Water dept gets praise for financial recovery plan

The Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation has been praised for making some visible improvements in the handling of its finances and making commendable strides in reducing accruals and payments.

The financially strapped department which owed million to service providers, including water boards, and incurred massive irregular expenditure, has come up with a financial recovery plan for which it was commended by the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation during a departmental briefing in parliament on Tuesday.

Its accruals and payables had decreased from R1,667,887 in March 2019 to R808,460 on 31 October 2019. The committee was satisfied that the payment for services received ensures that service providers remain viable and that projects were completed.

“The committee welcomes the department’s consequence management initiatives to deal with the R16,642,937,319 in irregular expenditure. The committee has always emphasised that consequence management is a necessity to deter wrong-doing. The committee welcome the 86 guilty verdicts, 13 dismissals, one demotion and various suspensions meted out against errant officials,” committee chairperson Machwene Semenya said.

The committee suggested that there must be “constructive” discussions and implementation plan to deal effectively with debt and to assist water boards to improve their balance sheet. “This is necessary if the Department of Water and Sanitation’s entities are to achieve their mandate and ensure water provision,” Semenya said.

The department announced its intention to stop its “War on Leaks” programme which were marred by planning inefficiencies. However, the committee suggested that the department should conclude the programme and improve its planning capacity.

Semenya and other committee members felt that the intentions of War on Leaks were noble and much could have been achieved with it, especially in relation to decreasing non-revenue water, which was at 41% at an estimated R9.9 billion in lost value. It requested the department to bring a concrete strategy on how it would exit the War and Leaks programme, and regular updates on the department’s financial recovery plan.

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