AG reveals irregularities amounting to billions of rands in govt

Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has revealed that material irregularities of more than R14 billion have been detected in provincial and national governments, while material irregularities in municipalities are just over R5 billion.

Maluleke was addressing the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association on the powers of the AG to take remedial action against transgressors.

She says no action was taken to address 82% of the matters, until she issued notification for accounting officers to take action against transgressors.

Maluleke says, “We are also finding it that sometimes accounting officers take too long to discipline officials and they almost act when we keep following up. At times, we have to take remedial action to say thou shalt discipline your team members. And sometimes they wait so long that the people have resigned or retired by the time they are trying to institute disciplinary action.”

Meanwhile, Maluleke says she also wants to see leadership instabilities be addressed  and have more responsive accounting officers to ensure the monitoring of  preventative measures.

“It’s crucial that accounting officers and accounting authorities, yes, be competent, but also have stability, have the ethical posture and the discipline, to do what they are supposed to do to really worry about establishing a culture of ethical conduct, ensuring that there is effective performance management and accountability processes where there is poor performance or transgressions and ensure that they monitor preventative controls,” add Maluleke.

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