“Significant and structural” weaknesses have been found in a departmental audit, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson said in response to a parliamentary question.
He referred to a R3 billion overdraft and said that the Property Management Trading Entity was technically bankrupt, with client departments owing it nearly R14 billion.
“We should not underestimate the scale of the problem we face in bringing this department into financial and operational viability,” he said.
The minister noted that current and former members of Parliament and Cabinet ministers owed his department some R4 million. “It is just simply not sustainable,” he said.
He said that the Department was developing a “clear roadmap to improved governance and financial health”.