‘Hair-Raising’ Stuff: Irregular Government Expenditure Up R10BN From ’17/’18 – AG

Riyaz Patel

Irregular expenditure by government departments and state-owned entities was up from just under R51bn in 2017/2018 to R61.3bn for the past financial year, Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu told a joint meeting of Parliament’s Standing Committees on Public Accounts and Appropriations.

Makwetu said the figure of R61.35bn included R18.5bn in irregular expenditure disclosed in the unaudited financial statements of departments and entities whose audits were still outstanding.

KwaZulu Natal (R12.42bn), national departments (R11.25 bn) and Gauteng (R7.13bn) were together responsible for 72% of the irregular expenditure.

Makwetu said the figures were not the full picture because it excluded irregular expenditure by some of the SOEs his office does not an audit, including Eskom and Transnet.

Audits still outstanding as at the end of last month included