Department of Water squanders R1.7 billion in irregular expenditure while drought crisis continues

21 November 2019

The Auditor-General (A-G) report on Wednesday revealed that the Department of Water and Sanitation lost over R1.7 billion to irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure on key water infrastructure projects. Government’s chronic inability to manage big-budget water infrastructure projects is undoubtedly contributing to the ongoing drought and water crisis, affecting thousands of South Africans across the nation.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will, therefore, write to the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, requesting that she make public the steps that her Department will be taking to implement the recommendations made by the A-G to reduce irregular and wasteful expenditure on big-budget water infrastructure projects.

The following big-water projects were audited in the financial period under review – each one displaying a gross disregard for the public purse:

The severity of this expenditure is an indictment on National Government, which has repeatedly ignored DA calls to declare the drought a national disaster. There is no doubt that the Department is exacerbating the national water crisis through the repeated misuse of public funds, amounting to a whopping  R1.7 billion, which could and should have been allocated to drought relief, to ensure food security and the protection of rural jobs and farming industries.

The A-G indicated that this dismal under-performance by the Department of Water was due, in part, to poor financial controls on capital projects, such as the ones listed above. He also stated that these cost overruns, which are in contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), were as a result of:

Procurement processes not always being followed;

The department did not implement the standard for infrastructure procurement and delivery management, exposing the department to the risk of undue increases in project costs; and,

A lack of proper project management resulting in budget overruns, as well as timelines and completion dates being extended.

Furthermore, a notable finding by the A-G was the underwhelming performance by the Department on Bucket eradication programme and the War on Leaks programme, as illustrated in the table below:

The Department has proved that it is unable to restore the dignity of poor South Africans after it only achieved below 13% of its intended target for the bucket eradication programme. South Africans deserve a government that will use public funds to better their lives and protect them in times of crisis. It is inconceivable to imagine that the Department of Water squanders billions from the public purse, during a historically devastating drought crisis, which threatens job losses and food security across South Africa.

The Department of Water has its finances in disarray, instead of ensuring that every cent used affords poor citizens the rights they were never afforded pre 1994 – the dignity of not being dehumanised by being reduced to the use of a bucket to relieve themselves. This is not only a condemnation on fruitless and irregular expenditure – it is an indication that Minister Sisulu’s Department is not concerned with awarding citizens any degree of humanity, or relief.

Issued by Leon Basson, DA Shadow Minister of Water and Sanitation, 21 November 2019