Water and sanitation department’s irregular expenditure reaches R16.5 billion

As the department of water and sanitation (DWS) yesterday counted the cost of billions of rands lost in wasteful, irregular and unauthorised expenditure spanning several years of poor governance, an expert has painted a dire picture of the country’s water management crisis.

He warned that 60% of local municipalities were dysfunctional when it came to efficient water provision.

R16.5 million of irregular expenditure

Briefing MPs during the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) hearing on the state of the DWS, director-general Dr Sean Phillips said the total value of irregular expenditure had reached R16.5 billion, with National Treasury having provided condonation valued at R1.5 billion.

According to Phillips, cases of irregular expenditure implicated individuals and companies in the siphoning of public funds in the DWS budget.

Cases to be investigated

“We have 15 cases with National Treasury up to the value of about R8 billion. There is another R8 billion, which we need to investigate, before going to National Treasury for condonation.

“Added to this are other cases constituting irregular expenditure, [for] which we still need to investigate and take disciplinary action or institute criminal proceedings based on the results of the investigations.

“We intend to be working closely with the National Treasury on all our irregular expenditure cases, until we address all the issues,” said Philips, who fielded a barrage of questions from MPs.

The list of irregular payments made – earlier flagged by the auditor-general – included millions spent on the Giyani water project, upgrading of the Thukela-Goedertrouw scheme and desalination plant in Richards Bay.

Another case included an irregular payment of R179 00 594, made on 20 April, 2018 to a consulting firm for financial management services, without the service providers producing required progress reports to support work that had been performed.

Expert’s view

Sketching a grim picture of a South Africa faced with a prolonged water crisis, expert Anthony Turton warned: “A credible leadership is needed to manage the water crisis – a leadership that will regard this as a national security risk.

“The reason why it is a national security risk is that, without adequate water and energy supply, the sovereign integrity of the state is at risk because government is simply unable to exert its authority over parts of the population and various departments under its control.

“Without an ability to exert authority, justification for the state ceases to exists, leading to a threat to the existence of the state.

“The state breaks up and stops working as a coherent entity. “When that happens, anarchy starts breaking out, with warlords emerging – criminal entities in the form of gangs that control a large part of the economy “We need to look no further than the construction mafia.”

With 60% of local municipalities dysfunctional and 20% near collapse, Turton singled out Emfuleni municipality for being “unable to turn around a sewage crisis”.

He said: “The department of water and sanitation has spent no less than R2 billion to address the sewage problem in Emfuleni.

“The SANDF’s effort to help resolve the situation could not bear any progress and soldiers had to leave the area, unable to fix things.

“There have been many court cases brought against the Emfuleni municipality, but this has brought no change. “Part of the problem is that municipal officials are protected by labour laws, rendering the situation a labour relations dispute, where you cannot fire a person without a just cause.

“The fat cats who earn huge salaries, end up clinging to their jobs, not being held accountable at all.”

He said the Ugu district municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, was “another example of a dysfunctional administration, now breeding organised crime syndicates”.

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– brians@citizen.co.za