Gauteng’s Department of e-Government incurred irregular expenditure of R31.9 million for the 2018\/2019 financial year, primarily because it did not follow the required procurement processes.<\/p>\n
This irregular expenditure is concerning as it means that the open-tender system was not adhered to, said Adriana Randall, DA shadow MEC for Finance and e-Government.<\/p>\n
“An open tender system is important to ensure that all suppliers on the database of the department are given a fair opportunity to provide goods and services to government,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The DA will be closely monitoring the progress of the investigation into the non-compliance of the SCM processes and will be tabling questions to ascertain what measures will be put in place to clamp down on irregular expenditure.”<\/p>\n
According to the annual report, the following amounts were spent irregularly:<\/p>\n
Gauteng’s Department of e-Government was launched in 2015 to improve service delivery, modernise the public service and stimulate the province\u2019s knowledge-based economy.<\/p>\n
The department is mandated to implement the e-Government Strategy of the Gauteng City Region, which seeks to, amongst other things, consolidate back-end systems and processes to bring about better front-line service delivery to the people.<\/p>\n
The department has been identified by the provincial government as a key growth area, receiving R1.4 billion<\/a><\/strong> in March 2019 to fund key projects.<\/p>\n