The rot in local government has perplexed both the legislative and executive arm of the state, with MPs on Friday raising concerns about the excessive delays in finalising cases at local government.
Chairman of the portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) Fikile Xasa said poor monitoring of corruption cases contributed significantly to delays in finalising them and that convening quarterly meetings to monitor progress is a mechanism to ensure accountability for the delays.
Xasa was reacting to a briefing by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) on corruption and Covid-19-related cases in local government.
He said the briefing revealed a gap in the SIU’s power as the unit is unable to ensure its reports are acted upon.
An example of this is municipal councils that have sat with SIU reports for years without repercussions.
“The SIU should consider lobbying for amendments to the SIU Act to provide it with powers to compel institutions to consider and act on its reports within a specific and reasonable time frame,” Xasa said.
He also expressed the committee’s unhappiness about the “generic overview” of corruption cases it received from the Hawks, which he said left the committee in the dark on the progress achieved in cases the Hawks previously reported it was investigating.
“The committee has requested the Hawks to provide a detailed report on the corruption cases, without compromising them, including figures quantifying their cumulative monetary value,” he said.
“This will assist the committee to understand the financial impact of this corruption on the fiscus and to determine whether the value of the restraint, preservations, confiscations and forfeiture orders and recoveries are commensurate with the amounts lost.”
In her briefing to the committee, NPA boss Shamila Batohi said corruption in local government is “overwhelming”.
The auditor-general’s 2019/20 report lays bare the sheer extent of the rot in local government.
The report states that uncondoned irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounted to a whopping R189-billion.
This as only 28% of municipalities submitted quality financials for audit purposes and just 11% received clean audits.
The Free State and North West provinces did not have a single clean audit between them.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
