I can assure you, I will not be throwing them at you, hon member. It is Cosatu that tries illegally and shamefully with rocks to crush the rights to which we are all entitled. Cosatu yesterday assaulted every South African. It won't succeed, and our marches will continue.
The NYDA cannot properly account for loans it provided for so-called business start-ups, yet plans to spend R43 million more than its budget because it believes it will collect on outstanding loans. [Interjections.] This is creative accounting and an example of the low standards in managing the public finances to which the Auditor-General referred last week.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, has heard 14 government departments and entities since February this year. Seven annual financial statements were qualified, three were disclaimed and one was adverse. The findings from this small sample of annual financial statements scrutinised found that there was R7,6 billion in irregular expenditure, where the people's money was spent without compliance to the applicable laws and regulations, and R201 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure of the people's money that would not have occurred if reasonable care had been exercised.
The pattern emerging from Scopa hearings is that few Ministers consider their attendance to be high priority, given that only two out of nine Ministers were present for the full hearing. Last week the Minister of Mineral Resources failed to appear and never submitted an apology. Her deputy wasn't present either. Officials from the department were present, but were unable to account for fruitless and wasteful expenditure, a common theme across departments. Accounting officers pass through the revolving doors of government departments at breathtaking speed, creating a vacuum in accountability, not filled by the executive.
By the time the financial statements reach Scopa ...