POLOKWANE – The leader of the official opposition in Limpopo, Mr Michael Holford, said that the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) must have power to correct the spiral of corrupt practices used by certain officials and political heads.

When addressing members of the Provincial Legislature on November 16 on the reports of Scopa which were in turn compiled on the Auditor General’s Reports, Holford said that Scopa must be uncompromising and direct at all times. “My pain is captured in the fact that, during my entire time as a member of this committee, none of the MECs was ever brought before this committee. This action cannot and will not be accepted any longer. Corrupt and unprincipled people have no place in government when the expanded unemployment rate of 2003 stands at 55.8%, the university pass rate is 19%, when 4,6 million people do not have medical aid, when only 11,6% of the population have water in their dwellings, 82,3% households in the province do not have chemical toilets and only 13,1% of the households have the pleasure of refuse removal,” he said.

Holford said that the Department of Finance has never produced an unqualified report. “Why has the HOD not been challenged; why has he been so privileged to be given a bonus every year,” he asked.

He gave an example of a photocopier which has been been nonfunctional since 2001, but the monthly rent of R47 669.49 was paid religiously by the department. A grand total of R190 677.84 later, the payment was finally stopped after intervention by the auditor general. “To crown it all, and what confounded me more than anything else, was the statement that, instead of an effective supply chain management policy, the DG saw fit to condone procurement as an equalisation of resources.”

“The question that confounds us is not what the HOD or the DG has done; it is rather what the MEC is doing? We are aware of his nosey involvement, but what intuitive measure has he taken to solve these problems. I am certain of one thing: the MEC has never replaced any of his dubious staff, except the CFO.”