Pretoria - Good governance and proper administration has been stabilised at the Department of Public Works, Minister Thembelani “Thulas" Nxesi announced on Wednesday.
Two and half years ago, the department was in chaos, with no leadership at the management level; there were on-going lease scandals due to inadequate management control, coupled with widespread fraud and corruption.
“Today, I will report to Parliament that with the assistance of national Treasury, we’ve stabilised the Department of Public Works. I normally use an analogy of a patient who was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bleeding profusely and now I can tell you that the patient is out of the ICU. The patient is responding very well to medication; we are expecting the doctor to release the patient; but the patient will continue to take medication. Crucially the leadership has been stabilised with the appointment of a full-time Director-General, Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Director General responsible for Corporate Services,” he said.
Minister Nxesi was briefing the media ahead of his Budget Vote speech in Parliament, Cape Town on Wednesday.
He told reporters that his Budget Vote speech will give more detail on the strategic overview of the current position of the department and the progress of the turn-around strategy, as well as the vision for the next five years.
The Minister also announced that the audit outcomes have greatly improved the results of their clean audit project.
“I am pleased to announce that compliance with President Jacob Zuma’s injunction to pay service providers with 30 days has also greatly improved,” he said.
Irregular expenditure
In the case of irregular expenditure, Minister Nxesi said: “We believe that there is no short-cut to compliance and good governance. Let me assure you that the cases of irregular and wasteful expenditure would be investigated and action taken, we’ve already started with those investigations.
“On lease, we’ve introduced more robust systems to manage the leasing portfolio.
“We’ve overhauled our supply chain management processes in the leasing environment and negotiated with the national treasury special dispensation to fast track the re-signing of the expired leases,” he said.
Anti-fraud, corruption campaign
“In 2012, I announced the turn-around strategy which stood on two legs; improving the way we do business as the department and combating fraud and corruption.
“In the stabilisation phase, we depended heavily on expertise of the SIU to investigate fraud and corruption and as a result, 95 cases were referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) of which 75% have been finalised.
“This has resulted with disciplinary hearings against 50 employees, but adding that 23 resigned before the commencement of the disciplinary hearings, of the remaining 27, five received written warnings, seven were dismissed and 15 cases are pending,” he said.
Minister Nxesi said civil actions have been instituted against employees and contractors, adding that for various cases they will continue to use the SIU.
Expanded Public Works Programme
His deputy, Jeremy Cronin, outlined the key objectives of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
“The EPWP remains the key government Programme that strives to uplift the socio-economic status of the poor and unemployed. It also seeks to provide opportunities for basic training to new job seekers and in some cases newly qualified young people,” he said.
Deputy Minister Cronin added that the government was confident that it would meet the target of creating six million work opportunities by 2019.
“We are confident that in the next five years we can achieve the target of six million work opportunities,” he said. - SAnews.gov.za
