Picture: for illustration purposes
Reacting to a COVID-19-induced humanitarian crisis, the South African Department of Social Development reportedly spent R15 billion in unauthorised expenditure. The department's director-general, Linton Mchunu, assured the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday that the funds were neither misused nor mismanaged, despite the spending having been declared as unauthorised.
The Director-General explained that it was an emergency response targeting the most impoverished individuals, who were profoundly impacted by the pandemic. He remarked that their department has now gained valuable experience on managing similar crisis situations should there occur another lockdown in the future.
He accounted for the substantial expenditure, stating that it had majorly contributed to the streamlined disbursement of social grants during the pandemic. Mchunu elaborated that during the pre-pandemic times, grants were normally released on the start of each month, leading to long queues at ATMs and retailers. To avoid creating pandemic super-spreader events, they had to devise new methods to stagger the payment collection, which warranted up-front financial outlays.
Backing up Mchunu's argument, the department's CFO, Fanie Esterhuizen, elaborated that the advanced payment dates of social grants challenged their fiscal planning. Furthermore, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu acknowledged the challenge of consolidating social grants and ensuring optimal service delivery amidst the lockdown.
The Scopa chairperson, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, and ANC MP Bheki Hadebe raised the necessity for real-time audits and questioned the labelling of these expenditures as unauthorised, overriding the established pre-approvals in place.