Democratic Alliance MP Marian Shinn says the department of communications’ annual report, which was tabled in parliament on Friday, reveals how the department was “grossly mismanaged” during the tenure of former communications minister Dina Pule.
Pule was fired by president Jacob Zuma in July and was reprimanded in parliament after its joint committee on ethics and members’ interests found her guilty of abusing her position to benefit her romantic partner, Phosane Mngqibisa, and misleading the committee about the nature of their relationship.
According to the auditor-general’s opinion on the financial statements of the department of communications, 46% of total planned targets were not achieved; vacancies were not filled within 12 months as required by public service regulations; employees received overtime in excess of 30% of their monthly salaries; and payments to suppliers were not made within 30 days as required by national treasury regulations.
Shinn says the audit opinion shows appointments were made in posts that were not approved or funded and employees were appointed without following processes to verify claims made in their applications.
According to Shinn, the department’s accounting officer did not exercise oversight to ensure that proper processes were in place for compliance with laws and regulations.
This resulted in “fruitless and wasteful expenditure” amounting to R1,1m due to “settlement agreements” and “irregular expenditure” amounting to R121m, with R116m carried over from the previous financial year.
Pule’s replacement, Yunus Carrim, has undertaken to ensure that departmental oversight is improved. Carrim was appointed by Zuma in July. To this end, Shinn says she will request that the minister appears in parliament to present a turnaround plan for the department for scrutiny.
“The department of communications has dealt with enough embarrassments since 2009,” Shinn says. “It is time that it becomes an asset that the country can be proud of.”
Shinn says Carrim “now has the opportunity to drastically address the capacity of the department of communications’ top management structure if he has any hope of achieving a clean audit by 2014”. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
