Question NW212 to the Minister of Tourism
23 March 2022 - NW212
Moteka, Mr PG to ask the Minister of Tourism
What (a) total number of tenders were awarded irregularly by her department in the past five financial years, (b) was the monetary value of each tender and (c) steps has she taken to make those responsible account for this phenomenon?
Reply:
(a) and (b) The Honourable Member is referred to the following Annual Performance Reports for the details of irregular expenditure per financial year
|
Year |
|
|
2017/18 |
Reported in 2018/19 financial year- Page 189, note 22 on irregular expenditure |
|
2018/19 |
Page 189, note 22 on irregular expenditure |
|
2019/20 |
Page 205, note 22 on irregular expenditure |
|
2020/21 |
Page 153, note 22 on irregular expenditure |
|
2021/22 |
To date- AR still to be issued |
|
Year |
Number of cases |
Value |
|
2017/18 |
6 |
R271 252-53 |
|
2018/19 |
22 |
R26 520 527-00 |
|
2019/20 |
9 |
R8 409 977-00 |
|
2020/21 |
7 |
R1 223 493-00 |
|
2021/22 |
2 |
R1 381 170-34 |
*Annual performance reports are available on the Department of Tourism’s website: https://www.tourism.gov.za/ResourceCentre/Pages/Reports.aspx
(c ) steps taken to make those responsible to account / consequence management.
The 9 irregular expenditure cases disclosed in 2020/21 and 2021/22 are under investigation. For the 2018/19 financial year 16 cases were attributable to implementing agents and 6 for the Department. For the 2019/20 financial year 8 cases were attributable to implementing agents and 1 case for the Department.
The 24 cases for implementing agents amount to R33 745 885-00 and make up the majority of the irregular expenditure cases both in number and value. These implementing agents did not apply procurement policies, which are aligned with the requirements as stipulated in the Department's SCM policy, when contracting with third parties but instead used their own policies. In these cases, together with the remaining 7 cases involving procurement by the Department, it was found that the Department had received value for money and no recoveries were applicable.
No officials could be held liable for this Irregular Expenditure and an educational approach was taken through engagements with Implementing agents to ensure that they use the procurement policies of the Department to prevent future cases of non-compliance. This has yielded results as is evidenced by the significant decline in irregular expenditure in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years to date.