Take the Auditor-General seriously

OPINION

Douglas Gibson |

11 December 2024

Douglas Gibson says Tsakani Maluleke's recent reports make for shocking reading

Tsakani Maluleke is proving more than competent in a long line of distinguished Auditors General. She renders vital service to South Africa. Her reports of the auditing of all government bodies make for shocking reading. The painful truth is that despite the interrogation of the report and the senior officials by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, (SCOPA), little is done to hold departments and officials to account. How many are fired; how many are demoted; how many are made to refund illegal gains; and how many are charged, tried, convicted, and punished?

SCOPA is chaired by Songezo Zibi, who now has a chance to shine and in so doing, make a big contribution to the success of the GNU. SCOPA must prove that it is not a toothless body. It must make recommendations that show consequences for bad, sloppy, negligent, dishonest, or criminal conduct by politicians and officials whose departments end up with anything other than clean audits.

We met behind closed doors in those pre-democratic days when I served on the Transvaal provincial and then the parliamentary SCOPA. It was a sin (almost) punishable by death for a member to disclose details of the discussions to the media. Thankfully, things are now different. SCOPA operates in the full glare of publicity. The media should make more use of this opportunity to hold the government, the departments, the ministers, and the officials to account.

Space constraints prevent a discussion of all aspects of the AG Report. Some cherry-picking is necessary. There are 257 local government authorities; amazingly, only 34 municipalities received clean audits. Twenty of those were in the Western Cape (governed by the DA). Only one metro council, Cape Town, received a clean audit. Could it be that the DA sets higher standards for its councillors, its mayoral committees, and its officials?

In other provinces, the Eastern Cape and KZN each had three clean audits. Northern Cape had three, Mpumalanga had two, and South Africa's most prosperous province, Gauteng, had only one (Midvaal, governed by the DA). Surely South Africans cannot accept this is the best we can do? The main tasks of local government are service delivery governance, public health, maintaining infrastructure, management of finance, and protecting the environment.

Government departments fare somewhat better than local governments, but the shocking fact is that 63% of government departments did not comply with procurement legislation. This is where corruption occurs. Contrary to the law, more than R120 million in state contracts last year was paid by the state to companies owned or managed by relatives of public officials. And R32 million was paid to public officials themselves on illegal contracts. Again, where are the criminal charges? The dismissals? The prison terms for politicians and officials who wilfully cheat the state?

In an excellent article, William Saunderson-Meyer highlights AG Maluleke again bemoaning the “no-confidence culture” prevailing in government. She says the lack of consequences is most evident in the poor and slow response to allegations of misconduct and fraud, the failure to investigate and deal with irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure, and non-compliance with legislation.

Clean account outcomes do not necessarily equal adequate service delivery, but they certainly indicate decent management and proper spending of the people’s money. Perhaps the biggest contribution the DA can make to good government in South Africa is to set an example wherever it can and to move in government to give the Auditor-General teeth to enable her to ensure that there are indeed consequences for all who fail.

Douglas Gibson is a former Opposition chief whip and a former ambassador to Thailand.

This article first appeared in The Star newspaper and in Politicsweb.