The Gauteng Treasury will have to find R1.8-billion in its reserves to fund unauthorised expenditure incurred by the province's departments between 2004 and 2014.
The unauthorised expenditure, which involves spending money on items not budgeted for, was condoned by Scopa on the grounds that departments could either satisfactorily explain the expenditure or that it was found to have been unavoidable.
This comes as Scopa faces mounting pressure to toughen up against departments that overspend on their budgets without providing reasonable explanations for doing so.
The department of health was responsible for the lion's share, with unauthorised expenditure of R1.35-billion, followed by the education department with R196.3-million and the department of roads and transport with R183.9-million.
But the departments of economic development and roads and transport will have to pay back R22.2-million from their future budgets after Scopa declined to approve their unauthorised expenditure.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
