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National Treasury, the Auditor-General and the North West Provincial Government on Wednesday painted an appalling picture of the fiscal state of affairs of the province.
Nearly 38% of its overall 2016/17 budget of R39.6 billion could not be accounted for as the province continued to accumulate irregular expenditure.
To exacerbate matters the province, which has been plagued by service delivery protests and an ailing health department, underspent its budget by R834 million with three key departments – the department of education and sport, health and public works – contributing the most to the underspending.
These were the draw outs from Parliament as the ad hoc committee looking into the intervention in the North West provincial government in terms of Section 100 of the Constitution was briefed.
In May, President Cyril Ramaphosa put the provincial government under administration for its deteriorating governance after weeks of protests from residents demanding that then premier Supra Mahumapelo steps down.
Mahumapelo’s office and those of community safety, basic education, health and public works and roads were placed under full administration, in terms of Section 100 (1) (a) of the Constitution.
Other departments placed under administration were the departments of finance, economy and enterprise development, local government and human settlement, rural, environment and agricultural development, social development and tourism – under Section 100 (1) (b) of the Constitution.
In his report back to Parliament, National Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane revealed that the office of the premier of the North West had suffered from prevalent irrational executive decisions and poor financial decisions from as far back as the 2014/15 financial year.
“R8.6 billion in irregular expenditure was incurred in the 2014/15 financial year and since then there has been a steady R2.1 billion per year increase in irregular expenditure within the province,” said Mogajane.
Mogajane’s damning account of the state of the North West fingered failures to provide oversight and leadership in service delivery and the intimidation of provincial departments as the major cause of the province deteriorating fiscal condition.
“Vacancies in key positions such as the chief financial officer’s position in state-owned entities was at some point at an all-time high with seven vacancies which needed to be filled. This has since been reduced to only on vacate chief financial officer position in the province’s state-owned entities. Vacancies in such vital positions may have attributed to the gross amount of irregular expenditure incurred by the province,” said Mogajane.
Last week, Professor Job Mokgoro was appointed as the new premier of the province and tasked with turning around the fortunes of the province.
DA North West leader, Joe McGluwa, on Wednesday said the Auditor-General had “painted a terrible yet honest picture of the state of collapse in this province”, and bemoaned the ANC choice of premier calling Mokgoro “a compromise candidate, who has been tasked by Luthuli House to balance the interests of two opposing factions”.
McGluwa said for the new premier to turn around the ailing province, he needed to address the “critical health sector, create jobs, address the rampant corruption afflicting the province, provide housing and stop crime in the North West.
“Premier Mokgoro must walk the talk and ensure that he takes active steps to dismantle Mahumapelo’s corrupt network as a critical first step in restoring public confidence in the government and its ability to deliver services,” added McGluwa.
McGluwa said that the fact of the matter was that the installation of a new premier would help in restoring order, however, the reality was that Mokgoro will remain a mere figurehead unless he distinguished himself as a leader of substance, rather than a leader of a faction.
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