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The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has lambasted the Department of Water and Sanitation for wasting millions of tax-payers' money on fruitless and wasteful expenditure, amounting to R87.2m and irregular expenditure amounting to R2.5bn.

Scopa held a hearing today with the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Ms Nomvula Mokonyane, to gain clarity on the causes of the huge financial mismanagement in the department. What also concerns Scopa is the exorbitant money that the department through the implementing agent, Lepelle Northern Water, has paid to LTE, a company that was appointed irregularly by the department.

The Committee will await the forensic reports that are probing all the tenders that have been awarded irregularly by the department.

Scopa is also concerned with the huge amount of the accruals of the department, which the Committee is told amounts to R1.5bn. The Committee is also shocked to discover that the department has wasted a lot of money double and triple paying some suppliers millions of rands using the same invoice.

The Committee has requested the department to forward written reports on all the information that the department could not supply to Scopa today. It was agreed that another meeting with the Minister should be scheduled as soon as possible with a special focus on the Lepelle Northern Water contract that increased from R502m to R2.7bn currently.

Issued by Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of Scopa, Themba Godi