Waste and mismanagement bog down prestige state adult literacy programme
THE Kha Ri Gude adult literacy programme was meant to be a model of resolve and excellence for the Department of Basic Education, helping South Africans older than 15 to read, write and calculate in their mother tongues and to speak English.But now the programme — its name is Tshivenda for let us learn — is said to be at the centre of the department’s mismanagement and wasteful spending. Its wasteful spending rose from R 2,000 in 2014-15 to R 44,3m in 2015-16It’s alleged that in some cases, Kha Ri Gude volunteer teachers were paid stipends without any students in their classes at all.Basic Education has been criticised for not preventing R599m in irregular spending in contravention of the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury regulations.In its 2015-16 report tabled in Parliament on Monday, the auditor-general noted that the department’s accounting officer did not take effective steps to prevent unauthorised spending of R153m.Although the department drew an unqualified audit op...
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