The ANC wants management and officials at provincial and national departments who failed to achieve clean audits in the latest Auditor General's (AG's) report to face severe consequences, after the report revealed revealed irregular expenditure of R45-billion in the 2016/17 financial year.
"Whilst the ANC welcomes the reported improvement in clean audit outcomes... regression in a number of key indicators [is] a cause for serious concern, notably matters raised by the AG of poor compliance with legislation, particulary in supply chain management," the party said in a statement.
"Continuing deterioration in the audit outcomes of state-owned companies requires decisive leadership and urgent action by the responsible ministries and departments."
The party said it finds soaring irregular expenditure "shameless and demonstrating a brazen disregard for accountability and the commitment to clean governance".
"Accordingly, the ANC calls for strong consequence management for the lapses and failures on the part of management and officials," it said.
Such measures should include taking all necessary steps to recoup from liable parties the irregular expenditure, the identification of serial offenders, and the implementation of measures to withhold their budget allocations until internal controls are sufficiently tightened. Finally, measure should also encompass ensuring the strict enforcement of legislated consequences for transgressions, including responsible officials reporting cases of irregular expenditure that constitute a crime to the South African Police Services.
The report by the AG on Wednesday revealed that the country's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) continue to get worse in terms of audits, while irregular expenditure increased by 55 percent to R45.6-billion in the past financial year.
In his announcement of the national and provincial audit results on Wednesday, AG Kimi Makwetu said the continued regressions of the audit outcomes of SOEs are most often as a result of inadequate controls, monitoring and oversight.