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Public funds books magically balance despite missing booty

IT must be something of a magical act to squander millions in public funds and still balance your books.

Unfortunately, gaining a qualified audit proved a trick too far for most of the public entities that blew cash.

Auditor-General Terence Nombembe tried his best to look the other way while he aired the dirty laundry on Monday.

Despite his best efforts, there was no hiding monumental shortfalls and gaping holes, otherwise known as the finances of public enterprises and government departments.

The audit report revealed that the big spending public institutions, the ones that are always in trouble for throwing around money as if it is available in abundance, have the highest irregularities and wasteful habits.

Take the National Youth Development Agency.

The NYDA, whose duty it is to pioneer youth development initiatives, displayed bad-boy behaviour in the last financial year. It specialises in making headlines for all the wrong reasons, spends money and courts controversy.

A few other entities feature in the brat pack, but the NYDA tops the list. Its headline extravagance last year was hosting the World Youth Festival. The agency easily splurged R100-million on the event meant for discussing youth issues, but turned into something akin to "speed dating".

It was dubbed the Kiss fest by some observers. But you can't play with fire and not burn. Un-surprisingly, the NYDA is in the red with the Auditor General.

It failed to obtain a clean report and its books showed R110-million in irregular spending.

Dragged right into the Kiss fest imbroglio was the National Lottery Board. The board happily handed over R40-million to the NYDA for the mass gathering of youths.

The lottery board also extended its generosity to Cosatu, funding its 25th anniversary celebrations. Both these politically-aligned payouts came amid the negative publicity that the National Lottery is spending less on needy charities.

Combined, the board and distribution trust fund arm of the lottery blew R25-million.

Government departments that were shamed by the press last year did not pull any rabbits from hats either when the auditors came knocking.

The police lost their commissioner Bheki Cele. He was suspended for his role in the ill-fated lease deal worth billions.

The police department failed to account for more than R100-million in irregular expenditure. The department of public works, which approved the inflated lease and duly lost minister Gwen Mahlungu-Nkabinde was R70-million in the wrong.

Always the source of news, the Road Accident Fund is also a case in point. Plagued by financial troubles, it reportedly owes claimants hundreds of thousands of rands.

The fund managed to spend R26-million on what the auditors deemed to be fruitless expenditure. A further R14-million was lost through imprudent management of its supply management processes. Needless to say, the fund failed to obtain favourable audit.

Fresh from wrangles with municipal workers in 2011, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) has kicked off the new year with good old controversy.

Salga has been criticised for its decision to make a once-off gratuity payment to councillors who lost their seats after the 2011 elections.

The embattled association is expected to fork out R250-million for the venture. This is despite the fact that Salga clogged irregular expenditure of R27-million last year.

One thing about the report that has gone unnoticed is that other entities have blown ridiculous amounts.

Take the State Information Technology Agency that flushed more than R425-million down the drain. And South Africa hardly blinked an eye.

The Independent Electoral Commission, a trusted institution, lost R234-million due to shoddy procurement processes.

The point again is that maybe you can play with fire. It seems as though the guys at the back, the guys making less noise get away with it.

Although the books will undoubtedly reflect where wrongdoing exists, if you learn to behave, magic is possible and millions can vanish.

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