The Auditor General (AG) has lambasted Mpumalanga Government Departments for poor budgeting – which led to them missing out on an opportunity to create over 10 000 jobs in the 2023/2024 financial year.
The recent AG Report which is dated 9 October 2024, mentioned that because of poor budgeting, infrastructure projects in Mpumalanga run out of funds before they were completed. The AG also said that departments are prioritising many projects with limited budget leading to significant project delays and abandonment. The AG added that because of poor budgeting, more than 10 000 job creation targets were not achieved in Mpumalanga in the last financial year due to delays in projects and stopped projects.
The AG recommended the following:
- Improve planning to ensure adequate funding for infrastructure project to be set aside for the duration of a project.
- Performance management of project managers to include output/outcome measures to enable consequence management when required outputs are not achieved.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that the 10 000 missed job opportunities, could have made a significant dent on the high unemployment rate in the province. At the present moment, Mpumalanga is sitting at 48.7% expanded unemployment rate, this includes 46.4% youth unemployment, one of the highest in the country.
The AG Report also pointed out that Unauthorised, Irregular, Fruitless & Wasteful (UIFW) expenditure for 2023/2024 financial year, significantly increased in Mpumalanga departments as compared to the 2022/2023 financial year. This is how UIFW increased compared to 2022/2023:
- Irregular expenditure increased from R10.36 billion in 2022/2023 to R11.07 billion in 2023/2024.
- Fruitless and Wasteful expenditure increased from R49.90 million in 2022/2023 financial year to R68.82 million in 2023/2024.
- Unauthorised expenditure increased from R0.97 billion in 2022/2023 financial year to R1.05 billion in 2023/2024
The AG said Mpumalanga Government auditees have a poor track record concerning dealing with UIFW expenditure. He warned that 50% of Mpumalanga government auditees do not have Chief Financial Officers (CFO’s), and that could be the reason their Financial Health remains in a critical area of concern.
The AG mentioned that Non-Compliance with Supply Chain Management (SCM) laws and regulations continues to drive Unauthorised, Irregular, Fruitless & Wasteful (UIFW) expenditure within Mpumalanga government departments.
The report says that accountability in Mpumalanga government departments is not given priority, with little or no consequences at all. The AG advised MEC’s to invest in sustainable solutions to prevent accountability failures in their departments.