Cape Town – The troubled public works department has racked up R3.65bn in irregular spending since 2009, Public Works Deputy Minister Jeremy Cronin revealed on Wednesday.
“What we are reporting is R3.6bn [that] appeared to be irregular expenditure, problematic expenditures, out of 40 000 transactions that were identified over the period from 2009 to March 2013,” Cronin said after briefing Parliament’s public accounts watchdog committee, Scopa.
“So, an enormous set of problems which we are not proud of obviously,” he told reporters.
Cronin said the department arrived at the sum, which he termed “immense”, after spending months trawling through 930 000 transactions, and was trying to root out corruption in its ranks.
“We are not just lamenting, we are actually undertaking a whole range of actions, including criminal cases, some of which have already gone to court.”
He said a large share of the sum of irregular expenditure resulted from irregular lease contracts – including the department’s notorious office space deals with empowerment mogul Roux Shabangu.
The lease contracts with Shabangu for buildings to house police management were among those cases that had made it to court. Nedbank was embroiled in the matter.
