Cape Town - While suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is facing an impeachment inquiry, her office has obtained a clean audit report for the third year in a row from Auditor General Tsakani Maluleke.
This emerged from the annual report for the 2021-22 financial year tabled in Parliament last week.
Deputy Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka said they were elated that once again the office obtained a record third successive clean audit opinion.
Gcaleka said the clean bill of health in their finances, performance and compliance with policies and legislation was an affirmation of the hard work they put in over the past few years.
“We therefore walk the talk of good administration and integrity. We, however, do admit that this is a normal - ours is to strive for good governance,” she said.
“It would be untenable for us, an institution whose purpose it is to cultivate a culture of good governance across the public sector, to call out other organs of state for conduct that often leads to undesirable audit outcomes, if we ourselves were guilty of the same misdeeds,” Gcaleka said in the foreword to the annual report.
National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula however has referred the audit report on the financial statements and performance information to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).
Reports that are flagged for irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure are usually sent to Scopa for scrutiny.
Audit committee chairperson Princes Mangoma raised some concerns in her report, among them an investigation report not signed by the Public Protector that was counted as part of performance achievement.
“Actual performance reported for two years and older cases differs from the verified evidence,” Mangoma said.
Maluleke noted that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation undertook an investigation into the procurement processes followed during the appointment of service providers during 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years.
“The investigation has since been completed by the Serious Economic Offences Unit.”
Public Protector chief executive Thandi Sibanyoni disclosed that R36 993.06 in irregular expenditure was incurred due to the provision of hosted telephone system (PABX) in four provincial offices and two regional offices services without an approval during the period under review.
“The transactions were detected upon receipt of the invoices where it was established that the call charges were not included as part of the specification for the procurement of the PABX system.
“The approval for variation of the contract was granted as at the time of reporting the transactions and same were referred to the Financial Misconduct Committee for further investigations in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA),” she said.
Sibanyoni said R52 165.99 fruitless and wasteful expenditure was incurred for fixed Telkom telephone line charges; loss of UPS and other transactions relating to travel management.
“Some of the transactions were still under investigation through the FMC while some were concluded for recovery. Workshops were subsequently held to sensitise all officials about the roles and responsibilities of each individual as outlined in the PFMA,” she said.
The financial statement indicated that Maluleke detected R27 622 in irregular expenditure for the appointment of the service provider for the provision of cleaning services, due to the contract not being awarded by the appropriate delegated committee.
“The transaction has not been disclosed as part of irregular expenditure as the institution still has to seek clarity on the interpretation of the regulation from National Treasury,” the report said.
Cape Times