JOHANNESBURG - One of South Africa's oldest trade unions UASA says it is disappointed that the National Treasury and the national revenue service SARS have contributed to irregular expenditure in government departments, accounting for R466 million and R454 million respectively.
The Auditor General's office told parliament's finance committee earlier this week that state entities falling under the National Treasury incurred a combined R1 billion in irregular expenditure in the 2018/19 financial year, with 47 percent of this due to a lack of adherence to procurement processes.
"South Africa has guidelines in place to limit irregular expenditure, but these are seemingly not adhered to," UASA spokesman Stanford Mazhindu said in a statement late on Wednesday.
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"It is disappointing that the biggest contributors to irregular expenditure were National Treasury itself and SARS (South African Revenue Service) with R466 million and R454 million respectively."
UASA, an affiliate of the Federation of Trade Unions of South Africa, represents close to 73,000 South Africans working across a wide spectrum of job categories.
In a separate statement, parliament's portfolio committee on health also said it was concerned about the increasing irregular expenditure by the department of health.
Citing the Auditor General's report, committee chairperson, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said the apparent lack of plans to curb the irregular spending was also worrying.
One of South Africa's oldest trade unions UASA says it is disappointed that the National Treasury and the national revenue service SARS have contributed to irregular expenditure in government departments, accounting for R466 million and R454 million respectively.