DWS makes improvement in irregular expenditure -AGSA

The AGSA presented the Department's audit outcomes for the 2023/2024 financial year in Parliament on Tuesday.

The AGSA’s Jolene Pillay told MPs that the department and its entities improved on the R1.2 billion in irregular expenditures incurred in the 2019/2020 financial year.

"This has dropped to R363 million in the 2023-2024 year, where the majority of that is coming from WTE. The department and WRC must be commended for no irregular expenditure that has been incurred during the period.

"All of the irregular expenditure relates to non-compliance with procurement legislation. In respect of irregular expenditure we are saying that consequence management is extremely important to act as a deterrent against the occurrence of irregular expenditure.

"It's therefore important that the correct tone is set and that the department and its entities continue to focus on consequence management to prevent irregular expenditure."

In December last year, the Blue Drop Report found that the performance of many municipal drinking water systems had declined since the last report in 2014.

Gauteng was ranked as the province with the highest percentage of drinking water systems with excellent or good quality at 62%, followed by the Western Cape at 50%.

Pillay added that the AG has noted the department's inability to influence what happens at a municipal level

"When we looked at the No Drop, Blue Drop and the Green Drop reports, we commended the department on the work that they had done but we did note that the ability of the department to influence what is happening at the municipalities is a concern.

“This is mainly due to the legislated restrictions that are in place and the structure and the reporting structure as it is now where the department does not have direct influence over the municipalities. The department has developed the water services improvement plan, which is intended to enhance the initiatives that they are taking to get closer to these municipalities.

“So it's  important that the department continues with that process so we know that they have been over the last year. We also recommended more collaboration with the National Treasury, COGTA, MISA and SALGA, which is going to be extremely important that those role players are also working together with the department to try to improve service delivery at a municipal level.”

"We had reported at WTE that the procurement processes were very slow resulting in the 'fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred. A procurement strategy was developed by the ' department and they are currently in the process of implementing that.

"In terms of new weaknesses we've identified in project management we had identified that management should appropriately supervise and monitor implementing agents and contractors to ensure construction and repair work is performed to the required quality and completed in a timely manner."