According to the latest Department of Energy report to Parliament, we spent R872m on a nuclear programme in 2016-17 (the financial year ends in March). This amounted to nearly 12% of the total expenditure. You report that the auditor-general said R185m of this was "irregular expenditure" and that the director-general had refused to sign off the auditor’s report (Nuclear contracts irregular, August 22). My first question is: what do we have to show for nearly R1bn of expenditure? The answer is absolutely nothing tangible, not even a hole in the ground. A procurement system to manage a procurement system seems to be the department’s best answer. The second question is what has happened to accountability when the chief accounting officer refuses to sign the audit report, so the minister can then claim that the audit report has not been finalised. It stinks of corruption, which is why the wise money is skipping SA. The chance of tax collection reaching budget levels is vanishing daily. ...
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