AG must go to Parliament over concerns: DA

2012-05-09 19:22

Johannesburg - The DA plans to ask the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to call Auditor General Terence Nombembe to Parliament to discuss his concerns about financial management in the public sector.

"If the government is not taking the AG’s office seriously, Scopa certainly must," Democratic Alliance MP Dion George said in a statement on Wednesday.

"I will be requesting the Scopa chairperson... to call the AG to the committee to discuss both his concerns and the way in which he feels public finance management and accountability can be improved."

Speaking in Pretoria on Thursday, Nombembe raised the alarm over what he called a weakening of the pillars of governance protecting South Africa's democracy.

Describing his office as vulnerable, he said there was a growing lack of government support for his warning about this deterioration.

Nombembe said management supply chains, service delivery, security of government information and accuracy of government reports were deteriorating.

"Things are serious, and they are even more serious than we thought they are," Business Day quoted him saying.

"They are more serious because the people that are employed by government to do work are least prepared and equipped to do it. The situation is dire."

He said his office would soon release the audit results for local municipalities, and he expressed his dismay at them.

The people voted into power were slow in taking responsibility for what they had been voted in for, Business Day reported.

- SAPA