delivery.
This means money may be paid out at place such as banks and courts.
De Wee said the department has also started addressing the lack of human-resource capacity that has added to the problem.
”Two hundred and sixty-seven court managers are in various stages of appointment. We have also appointed 86 maintenance investigators and 435 maintenance officers to assist court users,” he said. — Sapa