North West MEC for Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison, Nono Maloyi has given marching orders and an ultimatum to his departmental officials to adhere to issues raised by the Auditor General (AG) for the department to receive a clean audit report by 2013.
In his address during a meeting with the Human Settlements Branch officials, Maloyi said every official must cooperate and comply with Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and all other regulatory policies.
“This department must receive a clean report in the next audit and it is every official’s responsibility to ensure that we achieve our intended goal and if not heads will roll,” warned Maloyi.
He said the department needs disciplined officials who are committed to delivering good and quality services to the people of this province. “We don’t need individuals who undermine us and our communities, by building substandard houses and shoddy workmanship, while cashing in on tax payers money,” said Maloyi.
MEC said the appointment of proper housing contractors with capacity to deliver proper houses at given time frames is also going to contribute immensely to the clean audit.
He said the department is only going to appoint contractors who will deliver quality houses and complete on time. “We must build relevant and proper houses for the people of the North West and to achieve this we need to firstly put systems in place and appoint contractors with capacity to deliver,” he said.
Maloyi said contractors who build shoddy houses, leaves site without completion and those who are unable to deliver at given time frames are not supposed to do business with the department. He said he will not hesitate to include law enforcement agencies in fighting fraud and corruption within his department.
MEC said all the projects that were not enrolled with the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) should be enrolled, to ensure quality.
According to the Auditor General’s report, the Department obtained a qualified opinion for the 2011/12 financial year due to the R1, 5 billion owed by the municipalities. “Most of the monies that our municipalities are unable to account which gave us a qualified report from the AGSA is the budget that was allocated to these municipalities through trench payments.”
“We must all be committed to seek evidence from such municipalities on how the monies were used and those who haven’t spent, the money must be transferred back to the department’s coffers,” said Maloyi. He further called on departmental officials working within those municipalities to conduct physical verification at construction sites, if needs be, to ensure that the department is indeed in the right path of achieving a clean audit, as planned.
If we start the process from within, we will surely know that we are on the right track as we would have also created ambassadors, who will be the eyes and ears of the department within our communities.
Enquiries:
Simon Lesolang Mmope
Tel: 018 391 0423
Cell: 082 574 7621
Fax: 018 391 0328
Email: smmope@nwpg.gov.za
Shape up or ship out – says Maloyi
Province
