announcements, tablings and committee reports - Parliament of ...

4866 [Tuesday, 29 October 2013(ii)Fraud in Expanded Public Works Programme projectsThe Department continued to experience challenges with theinfrastructural Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). SomeProject Implementing Agents had committed criminal offenses thataffected completion of projects. Once the criminal activities weredetected, the Department was proactive in arresting the situation. Anumber of projects throughout the country were put on hold andsecond phase funding halted. In line with the government priority offighting crime and corruption, the Department instituted forensicinvestigations against suspected Project Implementing Agents.Forensic auditing was instituted for all projects after discoveringfraudulent reporting of financial statements by some ProjectImplementers. In some instances, criminal charges were laidagainst some project implementers. Advance payments to ProjectImplementers before reaching some project milestones was alsoone of the challenges in controlling expenditure on these projects asExpanded Public Works Programme and Treasury condoned thispractice.(iii)Foreign Currency ExposureSouth African Tourism (SAT) continued to experience currency lossdue to foreign currency exposure based on their marketing activitiesabroad. The challenge is that SAT could not embark on financialhedging and a permanent solution is needed. In terms of the PublicFinance Management Act and Treasury Regulations, cost incurredon marketing is not covered as only Human Resources costs areconsidered. There is an increase in the interest shown by emergingmarkets to South Africa. Some of these markets warrant anincreased marketing presence by South Africa. In other Africanmarkets a hobbling strategy has been adopted by South AfricanTourism but as these markets grow more individualised marketingcampaigns will become necessary. This means that South AfricanTourism will experience more foreign currency exposure in thefuture. The National Treasury therefore should intervene in reducingthe effects of this exposure to South African Tourism.5.1.5 Non-financial Audit outcomes and steps taken to addressadverse audit findings, if any.The Auditor-General had findings on misstatements in regard toasset management. Information in the asset register did not matchinformation provided. The statements submitted for auditing werenot supported by full and proper records and this constituted anaudit finding. The Department updated the asset register during theaudit period and was able to avoid a qualification. The auditor-General indicated that if this finding had not been rectified on time,this would have caused the Department to get a qualified auditreport.ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS NO 147─2013