Parliament, Friday, 20 March 2020 – The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) welcomes the tabling of annual reports by the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Water Trading Entity (WTE).
At the beginning of this month (March 2020), the committee met with the department and WTE to find out the reasons for failing to table the annual reports within the stipulated period.
This meeting followed a meeting that Scopa had with both the department and the entity in November last year on the same issue.
In both meetings the committee stressed the importance of adherence to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) particularly, when it comes to the tabling of financial statements.
The committee appreciates the fact that the pressure it put on both the department and entity yielded positive results.
Scopa wants to again stress the importance of engaging in a process of amending section 65 (2) of the PFMA. There is a loophole in this section that opens up the PFMA to abuse by the departments and entities who do not want to table annual reports timeously.
Several departments and entities which Scopa has met, based their reasons for non-tabling of annual and financial reports at prescribed times on this section.
The committee says it is important that Parliament prioritises the amendment of this section of the PFMA.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF SCOPA, MR MKHULEKO HLENGWA.
For media enquiries, please contact the Committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Ms Faith Ndenze
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8062
Cell: 081 377 0686
Email: fndenze@parliament.gov.za
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