The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) said it was shocked by the grim picture it received on Thursday from the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer on supply chain management practices of government departments.

“The committee is shocked to learn that almost R500-billion was spent on goods and services in the public sector when there is not much evidence of that in service delivery.

“Scopa also notes the twin challenges of inefficiency and corruption which currently denies the country the ability to maximise the utilisation of resources within the current framework‚” it said.

Scopa had also noted that the lack of compliance with the 30-day payment of suppliers created a lot of challenges that fell within the supply chain management environment‚ and for that reason the committee had requested National Treasury to brief it on a bi-monthly basis on the progress of the compliance of government departments in line with the Public Finance Management Act.

“Scopa is aware of the challenges which face the committee and Parliament‚ hence the committee has to find a solution to the challenges and perform in a way that demonstrates that there is an emergency.

“Scopa appreciates the measures that the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer has put in place to reform the system which include using technology to streamline transactions and improve oversight.

“The committee will ensure that it requests the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer reports on an annual basis to Parliament on the state of supply chain management‚ and will look at specific departments and entities that are failing to comply with supply chain processes.”