NEHAWU IS CALLING FOR HEADS TO ROLL OVER THE SQUANDERING OF 20 BILLION RANDS BY THE PUBLIC SECTOR
THURSDAY, 17 JANUARY 2012

NEHAWU is seriously concerned by the Auditor-General,Terence Nombembe’s report released yesterday showing that national and provincial government departments and public entities have wasted and misused more than R20 billion of taxpayers’ money over the last financial year {2010-11}.

According to the Auditor-General’s report, there has been a 12 percent increase in wasteful and fruitless expenditure by provincial departments this year compared to the last financial year (2009-10). The amount of money wasted has increased from R16bn in 2009-10 to R20bn in 2010-11. National departments and public entities have squandered more than R4.5bn in unauthorised, irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure.

For a country that is struggling to pay its workers decent wages and failing to provide basic necessities to its citizens, this is scandalous and not acceptable. This constitutes a serious crisis because service delivery is highly dependent on proper financial controls and accountable and transparent expenditure. We call on the president to hold all non-performing ministers to account for their departments’ failures and we also demand that investigations be conducted to ascertain whether corruption is at the centre of this wastefulness or not.

This points to the deficiency of essential skills especially at management level and is also an indictment on government for failing to fill vacancies in the public sector. We demand that urgent steps be taken to ensure that people with the right skills are employed and those who need extra training get the necessary assistance. The numbers of vacancies that exist in the public service need urgent action. Government should allocate resources to ensure that these can be filled.

NEHAWU has also consistently raised the issue of a high staff turnover especially of Directors General and senior managers across the public service.Over the last two years we have seen amongst others these Directors General fired, suspended or resigning under questionable circumstances. Few of these directors are: Njabulo Nduli-Agriculture, Pam Yako-Water Affairs, Jimmy Manyi-Dept of Labour, Thozamile Gwanya-Land Affairs, Mamodupi Mohlala-Communications, Portia Molefe-Public Enterprises, Vuyi Nxasana-Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Nobubele Ngele-Water Affairs, Mary Metcalfe-Higher Education and Vusi Mavimbela-Presidency.

This unsustainable situation must be rectified immediately including the permanent employment of people who are currently acting in their positions. South Africans deserve better than this and their patience has already run out.