The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is responsible for R13.9 bn in irregular expenditure out of a total R46,3 bn, Auditor General Kimi Makwetu said on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, PRASA’s acting group chief executive, Collins Letsoalo, revealed that the rail agency incurred R13.9 bn in irregular expenditure. The announcement came after PRASA received an unqualified audit from the auditor general.

PRASA also faced serious criticism after its R3.5 bn tender for new locomotives from Shell Company Swifambo Train Leasing went wrong. This deal subsequently resulted in an investigation.

A total of figure R46,3 bn was accumulated by national and provincial government departments for the2015-2016 year, Makwetu said.

Irregular expenditure refers to the money spent on the procurement of goods and services without following prescribed processes. According to Makwetu, the main cause of the spike in irregular expenditure was due to continued non-compliance with supply chain management legislation.

Makwetu said six auditees were responsible for just over 50% of the irregular expenditure in the 2015-2016 year.

These included PRASA, health departments in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga ‚ the Department of Water and Sanitation and the road and transport and human settlements departments in Gauteng.

Makwetu indicated that there has been an 80% increase in irregular expenditure since the previous financial year, when irregular expenditure was tallied at R25.7 bn.

Makwetu expressed his concern about the financial future of state-owned entities in the country and said that poor leadership impacted poorly on their audit outcomes.

“The poor leadership included instability at board level, vacancies in key positions, inadequate consequence management and poor monitoring and oversight of procurement processes led to weak leader,” Makwetu said.

He did however report a slight improvement in the audit results of national and provincial governments over the past three years.

The auditor general’s report audited 169 national and provincial departments and 315 public enterprises, that contained 484 auditees in total, with a budget of R1.2 trillion for 2015-16.