The provincial auditor general (AG) never gave any assurance that over-expenditure on the security upgrading of Western Cape provincial minister of community safety Leonard Ramatlakane’s residence did not constitute fraud and corruption, a committee heard on Thursday.
Testifying before the provincial parliament’s ad-hoc committee investigating whether Premier Ebrahim Rasool lied when he said the assurance was given, provincial AG Justin Diedericks said no such assurance was given.
”Such assurance can only be given after a forensic audit has been performed,” he said.
By the time Rasool sent out a press release to the media claiming that the auditor general had given such assurance, an audit had not yet been conducted, said Diedericks.
Early on Thursday morning Rasool denied to the committee that the press release he sent out had the effect of misleading the public.
Rasool told the committee that the auditor general had informed him that the more than R200 000 over-expenditure on Ramatlakane’s residence was more a matter of administrative oversight.
”The advice that we got from the auditor general was that the over-expenditure was more a matter of administrative weakness than that of fraud and corruption,” he said.
Rasool also told the committee that the AG had indicated to him that Ramatlakane’s over-expenditure could be condoned.
”At our meeting in … December 2006, the [AG] told me that the over-expenditure was irregular and not unauthorised and that the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), accordingly, should seek condonation.
”He further told me that the AG normally allows for departments to resolve any problems first and that the AG had, accordingly, advised Scopa that the over-expenditure should be condoned,” he said.
However, Diedericks disputed this, saying that while it was true that Rasool was informed that any irregular expenditure could be condoned, the AG was not specifically referring to Ramatlakane’s expenditure, but to irregular expenditures in general.
He said the AG had never advised Scopa to condone Ramatlakane’s irregular expenditure.
In the end, the committee would have to decide whether Rasool was guilty of misleading the provincial legislature and public.
However, it does not have the power to remove him as premier as Rasool was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki, who will decide whether to fire him in the event of a guilty verdict.
The hearings continues. — Sapa