Auditor-General’s report proves misappropriation of tax money

Income tax amounted to 36,45% of the total budget for the 2015/2016 fiscal year. AfriForum investigated the consolidated general report on national and provincial audit outcomes for the 2014/2015 financial year as well as the promises made by Government during the 2015 budget speech in order to determine if taxpayers received value for their money. It is clear that gross irregularities in the expenditure of apportioned tax money are taking place and that the institutions responsible for the monitoring thereof, are failing to hold trespassers liable. 

“AfriForum has studied the consolidated general report on national and provincial audit outcomes for the 2014/2015 financial year. According to the Auditor-General’s report, irregular expenditure amounted to R25,68 billion and 45% thereof was spent on education, health and public works. In Mpumalanga, irregular expenditure more than doubled,” said Monique Taute, AfriForum’s National Campaign Coordinator.

Fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounted to R936 million and unauthorised expenditure amounted to R1,64 billion. Both the Department of Public Works and the Government Information and Communication System incurred unauthorised expenditure for purposes it was not intended for. The report clearly states that poorly prepared budgets and inadequate budget control were the main reasons for overspending.

“We believe that the core of the problem is a lack of responsibility. The Public Finance Management Act provides steps that should be taken by accounting officers to investigate irregular, fruitless, wasteful and unauthorised expenditure in order to determine whether any official is liable and to recover the money if liability can be proven. The problem is that most of the auditees did not implement adequate control measures in response to the previous year’s transgressions. On the other side the Auditor-General says that they do not investigate the matters, because it is the role of the accounting officers and supervisory bodies,” added Taute.

Taute mentioned further that according to the Auditor-General’s report, education was one of the main contributors of irregular, fruitless, wasteful and unauthorised expenditure and amounted to a total of R2,90 billion. The public has the right to know how this money was spent. The education sector in South Africa is a national crisis and it is unacceptable that millions of rands are wasted by inadequate state officials.

“The idea with this campaign is to address the lack of responsibility and to ensure that state officials are held responsible. Taxpayers have the right to know what they are paying for. From what we see in this report as well as from the statistics for 2015, it is clear that Government once again failed to fulfil its responsibilities in the 2015/2016 fiscal year. Government abuses taxpayers, because even though income tax increases, the state still does not fulfil its primary responsibilities,” concluded Taute.

AfriForum encourages the public to support the organisation’s petition against the misappropriation of allocated tax money by sending an SMS with their name to 45352 (R1) or by signing the petition on AfriForum’s website at www.afriforum.co.za.