The star Online
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Gauteng's R20-billion Gautrain project is in the hands of a department that cannot account for tens of millions of rands in public revenue.
In a damning review of the Gauteng Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works' financial statements, the Auditor-General has revealed that one of the province's biggest-budget departments has lost control of how much money the province collects in traffic fines.
While Gauteng's metro policemen zealously collect hundreds of thousands of rands in unpaid traffic fines, it's unclear just what happens to this revenue.
The accounting records kept by the department were so poor that Gauteng Auditor-General Adronica Masemola chose not to express an opinion on the department's audit report and refused to confirm its claimed R980-million revenue.
The department says R917-million was generated from licensing fees, but Masemola said the department had no policies or procedures in place to ensure that all revenue was collected and recorded.
Responding to the scathing review, Gauteng Transport MEC Ignatius Jacobs admitted that his department - which has had qualified audits for the past two years - deserved just one star (out of five) for its woeful administration record.
"If you charge us on performance, I think you can give us a three- star (rating). If you judge us on administration, I think you can give us one star.
"But I can assure members (of the legislature) that as a department we are striving to provide a five-star service and achieve a five-star audit," Jacobs said when delivering his department's annual report and financial statements to the provincial legislature this week.
He promised that the department was prepared to engage in a "turnaround strategy" to correct its administration problems.
Stressing that the pressure of the 2010 World Cup would make the development of Gauteng's transport system a strategically important issue, Jacobs said the department's annual report showed "a marked improvement in service delivery".
In a retort to criticism of the state of Gauteng's roads, Jacobs said the province's "road markings programme and signalling system on our roads is of the highest quality. In fact, people from France working with us say that in many areas, because of the system and programmes we are implementing, our roads are better than European cities."
But the provincial Auditor- General seemed less than impressed.
At the top of Masemola's list of 45 concerns about the department's financial records - which are ridden with blank spaces - were "control weaknesses" in the computer system used to record traffic-fine revenue.
Known as Natis (National Transport Information System), the system was found to show a number of weaknesses after it was subjected to an information technology review.
Because the national Department of Transport is tasked with managing Natis, the provincial department elected not to try to correct these weaknesses. It instead assigned municipalities with the responsibility of collecting fines for the department on a so-called agency basis.
According to Masemola, control weaknesses were shown to exist in the collection of fines and safeguarding of receipts and other "face- value documents" - with little or no control of receipt books; no checks on the service offered by municipalities; and a "significant lack of supporting documentation" attached to refunds.
This left auditors unable to verify exactly how much the department was generating from fines. They were also unable to put an exact figure to the theft and losses suffered by the department.
Furthermore, the department failed to disclose the more than R81-million owed by debtors in its annual report. It also had no measures in place to account for unauthorised, fruitless or wasteful departmental spending.
Describing the department's annual report as an embarrassment, Democratic Alliance spokesperson for public transport, roads and works James Swart urged Jacobs to give specific time-frames for his planned "turnaround". He also drew attention to the department's apparent failure to maintain the province's roads.
While international road maintenance standards are set at 60%, the last measurement given to Gauteng's roads was 29%, Swart said.