R2,2bn for condonation

Provincial Treasury MEC Seaparo Sekoati, who was the acting Premier during the provincial government Senior Management Summit at Bolivia Estate last Thursday, lashed out at Limpopo Director-General Nape Nchabeleng, heads of departments (HODs) and chief executive officers for allegedly failing to discipline financial wrongdoers in the administration.
This after a total of 37 provincial govern­ment transactions amounting to R2,2 billion were submitted for condonation to National Treasury. He said at face value and in layman’s terms it means each of the 13 government departments have a minimum of two transactions amounting to R59 459 460 which must be condoned. Sekoati reiterated that these transactions cause him as MEC for Provincial Treasury sleepless nights.

“I am raising this as blatant and lame as it is so that we can realise the dangers of a lack of consequence management for maladministration and wasteful expenditures. Maybe I need to raise it with Premier Stan Mathabatha and the Executive Council that Limpopo Director-General Nape Nchabeleng, heads of departments and chief executive officers must be expelled for failing to discipline financial wrongdoers in our administration. One Rand is too many to be lost, misappropriated or administered,” Sekoati stressed.
He further said the situation delayed service delivery and denied people their well-deserved employment and empowerment opportunities. Sekoati was delighted that government departments’ cumulative compliance rate in terms of the payment of invoices within 30 days stood at 86,55% in the first quarter with most of the departments individually performing above 90% and the lowest at 67,27%.
He urged officials to keep up this performance to ensure that no small or micro economic enterprise closes its doors or retrench its workers because of the provincial government’s failure to pay invoices on time.

Sekoati stated that at the level of senior management, Limpopo administration should have experts and high achievers only: “If it means that we must sleep in courts to rid delinquents off our administration, at least let us do that.
People of Limpopo, who are the beneficiaries and sole shareholders of our administration will thank us for saving their government. For us to achieve some of these objectives of excellence in public service, we need to open our eyes and realise the human capital that exist within our hard working middle management and lower administrative staff,” he concluded.

Story/photos: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za