The announcement last week that the Department of Arts and Culture has received a qualified audit report from Auditor General Terence Nombembe has been met with alarm from the parliamentary opposition and silence from within the department itself.
In the first qualified audit finding in five years, the Auditor General has written: ”An unexplained difference of R13 415 189 exists between the asset register and the amount disclosed in the financial statements.”
DA MP and party spokesperson on arts and culture, Desiree van der Walt, said: ”The fact that it is about R13,4million worth of assets is alarming. We believe the assets of the department are open to abuse and theft. And it seems as though in government, generally, there is this inadequate management of assets.”
The report does not specify what the missing assets are, but the DA has charged that in the country’s museums, for example, there is a lack of effective control of national treasures.
It has also provided the DA with an opportunity to besmirch the name of prior department director general Itumeleng Mosala, who has now been replaced by incoming Director General Thembinkosi Wakashe. Regarding Mosala’s tenure, Van der Walt said: ”We had a DG who we never saw on the arts and culture portfolio committee. We didn’t know who he was, what he looked like or what work he had done.
”If you look at the Audior General’s report you will also find that there is quite a high vacancy rate of 34% on highly skilled supervision. That is a concern and we have raised that in two budget hearings now.”
The DA is attributing the qualified report to the problems that previously existed in the top echelon of the department. The claim is that there exists a trickle-down effect and it has impacted negatively on the asset management of this portfolio.
”There has been no control of those assets,” said Van der Walt. Now, with Parliament reopening next week, the DA will be submitting parliamentary questions in writing to ascertain what constituted the ”unexplained” R13,4-million difference.
When approached on the subject, department spokesperson Sandile Memela at first claimed he had no knowledge of the missing assets. But when pressed further he gave the official response: ”The department has nothing to say until we get the formal question [from the DA]. There are proper channels to address these issues.”