The Eastern Cape head of education, Naledi Mbude, exposed desperate spending decisions by the provincial department in a 161-page document sent to premier Oscar Mabuyane shortly before he suspended her over a delay in the delivery of stationery and textbooks.
The document, seen by Sunday Times Daily, says the Eastern Cape education department made a last-minute bid to prevent the forfeiture of R205.1m meant for the building of schools and toilets, suggesting some of this money be used to buy internet connectivity infrastructure.
But its appeal to the department of basic education to reconsider its intention not to pay the fifth instalment of the education infrastructure grant (EIG) because of the province’s poor spending on building projects was declined on March 23.
These details are contained in the document Mbude submitted to Mabuyane before he suspended her on full pay on April 5.
Mbude, who was appointed head of department in June, mentioned the “inherent challenges” faced by the education infrastructure portfolio, which included irregular expenditure, huge accruals and a “trust deficit” caused by late payments to service providers for work done.
The loss of the R205.1m comes in the wake of shocking revelations of 1,598 schools in the province still having inappropriate sanitation, including pit latrine toilets.
She said that some of the shortcomings had their origins in the over commitment of funds on infrastructure projects going back to the 2015/16 financial year, when the department surrendered R530m, after it became apparent the entire budget would not be spent by the year’s end.
“This surrender was premised on the understanding that the funds would be returned in subsequent financial years, of which only R230m had been received.”
There was serious underspending by some implementing agents in the 2021/22 financial year covering the period April 1 2021, to March 31 2022.
Mbude mentioned the ‘inherent challenges’ faced by the education infrastructure portfolio which included irregular expenditure, huge accruals and a ‘trust deficit’ caused by late payments to service providers for work done.
Up until March 22, just days before the 2021/22 financial year end, Amatola Water Board spent only 17% or R8.6m of its R49.9m budget, while the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) spent 33% (R41.8m of R128m) and the Coega Development Corporation 43% of its budget (R131.6m out of R304.6m).
According to the document, the reasons for underspending by Amatola Water Board included Public School Partnerships (PSP) that were not appointed, resulting in contracts coming to a standstill and non-performing contracts not terminated timeously. The DBSA did not procure the replacement of contractors in time, while the Coega Development Corporation issued late instructions to have contractors back on site after the unavailability of funds by the department.
Mbude said the nature of the school building programme and projects demands multiyear commitments and this puts pressure on managers to try to spend the whole allocated budget within a financial year.
“This opens opportunities for other risks such as quality compromise and irregular as well as wasteful and fruitless expenditure.
“This phenomenon also exposes me, as the accounting officer, to the risk of financial misconduct because in the rush to save funds from being taken, other critical infrastructure activities which did not have a budget initially for the year in question get to be implemented.”
She told Mabuyane there were structural challenges that caused the withholding of funds by the department of basic education “which go beyond an individual”.
“The department is further very limited to make payments without the approval of the provincial Treasury, which also follows its process, which causes delays.”
She wrote: “All efforts are being made to make sure this unfortunate situation which led me to writing this response does not revisit us again.”
The DA shadow MEC for education in the province, Yusuf Cassim, said Mabuyane must be called before the education portfolio committee to explain his reason for suspending Mbude.
“Dr Mbude, has, in fact, given substantive representations to the premier why textbooks orders could not be completed and why the education infrastructure grant funding was not spent.”
He said Mbude “has apparently uncovered several issues of maladministration and corruption, based on the reports provided to the committee after her suspension”.
He said this raised the question of the true motive for her suspension.
Cassim said there was insufficient budget to order stationery and textbooks and that there was irregular expenditure totalling more than R500m in the infrastructure projects run by implementing agents. “The department has become the feeding trough of the corrupt with hundreds of millions apparently siphoned off to line the pockets of cadres at the expense of the children.”
Asked for comment, Eastern Cape education department spokesperson Mali Mtima said all matters concerning Mbude were dealt with by the premier’s office.
Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Khuselwa Rantjie, said they would not be responding further on this matter.
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