Officials overpaid by R8.4m
2005-09-28 22:37
Polokwane - Limpopo transport department authorities have overpaid employees by a whooping R8.4m in irregular performance bonuses and salaries.
Provincial auditor-general Steve Lekutle has painted a gloomy picture about the department's management of its finances in his report released on Tuesday for the 2004/'05 financial year.
Lekutle also notes there were calculation errors on 75% of the sampled financial files that he looked into when compiling the report.
He said these resulted in financial statements being not the true reflection of the activities of the department for the financial year under review.
Provincial transport spokesperson Maggy Mabuza said on Wednesday that she was on leave and could not comment.
Mabuza referred questions to acting head of department Hanley du Plessis, but she also was not available to comment because she was reportedly in a meeting.
Statements not acceptable
The sports, arts and culture department also received a thumbs-down from Lekutle for submitting annual financial statements that were riddled with errors.
The statements, said Lekutle, were not acceptable and no proper audit could be conducted on the department's finances.
Lekutle said that sports, arts and culture could not submit supporting documents for suspense accounts totaling R2.8m for audit purposes.
The department also failed to pay creditors in time, due to staff shortages, and vouchers amounting to R861 000 were wrongfully paid in the 2004/'05 financial year, resulting in over-expenditure.
Lekutle also said the department collected R619 000 in revenue, but could not verify its completeness and revenue because officials did not keep a cashbook.
No attempt to recover the money
Sports, arts and culture spokesperson Mbangiseni Masia said on Wednesday that MEC Joe Maswanganyi would respond to the reported flaws next week.
Lekutle also found the provincial department's watchdog, the legislature, incurred an unauthorised expenditure of R924 000 from the 1999/2000 financial year, but authorities had made no attempt to recover the money.
"General lack of internal controls at most departments included fixed assets, where asset management was found to be lacking and asset registers were not up to date," said Lekutle.