By Kwanele Dhladhla
The Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula has advised that non-compliance with the laws, rules and regulations may increase the risk of incurring unlawful, wasteful and fruitless expenditure.
This warning bell was sounded by AG during appearance of the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs before the Public Accounts Committee chaired by Deputy Speaker Madala Mhlanga on Wednesday.
Matsebula made the remark after uncovering un-budgeted expenditure amounting to E387, 166 and that the ministry did not prepare adjustment for foreign currency exchange losses after passing the foreign payments at the bank on the accounts payable tourism in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.
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He explained that financial and accounting instruction stipulates that controlling officers, in the case of government being Principal Secretaries (PS), were responsible for ensuring that no amount gets spent in excess of the amounts specified by treasury warrants.
Further, Matsebula said section 34(1) of the Public Finance Management Act (2017) stated that excess expenditure meant ‘un-appropriated expenditure’ and Section 34 (7) states that any excess or any amount expended but not appropriated and which was not allowed under this section shall be treated as a loss of public money relating to un-authorised expenditures or commitments that were categorised as an offence of financial misconduct.
“Any excess or amount expended beyond the released budget, as appropriated by Parliament is not only unlawful, but also has serious effects on the fiscal budget,” Matsebula said.
The AG went on to state that he advised the PS Khangeziwe Mabuza to ensure that no public funds were spent without appropriated budget and corrective action should be taken to address the above anomaly, and further strengthen internal controls, in order to avoid recurrence in future.
Also, he said the ministry was advised to ensure that no public funds were spent without seeking prior authorisation.
Mabuza accepted the mishap as explained by the AG. She explained that part of the funds which were spent yet they had been unbudgeted were made towards a bill for Elections and Boundaries Commission.
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The PS explained that there had been an error when recording the transaction which resulted in the audit query. However, she took accountability since it had only been E263 115 and not the entire E387 166.
The AG also mentioned that he was concerned about the mis-posting of transactions that may be misclassified as belonging to Elections and Boundaries Commission.
“I advised the PS to investigate the un-cleared accounts payable liability balance and reconcile the Foreign Payments Suspense Account to ensure that the balance is equal to zero at the end of the financial year.
In response the controlling officer stated that the Ministry is reconciling the foreign payments account since the balances emanated from previous years,” he added.
