Durban — The DA in KwaZulu-Natal said the Auditor-General of SA’s report on the recent floods “confirmed that the ANC had failed the people of KZN”.
DA KZN leader and Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) spokesperson Francois Rodgers said an interim report by the Auditor-General of SA following the devastating floods in KZN provided real-time disaster relief expenditure figures, which he claimed confirmed that the ANC in all spheres of government had failed the people of the province.
He said the report was presented to members of KZN’s Scopa on Friday last week.
“The document substantiates the DA’s view that this ANC-run government does not care about the people of KZN,” Rodgers said.
He said that according to the report, which provides expenditure figures as of the end of July 2022;
- Social relief in the province was allocated more than R106 million but only R34m had been spent;
- Water and sanitation was allocated R106.7m but only R13.1m had been spent;
- Human Settlements was allocated R516 million but spent just R33.1m and;
- R1.4 billion was allocated for repairs to government buildings, but only R7.4m was spent by the end of July.
“These disgraceful figures are a shocking indictment on what is clearly an incompetent ANC-run provincial government. Not even the introduction of a national government ad hoc committee, to monitor flood relief, has helped with progress in our province, which remains dismal,” Rodgers said.
He said the AG’s report makes it clear that the ANC has failed at all levels. “To quote the report, it says ‘government is not well prepared for a disaster, from impact assessment to delivery of relief.’”
The report continued to say, “Residents and business in affected areas continue to suffer hardship three months after floods with little relief”.
Rodgers said the report also shows serious delivery failures as a result of inadequate project management. These include:
- Impact assessments not enabling appropriate planning and response;
- Ineffective monitoring of contractors, with poor quality of goods and services;
- An overall response time to the disaster is described as too slow; and
- Instances of non-compliance in terms of procurement, with potentially unfair processes followed and a disparity in pricing for similar services.
“Clearly, the provincial government did not learn any lessons from the appalling findings relating to its Covid-19 expenditure and procurement.
“Once again, the AG’s findings point to a failed state under the ANC, which is neither ethical or capable,” Rodgers said.
He added that the DA welcomes the AG’s real-time audit on flood relief expenditure. It would assist them in fulfilling their role as KZN’s “only effective opposition”.
“We remain committed to holding the ANC to account at local, provincial and national government level. The people of eThekwini and KZN deserve better,” Rodgers said.
Last month, AG Tsakani Maluleke presented her “real-time” audit report to Parliament’s ad hoc committee on flood disaster relief and recovery from the April floods.
The government’s response to the April 2022 flood disaster was not adequate from impact assessment to delivery of relief, and this affected residents and businesses, which continue to experience hardship more than three months after the floods with little relief, the AG found.
The presentation concerned the funds allocated to the affected national departments, provinces and municipalities in the aftermath of the April/ May 2022 floods. The AG briefed the committee on May 25 on its intervention to prevent and detect weaknesses in controls and its plan to report on findings.
The first special report contained initiatives selected for auditing, including social relief, water and sanitation – water tanker services – school mobile units, repairs to government properties, human settlements and temporary residential units.
Daily News