KZN government entities to face Scopa grilling
|Published
Officials from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, among other entities, are expected to appear before Scopa. Maggie Govender, chairperson of the KZN legislature’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa). Picture: Supplied.
Durban – Top officials from various KwaZulu-Natal government entities, which have been criticised in recent years over their spending of public funds, are set to appear before the KZN legislature’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday.
Among those set to be grilled by committee members are senior officials from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the Ithala Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal.
These organisations all fall under the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs.
In the 2023/24 budget, tabled by Finance MEC Peggy Nkonyeni, the department has an allocation of R3,4 billion, the bulk of which goes to the various entities.
Scopa chairperson Maggie Govender said committee members were keen on meeting the leadership of the various organisations in order to determine what progress has been made on issues raised when they last met them.
“The entities appeared before Scopa and there were resolutions taken in relation to the findings made by the Auditor-General on them. So we want to see how far they have come in addressing the issues raised against them,” she explained on Monday.
Some of the findings made by the AG against the entities include:
- Lack of internal controls in the use of funds;
- Irregular expenditure; and,
- Issuing of loans without following proper procedures.
Govender noted some of the findings had been made over a recurring period, and the committee was keen to know what had been done to address them.
“One of the areas that we want to find out has to do with consequence management because these are public funds that we are dealing with,” she said.
Given the number of entities reporting to the department, the hearings are expected to take all day on Tuesday.