Hon Speaker, as the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, the hon Themba Godi, has indicated, Scopa is tabling ten reports for your consideration today. However, eight of the reports deal with financial audits of various government departments and entities, and two of them are for performance audits.
It is unfortunate that none of the eight financial audits received a clean audit opinion. The Department of Public Works received a disclaimer and the Road Traffic Management Corporation received an adverse opinion. These are two of the worst audit outcomes possible.
A common characteristic of the financial audits is the high level of unauthorised and irregular expenditure. Another concern is the lack of proper asset management, and this is particularly the case in Rural Development and Land Reform and Public Works.
Our experience in Scopa shows that with the right leadership, internal controls, and administrative and financial skills, it is possible to turn the situation around and receive a clean audit. This has been the case with Science and Technology that has a history of clean audits while the situation at Home Affairs and Defence has been completely turned around for the better.
In this regard, we applaud the strong stance taken by the Minister of Public Enterprises, the hon Malusi Gigaba, who has recently dissolved the board of SA Express because they could not produce proper financial statements.
The two performance audits deal with the infrastructure delivery processes at the Department of Health and Department of Basic Education.
A cross-cutting concern is the slow planning process with regard to infrastructure; and the committee calls for a specific policy that deals with the infrastructure delivery process together with guidelines to be developed as a matter of urgency.
In both departments, some contracts were awarded to contractors that did not have the necessary skills to execute certain projects. It is important that the Construction Industry Development Board, CIDB, register its consultants to determine the contractor's capacity before bids are awarded. Of great concern is the late payment of contractors who are then unable to pay the workforce and suppliers on time. This leads to service delivery being compromised.
Scopa looks forward to further engagement on these financial audit outcomes and, in particular, to further engage on infrastructure delivery. The ANC urges you to support the reports. I thank you. [Applause.]