No losses incurred by provincial Department of Human Settlements in 2020/2021 audit report
13 December 2021
The Western Cape Department of Human Settlements (WCDoHS) incurred no losses in its 2020/21 financial year audit outcomes. This means that not a single cent of the public purse has been used in a fraudulent manner or for self-enrichment by any individual within the Department.
Although this commendable it is deeply concerning that the WCDoHS has been singled out by the Auditor General (AG) for avoidable discrepancies. The AG found that the department contributed 87% of the province’s total irregular expenditure. These include the disregard for procurement processes, despite concerns raised from previous years, which also dates into the term of my immediate predecessor.
The R 288 million in irregular expenditure refers to two matters, firstly a contract which concluded in the 2017/18 financial year but had a subsequent payment of R 89 million. The second matter relates to a security contract, to prevent land invasions, where R 189 million was spent during the 19/20 financial year. This contract was expanded to include other provincial departments and municipalities, when it should have been a limited bid in terms of the emergency procurement provisions and not an expansion and extension. This means other entities should not have been included, as the original terms of reference only included departmental properties.
It should be noted that in both instances there was no malicious intent, instead with the increase in land invasions, which is a continued risk for the WCDoHS, our main objective was to protect our land and properties against this surge. This is particularly important as at the time, 3 887 Breaking New Ground/fully state subsidised housing opportunities, which were planned within the City of Cape Town on the Marula North and Mahamba land parcels are now stalled due to invasions. If we hadn’t intervened more projects could have been affected.