Empty water tanks, payments to dead people flagged by AG

The recovery of an estimated R3.4 billion worth of incorrect/invalid disbursements was made said Auditor-General Tsakane Maluleke.

Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke. Picture: Twitter

Missing water tanks, overpricing and incorrect invoicing on services and goods were among several red flags pointed out by Auditor-General (AG) Tsakane Maluleke’s report into the R500 billion Covid-19 relief fund.

It appeared more money was wasted and possibly stolen from the fund since the last report in September, with multiple instances of fraud being reported to authorities. Governance issues also marred efforts to use the funds effectively, although the AG’s office went to lengths to praise government where a good job was done.

According to Maluleke, while most initiatives bankrolled by the fund had been completed or were close to completion, some had been abandoned or redirected. Financial management mistakes also cost the fund millions so far.

“We could not reconcile some of the information on the registers of the water tanks of Rand Water with what we found at the sites and match it to the original needs analyses performed,” said the report. “We could not find some of the tanks at the locations specified in the registers – there are unconfirmed claims that the tanks were moved by the municipalities. At some of the sites we found tanks that were empty and tanks with poor quality installations.”

Maluleke’s office was worried about unfairness in the awarding of government business and that sufficient care wasn’t taken to protect against overpricing, financial loss, fraud and abuse of the system.

The recovery of an estimated R3.4 billion worth of incorrect/invalid disbursements was made. Meanwhile, data analytics continued to identify payments that required further investigation, although these had been reduced. These questionable payments included those for people who were below the legal age of employment, deceased, held invalid IDs, worked in government or received social grants.

Auditors found poor management and storage of resources affected the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) in some provinces and exposed the PPE to loss. They also found that competitive processes were not followed, resulting in contracts being awarded to specific supplier or group of suppliers without the necessary motivation or approval for such deviations.

ALSO READ: AG Makwetu slams Covid-19 fraud, govt’s inability to manage projects

The report said some initiatives failed and were even abandoned because of failed coordination, monitoring and relationships across the three spheres of government.

“Where implementing agents were used, we found weaknesses in coordination and monitoring which compromised delivery, transparency and accountability,” the report said. “We continued to identify indicators of potential fraud which will be reported to the fusion centre for investigation.”