Dealing with one department at a time, the Premier said her administration will not focus solely on eradicating corruption at senior levels of government but will also extend efforts to include junior employees.
Free State Premier MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae vows to take a tough stance against corruption.
By: Matshidiso Selebeleng
Premier MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae has reaffirmed her commitment to tackling corruption in the Free State by uprooting it at all levels of employment in government. In an interview with lifestyle magazine, Ignited Woman, Letsoha-Mathae declared that her administration will not focus exclusively on eradicating corruption at senior levels of government, but also expand it to junior employees who are involved in government procurement procedures.
“If they think I am coming for senior managers, I am even coming for those clerks who are requesting quotations. Today I am dealing with one department, I am moving one person from the other department to the other, even HODs,” said Letsoha-Mathae.
She also hinted at the possibility of scrupulously rotating government staff to remove them from their comfort zones, where they can casually be tempted to take part in illicit procurement practices. Said Letsoha-Mathae: “This is what we are going to do as the province…you can’t say you are going to change the lives of the people (and) empower the Free Staters, when the same supply chain managers are the ones in the same positions.”
The Premier further queried why service providers from outside were being prioritised instead of local businesspersons. She firmly stated that the latter approach is flawed, highlighting abhorrent incidents that are being perpetrated in other provinces, where bidders sometimes find themselves at the mercy of gun-toting assailants during tender briefing sessions.
“I want to tell you seated here, that what is happening in other provinces, when there is a briefing session and people just come in with guns and say: those who are not from here (get) out. We must address that before we reach that stage.”
“Let us address this issue and empower the people of the Free State,” stated Letsoha-Mathae. The Free State has indeed not been spared in the nationwide scourge of procurement corruption.
According to the 2023/2024 financial year annual report from the office of the Premier, in March 2022, a service provider was appointed to investigate irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure identified by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) during the financial years 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20.
In this investigation, 144 audit findings were related to irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure; 25 of them were finalised and acknowledged by the accounting officer on 25 May 2023. It was through this investigation that additional irregular expenditure was discovered to have been incurred during 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20, amounting to R28 768 000.
By 31 March 2024, 49 more investigations were finalised, but not acknowledged by the accounting officer. Excerpts from the report read: “The disciplinary recommendations contained within these investigation reports have not been implemented, as required by PFMA 38(1)(h)(iii). Management expects that the remaining investigations will be completed by 31 March 2025.”
The report indicated that no independent service provider was appointed to investigate instances of irregular and fruitless, and wasteful expenditure incurred during the period 2021 to 2023 and further states that no internal investigations have been performed by management to determine if disciplinary steps need to be taken against liable officials,” the report mentioned. Noting that Letsoha-Mathe only assumed her duties as Premier in June 2024, the annual report covering her tenure as Premier is yet to be released.
