Question NW94 to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
29 March 2021 - NW94
Hoosen, Mr MH to ask the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
With reference to the allegations levelled against her department for failing to pay non-profit organisations (NPOs) which manage the Community Works Programme for work done, (a) what are the reasons that her department has failed to honour its contractual obligations to the affected NPOs and (b) on what date is it envisaged that her department will settle the monies owed?
Reply:
a) The Department has not failed to pay the NPOs nor has it failed to honor its contractual obligations. During the last 3 years, our Department has received negative audit findings. Most of these findings were linked to the process by which monies were transferred to the NPOs. This was largely due to the NPO’s poor accountability for the transfers made to them. As a result of this, we have strengthened our financial processes, and every rand disbursed is accounted for before further disbursements are made. We are working with some of the NPO and implementing agents that are still struggling to reconcile their accounts. The NPOs, however, are fully engaged and aware what the outstanding issues are.
b) The monies owed will be settled with each Implementing agent once they have complied with the Service Level Agreement signed with them and submitted the requisite documents to enable the department to pay. All monies transferred to partnering NPOs need to be accounted for in full as prescribed by the relevant NPO Transfer protocols.