Cape Town - Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke said on Wednesday the overall response by the government to the flood disaster in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of the Eastern Cape in April was far too slow.
“When we looked at their delivery versus their plan and expectation, there was significant disparity.
“Their own government institutions were not able to efficiently and quickly roll out these key initiatives. We have got to figure out how we build institutional capability so that responsiveness becomes part of the system,” Maluleke said.
She was briefing the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery in Pretoria on the first real-time audit report on the use of disaster relief funds in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.
The report, conducted at the request by President Cyril Ramaphosa to give assurance on government expenditure, covered the transaction for the period up to the end of July.
Maluleke said they found specifically in the Eastern Cape limited response and limited action in ensuring that initiatives that were needed were rolled out.
“Previous disasters were not dealt with. They were dealing with matters dating back to 2013, even assessment impact not done on time.”
She also said investment needed to be made around capability, capacity and responsiveness in the Eastern Cape and that it needed to happen very quickly.
Maluleke added that the province registered concern on the availability of funds and they were worried about reprioritising budgets because it would take them away from committed expenditure.
“We believe there needs to be significant attention in the Eastern Cape around capacity, planning and co-ordination of different activities within municipalities, and provincial departments.
“The reality is that instances of crises and disasters are unfortunately going to be with us for a long time. We have to build capacity to respond to them given the scarce resources that are available.”
Maluleke said they had found the same procurement issues her office has been raising for a long time had again reared their heads.
“We need to deal with these pre-existing weaknesses in the space,” she said.
Maluleke also noted that initiatives by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Treasury had an impact of limiting instance of irregular procurement exercises.
“What we found is that in some of the transactions, the non compliance with requirements and procurement prescripts had the direct impact of diminishing the ability of those departments to execute their work quickly at right quality and right price,” she said.
Maluleke’s latest report had focused on social relief measures by the South African Social Security Agency, water tankering in eThekwini Metro, temporary residential units in KwaZulu-Natal, mobile classrooms and kitchens in KwaZulu-Natal and repair of government-owned and leased properties by the Public Works and Infrastructure Department.
Her next report will cover audit work that has not moved significantly during the period under review.
It will incorporate audit work, more water tankering in Amathole and OR Tambo districts in the Eastern Cape and Umngeni Water Board.
There will also be aspects related to human settlements in both provinces and infrastructure repairs and rehabilitation in the Eastern Cape and the education sector.
The railway and roads sector initiatives by Transnet, Prasa, Sanral and the transport departments in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal will also be featured in the next audit report as well as work done to repair clinics and hospitals.
The work continues and you can expect to hear more from us, Maluleke told the MPs.
Cape Times