Cause for Celebration? R800 of R430 Million Recovered

Dear Editor

The source of the chaos and dysfunction that has come to characterize the South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) can be traced firmly to the Department of Defence (DoD) which has descended into a financial blackhole where taxpayer’s money is disappearing without a trace.

With the level of dysfunction in the DoD, it makes sense to place the Department under administration until order and a sense of accountability is restored. Failure to act now will lead to a summary collapse in the government’s ability to provide a working administrative service for our defence force.

In a shocking presentation before the Portfolio Committee of Defence and Military Veterans, the DoD’s Audit Committee revealed that the DoD raked up fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R430 million but has only been able to recover R800 (eight hundred rand). This represents a recovery rate of only 0.002%.

The DoD’s descent into a financial wasteland stems from a catastrophic breakdown of internal controls, high vacancy rate in senior positions in the finance department and nonexistent risk management.

Other key findings made by the internal Audit Committee include:

• Critical vacancies remain vacant, i.e. Accounting Officer, Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Audit Executive;
• R2,6 billion in unauthorized expenditure, which is expected to rise to R5,6 billion at the end of the current financial year;
• Of the R15.98 billion irregular expenditure balance, only R76 000 was cleared;
• Audit Action Plan remains in draft, not yet finalized as at Feb 2024;
• Operating with a 2013 ICT Strategy, No Digital Strategy for the department;
• No Risk Management Committee Chairperson since interviews, a year ago; R225 million already allocated for border safeguarding technology is reported not to have been spent accordingly;
• No evidence of regular performance assessment/ evaluation of service providers; Asset Management unmanageable due to the unavailability of a suitable asset management system (software); and
• Invoices for the leased premises to the amount of R 3,896,109.14 were paid on expired lease agreements.

From this grim picture, and the finding by the Audit Committee that “the department has a very high-risk profile, risks remaining unmitigated for years”, it now makes sense why individuals like the former Minister of Defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula, took advantage and allegedly started soliciting for bribes instead of cleaning up the mess in the Department. Even her successor, Minister Thandi Modise, has spectacularly failed to fix the financial horror show at the DoD.

The DoD’s state of affairs is a perfect illustration of how the ANC government has collapsed every layer of the state. To save the country from further damage, South Africans should exercise their right to vote on the 29th of May and vote for a DA government that will make our Defence force the pride of the nation once more.

Regards

Kobus Marais MP
DA Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans