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AfriForum today laid criminal charges against Dr. Sipho Kababa, Head of Limpopo\u2019s Department of Health, and Mr MC Matthews, accounting officer of Limpopo\u2019s Department of Education as part of its \u201cGenoeg is Genoeg<\/em>\u201d (enough is enough) campaign that was launched on Monday, 18 April. This comes after the organisation studied the General Consolidated Annual Report of the Auditor General (AG) and found that Kababa and Matthews might possibly be guilty of offences in terms of the Article 86(1) of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n The AG report indicates that the Department of Health incurred fruitless and wasteful expenses of R43 million in the 2014\/2015 financial year. In the same year, the Department of Education not only spent R73 million on fruitless and wasteful expenses, but also R994 million on irregular expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cIrregular expenses constitute all expenses incurred inconsistent with what the Act prescribes. Fruitless and wasteful expenses constitute all expenses incurred in vain, but could have been prevented if reasonable precaution had been taken. These excessive expenses could have been prevented if the heads of department fulfilled their duties,\u201d said Monique Taute, AfriForum\u2019s National Campaign Coordinator.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The charges against the head of department and the accounting officer are based on alleged financial misappropriation in terms of the above-mentioned Act. They are the officers responsible for preventing irregular, fruitless, wasteful and unauthorised expenses and for holding guilty parties accountable.<\/p>\n \u201cThey let taxpayers down by failing to fulfil their duties,\u201d Taute said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time that taxpayers put pressure on the National Prosecuting Authority to make examples of heads of department who do not fulfil their duties as prescribed by the Act. They are some of the biggest perpetrators in the misappropriation of taxpayers\u2019 money. It is a national crisis that must be resolved urgently.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n AfriForum will visit eight provinces in the next two weeks, during which criminal charges will be laid against 13 provincial heads of department.<\/p>\n