The province’s Department of Human Settlements provided housing subsidies to people who were not entitled to one and overpaid valid applicants, incurring a R22 million loss, according to the auditor-general’s report.
The Human Settlements Department was the biggest contributor to the total irregular expenditure, accounting for R222m.
Auditor-General Tsakane Maluleke released a report on how national and provincial departments and public entities fared in financial performance in the 2021/2022 financial year.
The audit outcomes report was the first after the Covid-19 pandemic.
It also measured the performance of the government, through the departments at national and provincial levels, in delivering key services such as health care, housing, education, safety and security, and water and sanitation.
The report showed that between 2012 and 2021 the provincial department of human settlements did not correctly apply the evaluation criteria in the national housing code that applied to housing assistance programmes.
This, according to the AG, resulted in beneficiaries receiving housing subsidies they were not entitled to and valid beneficiaries being overpaid through the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy programme.
The government housing subsidy programme assists first-time home buyers who earn between R3 501 and R22 000 per month, to purchase a home.
Maluleke also flagged the Human Settlements and Education Departments for delays in infrastructure projects.
Human Settlements received an unqualified audit with findings while education received an unqualified audit with findings.
“Two of the key service delivery departments, education and human settlements, experienced significant delays on infrastructure projects, which translated into delayed service delivery to people in the province,” read the report.
Based on the audit of three schools and two housing projects, the AG’s team found that housing units were not allocated to beneficiaries as planned because of poor contract management on the side of the human settlements department, which resulted in the contractor’s access to the site being delayed.
The access was also affected by another contractor’s poor performance and construction drawings being submitted late.
At the Education Department, it found that the construction of schools were delayed mainly due to a combination of factors outside of the department’s control, including the continued impact of Covid-19 lockdowns and poor performance by contractors.
On a positive note, the provincial department of health received an unqualified audit with no findings – a clean audit.
The team visited some health facilities to determine the efficiency of services provided to people in the province.
“We found that inpatient areas were clean, there were sufficient nurses to take care of patients, patients were treated in a friendly manner, and the number of patients waiting in line decreased significantly during the course of the day as patients were attended to,” read the report.
However, there were shortcomings in the rural areas including relaxed security, staff shortages or broken machinery, substandard ablution facilities, and inadequate signage to guide patients to the correct services.
The department settled claims amounting to R47.6m for 2021/22 and the total provided at year-end amounted to R426.5m.
A visit to schools also identified shortcomings in the implementation of the National School Nutrition Programme.
These included lack of complete and accurate monthly stock registers, expired stock in storerooms, and food not being suitably stored.
“In some cases, this led to wastage, a lack of a balanced meal and learners not always receiving meals as intended. This greatly affected the programme’s purpose of serving a balanced meal to boost the concentration of learners and ensuring that teachers get the maximum out of the available teaching time,” the report noted.
The report also noted that the province incurred irregular expenditure of R330m in 2021/22 (with R156 million being identified by those audited and R174m through the audit process).
In the previous financial year irregular expenditure was R329m.
The Human Settlements Department was the biggest contributor to the total irregular expenditure, accounting for R222m.
Of the total, R180m related to the previous year’s contracts that were still active in 2021/22.
Maluleke advised the department to implement monitoring controls to ensure that all procurement regulations were complied with to reduce irregular expenditure.
She also called on the premier’s department to consider enhancing support interventions to improve systems, as this would also result in more credible annual performance reports.
The Department of Human Settlements said it awarded 3 647 subsidies to beneficiaries between 2019 and 2022.
Spokesperson Grag-Lee Smith said the department was addressing the issues raised in the AG report.
“Steps being taken included an update of the standard operating procedures in order to review historical and current subsidies,” he added.