Limpopo Intervention: Parliament acknowledges improvements

The Select Committee on Finance met with the Premier of Limpopo, the Anti-Corruption Task Team (ACTT), and other provincial departments in Limpopo, almost two years after Cabinet placed the province under administration in December 2011 following its shocking financial collapse with a R2 billion shortfall.   Two years ago health, welfare and education, and roads and transport infrastructure were in shambles and the province could not afford to fulfil its financial obligations. Cabinet intervened using section 100(1)(b) of the Constitution to try to reverse the situation, create sustainable capacity and ensure compliance with the Public Finance Management Act. Consequently, five provincial departments in Limpopo were investigated by the ACTT after findings of irregularities, fraud and corruption, and instances of conflict of interest in Education, Transport (and the Road Agency of Limpopo), Health and Social Development, Public Works and Provincial Treasury.   The Committee was informed that the National Treasury had issued 22 investigation reports that led to disciplinary proceedings by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). To date, two heads of departments had been suspended and 45 officials across the departments had been charged. More officials would be charged on the balance of the 13 forensic reports issued by National Treasury that were under scrutiny by the DPSA. With the assistance of DPSA and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), more than 300 civil servants in Limpopo faced several charges for flouting the rules, ranging from minor to gross irregularities, and 88 senior managers had received letters of intent to charge.   The intervention may have had its contentious moments with provincial officials demanding the removal of the national administration from the province, however, at the 15 October 2013 meeting with the Select Committee, the new Premier (since July 2013), Stanley Mathabatha, admitted that the intervention had come as a “great relief to the people of Limpopo” at a time when things had almost collapsed in the province. Most of the objectives had been achieved and Limpopo had made a significant recovery financially so that the province could “compete on the big stage” with other provinces. However, there were still a few concerns that would need to be addressed going forward. The Chief Administrator, Monde Tom, said weaknesses that were identified included lack of leadership and laxity of officials; poor systems, processes, skills and capacity; and a non-reliability of the IT infrastructure and/or enabling systems and software. Accumulated unauthorised expenditure prior to the intervention was R2.7 billion, and at the end of March 2013, accumulated unauthorised of R500 million still remained unapproved.    Education interventions included focusing on ensuring the delivery of learner-teacher support materials, with the state giving a guarantee of R510 million to enable textbooks, workbooks and stationery to be supplied. The administrators settled debts owed to Eskom and municipalities to avoid suspension of services that would disrupt learners. The Department of Roads and Transport has showed progress, achieving R11.6 million savings on non-core items, and R47.8 million savings on machinery, under the administrators. A more efficient electronic accounting system had been implemented in the Provincial Treasury and would be implemented in other provincial departments.    Members commended the monitoring and evaluation role of the project management units. However, they expressed concern over the lack of leadership in Limpopo. It was agreed that although it was impossible to solve all the problems in Limpopo immediately, there were five specific areas that should be addressed that would sustain the improvements. These areas were infrastructure; competitive procurement; asset management; data and records management; and compliance, interpretation and enforcement.     For the full report, please visit: http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20131015-review-limpopo-intervention-in-terms-section-100-2-c-constitution-input-premier-dpci-anti-corruption-task-team