LETTER: Fire errant accountants, department heads

Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu released a very bleak picture of the management of national, provincial and local government finances on Wednesday. These show a sharp increase in irregular expenditure by government departments and state-owned entities (SOEs).

It is clear that the government is not serious about running a clean and efficient administration. At the centre of it all is corruption, which is the driving force behind both wasteful and irregular expenditure of public funds in SA. Accounting officers in government departments and SOEs seem not to take SA voters seriously. They know they will be audited every year, yet make no effort to improve.

There are simply no consequences of failing to adhere to the Public Finance Management Act. As a result, too many public sector employees are there solely to loot state coffers. Most of the mismanagement of funds is perpetrated by supply chain managers and other government employees, to favour their families and friends who do business with the state.

President Cyril Ramaphosa seems intent on dealing with corruption, but he cannot do it alone. He needs committed public servants and the backing of the electorate to win this war. The Zondo inquiry into state capture is doing a great job, but this too will be in vain if those who are implicated are not prosecuted and jailed.

We have a mountain to climb if we are serious about fighting corruption. The place to start is by firing all accounting officers who have not made meaningful progress towards received clean audits, and recalling the political heads of those departments and entities.

It is simply untenable to have a situation as in the Free State, where not a single department was able to produce a clean audit.

Tom Mhlanga

Braamfontein