Committee on flood disaster relief and recover welcomes Auditor-General real-time audit report

31 August 2022

The Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery today welcomed the Auditor-General’s (AG’s) real-time audit report on the funds allocated to the affected provinces after the April 2022 floods. The first report focused on the period between April and 31 July 2022. 
 
Although the focus of the real-time audits was on KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Eastern Cape provinces, but the AG’s closer attention was on KZN as the Eastern Cape’s post disaster initiatives were still lagging behind. The AG told the committee that government’s overall response to the national state of disaster was far too slow. 
 
The committee has noted that the AG’s findings are consistent with its observations as it has been carrying out its oversight visits to the affected provinces. Amongst the key findings thus far, spending on education infrastructure rehabilitation and social relief in KZN was found to be consistent with the budget allocated to these sectors. However, according to the AG there was little movement on transactions relating to initiatives around water and sanitation as well as railway and road infrastructure.
 
The AG also noted that there is adequate monitoring and oversight capacity over disaster relief interventions in KZN. A case in point is the fact that the provincial department of KZN has been rendering the required and expected support to the municipalities adversely affected by the disaster. The provincial treasury has also introduced an innovation of conducting pre-assessment awards for all transactions above R1 million in the province. 
 
The provincial internal audit unit has also been active and has been providing much needed assurance particularly on monitoring of Temporary Residential Units. All these examples demonstrate that the capacity for monitoring and oversight on disaster relief interventions has been well established in the province. The AG believes that more emphasis is still needed on driving the efficiency and effectiveness of these monitoring and oversight initiatives. 
 
The committee understands that some of the outstanding matters will be dealt with in the second interim real-time audit report scheduled to be tabled in October 2022. The committee supports the AG’s call to action regarding coordination across the different spheres of government as well as the call for building capability across the different levels of state to mitigate against future disasters. 

Issued by Faith Ndenze, Media Officer, Parliament, 31 August 2022