Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane.
The Auditor General’s finding that the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has among the highest irregular expenditures, although it was given a clean audit, is important, Professor Mike Muller from the Wits School of Governance said.
“It shows that the minister (Nomvula Mokonyane) has been ‘outsourcing irregularity’,” Muller added. “The fact that he (the Auditor-General) focused on this issue means that he is concerned about what is happening. He should be.
“This trend of outsourcing procurement decisions has seen that the number of people people without reliable water supplies has increased substantially at the same time that DWS spending has increased. Clearly something is wrong.”
Muller said that without going into specific cases, the underlying problem was clear.
“The Minister has said that she does not want the same companies to continue to get the bulk of the work in the sector. So she is giving work to other companies who she chooses. When what was probably an illegal ‘panel’ of companies was challenged, she started to outsource the procurement decisions. As a result, costs are higher, quality is lower and water supplies are deteriorating not improving,” Muller said.
SCOPA takes water department to task over irregular expenditure
The DWS found itself in hot water last week after the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) grilled the department on its irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in Parliament. The department’s irregular expenditure increased from R781 million in 2014/15 to R2,4 billion in 2015/16 due to R1,3 billion incurred by the Lepelle Northern Water Board. The Lepelle Northern Water Board was contracted for an “emergency” project according to the department’s minister Nomvula Mokonyane. The project dealt with the roll out of water infrastructure in Limpopo‘s Mopane district. Mokonyane said that for a six month period, the Mopane district was without water and that the department was responsible for intervening. “The emergency nature of this problem was not about replacing a tap,” she said. “It had to do with the relaying of pipes and fixing non-functioning water treatment plants that had been there for years.”She added that the problem was a result of a 2014 regime where planning in the area was done “horribly”.
MPs requested a forensic investigation into the department’s irregular expenditure in 2015/16 after SCOPA noted the payment of millions of rand to contractors without invoices. SCOPA has demanded to know who signed off the payments and which companies received them. The committee said that it will closely monitor the activities of the department to ensure that the accounting officer applies the law. SCOPA has requested the following documentation from the department by Tuesday:- Motivation from the department stating that the water situation in Limpopo was an emergency. It should require a directive from the minister about the water situation in Mopane.
- A copy of the directive from Mokonyane stating that the situation was an emergency in terms of the Water Services Act.
- A written response from the department on how it planned to implement the remedial plan suggested by the minister.
