The auditor-general has raised a red flag at the non-implementation of audit action plans at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which continue to rack up billions in irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

For 2020/2021, the public enterprises portfolio incurred irregular expenditure of R25.9bn, with power utility Eskom and state-owned freight logistics group Transnet being the main contributors — accounting for R11.6bn and R14bn, respectively...