Limpopo Tourism Agency grilled over consultants
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has ordered the Limpopo Tourism Agency (LTA) to stop utilising consultants to cover up for incompetent officials.
Scopa heard that the agency was spending money on consultants while it was spending a fortune paying the salaries of officials who were seemingly unable to do the work.
“When you hire a chief financial officer, we suspect that person should be having qualities or rather capacity to do the work,” African National Congress (ANC) Scopa member at the Limpopo legislature, Onicca Moloi, told Economic Development, Environment and Tourism MEC Seaparo Sekoati on Friday.
“Amongst them is the ability to prepare a financial statement. If you hire a consultants to come and do the work, it means you are not doing the work you supposed to be doing, and we continue to pay,” Moloi said.
Sekoati and LTA management were responding to Scopa questions on why they failed to run the agency in a professional manner during the 2013/14 financial year.
The auditor general’s report for that year painted a picture of incompetence, reckless spending and poor management.
The entity also failed to disclose fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the financial statements due to a lack of financial skills.
“The auditor general was unable to determine the full extent of the understatement of fruitless and wasteful, as it was impractical to do,” said Scopa chairwoman Snowy Kennedy.
It was also not aware of how much it had spent on travel costs, especially fuel and toll fees.
Moloi said it was not acceptable that the agency had decided not to investigate the two-year old issue to make a determination on what happened to taxpayers’ money.
Sekoati and agency CEO Ndumiso Matlala blamed a lack of skills on the agency’s spending behaviour.
Scopa member Elias Nong said Matlala and LTA chief financial officer Sammy Manamela should face criminal charges for hiding entity expenditure.
Nong and other members said financial misconduct constituted gross negligence that warranted dismissal or disciplinary action.
Sekoati told the committee that government was stuck with the warm bodies of incompetent officials. – ANA
(File photo: Gallo Images)