The Auditor General Needs to do its job and urgently issue certificates of debt

24 October 2024

It’s been half a decade since the Auditor General was granted the power to hold individual government officials responsible by issuing a certificate of debt. However, following questions from the DA, it came to light at Tuesday''s Standing Committee of Appropriations that not a single certificate has ever been issued.

A certificate of debt is a certificate issued to an official ordering them to pay back the money for this or previous years’ losses.

There has surely been no shortage of opportunities to do so. Thanks to the otherwise good work of the Auditor General, we know that 87 percent of municipalities failed to achieve a clean audit. On a provincial and national level, the auditor general reported last year that material irregularities resulted in over R14 billion in financial loss. Yet not a single official has been issued with a certificate of debt.

The DA appreciates that certificates of debt are the last resort in the auditor general’s accountability arsenal and that the other steps take time to complete. However, we find it highly unlikely given the scope of corruption in South Africa that half a decade later, officials have always implemented remedial actions, and it was never appropriate to issue a certificate of debt.

Even when the Auditor General does consider issuing a certificate, the pace is unacceptably slow. Take the investigation into the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality in the North West Province where the municipality double-paid for the same construction work. More than a year after receiving inadequate written reasons from the accounting officer, then giving the officials another opportunity to explain themselves, and then having an advisory committee publish a report, the auditor general still had not decided as to whether or not to issue a certificate. This is draining our fiscus.

This undue hesitancy sends the wrong message to corrupt officials, that they can ultimately delay or entirely avoid personal accountability. It is contradictory to the otherwise important and commendable work done by the auditor general.

We call on the auditor general to urgently start issuing certificates of debt and to do so publicly. The auditor general should disclose to parliament the names of the officials, the government entity involved and any implicated third party.

South Africans deserve a culture of consequences and personal accountability in action.

Issued by Mark Burke and Eleanore Bouw-Spies, MPs, DA, 24 October 2024