Dlamini Zuma wants A-G’s help to prevent looting of KZN funds

Residents of Marian Ridge are still struggling with the aftermath of the KZN floods earlier this year. Picture: Theo Jeptha/African News Agency (ANA)

Residents of Marian Ridge are still struggling with the aftermath of the KZN floods earlier this year. Picture: Theo Jeptha/African News Agency (ANA)

Published May 20, 2022

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Cape Town - Co-operative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma says they are taking serious measures to prevent the stealing of funds for relief efforts in KwaZulu-Natal after the devastating floods.

Dlamini Zuma said the government has roped in the auditor-general to also do real time audits as a measure to stop corruption.

The minister’s reply was after a written question in parliament from the EFF on steps the government was taking to prevent looting as it happened with the Covid-19 funds.

She said accounting officers and senior officials in departments and municipalities have to ensure that funds were used properly.

But government has tightened its systems to prevent any looting of the public resources.

She said this would include “tracking of expenditure by National Treasury where changes to the fund and project segment have been implemented in the basic accounting system.”

Another step that was taken was “tracking procurement, where all institutions affected by the flood disaster must report to National Treasury all procurement transactions related to flood interventions”.

She said the auditor-general was also on board to conduct real time auditing to stop any abuse of the resources.

The auditor-general will focus on prevention, detection and reporting.

On the prevention side, “high-risk transactions will be subjected to an audit and key observations reported to the accounting officer/authority”.

They wanted to ensure that the funds were used for what they intended for and not fall into the wrong hands.

The auditor-general also briefed the standing committee on her work, saying they had already started with their work and the report could be delivered in August.

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Political Bureau