Free ride for government failure in South Africa
South Africa’s Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke says there is a severe lack of accountability in government, and no consequences for those who flout the country’s finance laws.
This has led to multiple years of qualified audits at municipalities and recommendation upon recommendation from the AGSA that have gone unheeded.
Speaking to the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), Maluleke expressed grave concern about governance failures, unstable councils, and weak internal controls at the local government level in particular, including in most of the country’s metros.
However, the problem is not only at the municipal level, she said, adding that national departments and the provincial executive—mandated to oversee these functions—almost never hold municipalities to account.
Maluleke said that the very people entrusted with running public affairs are not always acting in the interests of South Africa, and they are almost never held accountable.
They are not only given a free ride after receiving a poor audit outcome, but even before the audit process begins.
Roles like municipal mayors, speakers and councillors are riddled with people who act with impunity or fail to stop financial waste at the highest levels.
This is then followed by provincial leaders not doing their job in holding municipalities to account, and national leaders not holding the provinces to account.
While these are all different spheres of government, Maluleke said that they do not function in isolation, and failures all along the chain add to a “rhythm of unaccountability” in South Africa.
“Here’s the thing, by the time the AG comes to audit, there have been reviews by a mayor. So you’ve got to ask yourself, why is a mayor allowing an unfunded budget to pass?” Maluleke said.
“Why are they allowing unauthorised expenditure to continue to be incurred? Why are they allowing a situation where key creditors such as Eskom are not being paid, and other things are being paid for?”
She said questions then have to be asked about the role of speakers, and the role of city councils.
“They’re supposed to hold management accountable when things go wrong and make sure that management is responding to the previous year’s audit outcomes. They often don’t,” she said.
“Now the question is, do we have in the seats of mayor, speaker, and council people who know what they’re supposed to do, are equipped to do what they’re supposed to do, and are disciplined enough to execute on those functions?”
“Our analysis suggests that in far too many instances, that’s not the case.”
Moving to provincial competencies, Maluleke said that provincial governments have particular responsibilities, like reviewing municipal performance plans. “We found that often they don’t do that,” she said.
“There are specific duties given to all those players—the executive leadership, the council, the provincial executive, the national executive, as well as the provincial legislature and National Assembly.”
“They are supposed to be doing certain things, and what we found is that that rhythm has not been in force. So we keep sort of spiralling instead of correcting things,” she said.
Escaping accountability
Maluleke said that it is not the AGSA’s responsiblity to audit, make findings, arrest and prosecute individuals.
She said an independent body like the Auditor General can never take over the role of law enforcement, as this would be unjust.
Instead, the office can redirect issues to relevant institutions like the Public Protector, the Hawks or the Special Investigating Unit.
However, these actions are only as effective as the state allows them to be.
While there have been arrests and wasted money recovered, this is far outweighed by the levels of maladminstration and mismanagement at play.
The AG said that the big issue is that the lack of consequences and accountability for financial mismanagement has created a culture of impunity.
Auditees simply wait for the next audit to come out, making the same recommendations that they can then publicly lament and wait for the next one.
Even when the office does try to hold people directly accountable by exercising some of its stronger powers, the municipalities work against them to escape any consequences.
Maluleke noted that the AGSA can issue a certificate of debt to an accounting officer who has failed to do what they are supposed to do. This hold direct, legal consequences.
However, her office has experienced multiple situations where the accounting officers who were about to be served these certificates were quickly moved around by the council.
“We don’t hire them and we don’t fire them. So what you find is that a council will keep that role very unstable, make someone act for six months, make another one act for six months, and then it just delays the process,” she said.
Maluleke said that while enforcement and consequences are crucial to turning things around, it’s far more important to build stronger leadership, skills, ethics, and internal controls within government.
Changing laws and sending authorities after people will not be enough if legislation isn’t respected and implemented appropriately, and people are not held accountable from within, she said.
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