Department of Communications (DOC) officials were “less than forthcoming” in the presentation of the annual report to Parliament last week, claims Juli Killian, communications spokesperson for the Congress of the People (Cope).
Killian says: “Subsequent to last week's presentation, I have received information that not a full disclosure was made concerning tender irregularities, and of other fruitless and wasteful expenditure.”
She adds that the DOC should be “probed by Parliament further to get more details. This is public monies and it is no longer acceptable that some kind of out-of-court settlement is reached and the offending public servants get away.”
The DOC received a qualification from the auditor-general, citing R24 million worth of fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the department. However, DOC director-general Harold Wesso and its acting finance head, Sam Vilakazi, claimed that only R920 000 was incurred during the past financial year
Parliament's communications committee took the unusual step last week of issuing a multi-party resolution that describes the DOC as being “in a state of virtual disarray, if not wholly-dysfunctional”.
It also issued a 10-point list of tasks for the DOC to complete before year-end to turn the department around.
Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda's spokesperson, Panyaza Lesufi, says the DOC presented all the information it had to Parliament in an honest manner and refutes any suggestion that not a full disclosure was made.
“The department is working very hard to meet an extremely tight deadline as set by Parliament.”
Lesufi says the DOC will hold a colloquium towards the end of November to chart the future for the next 10 years.
“We will have all the relevant stakeholders and role-players from the public and private sectors in attendance,” he explains.
Yesterday, Lesufi issued a statement saying the politicians had noted the annual report presentation “as an honest reflection of progress made in the year under review”.
“The Department of Communications notes the resolutions presented by the PCC [Portfolio Committee on Communications]. However, the department wants to put it on record that all the issues raised by the PCC were presented and identified by the department. Actually, the department is at the tail end in implementing some of the issues identified by the PCC and we remain confident that the department will endeavour to meet the requirements as outlined by the PCC,” the statement reads.
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DOC wants to put past behind it
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