This follows the failure of the department to monitor and evaluate provincial departments, entities and municipalities. 

The Auditor-General (AG), Tsakani Maluleke, recently released a report which painted a bleak picture of various departments and municipalities that transgressed the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

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This week, the Premier's Office appeared before the North West Provincial Legislature’s committee to account for these shortcomings and failures.

Maape informed the committee that the department worked with various stakeholders to table and adopt the first anti-corruption strategy to improve leadership, governance and accountability in the province.

“We also accelerated the service delivery initiative and implementation of the District Development Model."

"The department experienced various challenges such as delays in the completion of associated processes with the recruitment of staff, SITA processes to support completion project for data migration on the mainframe, and transfer payments to various institutions for support towards the Provincial Bursary Programme as the year was about to end," Maape said.

The chairperson of the committee, Aaron Motswana, held an oversight meeting with the Office of the Premier over the second and third quarter performance reports for the 2022/23 financial year.

The chairperson of the committee, Aaron Motswana.

The Premier's Office obtained an unqualified audit opinion with reduced audit findings for the 2021/22 financial year.  

Some of the highlights on both the second and third quarter performance reports include the appointment of a panel of experts to finalise provincial growth and the development strategy, as well as the executive council's approval for the establishment of the Provincial Forensic Coordinating Unit, which will coordinate the investigations on allegations of identified fraud, maladministration and corruption in the provincial departments, public entities, municipalities and traditional authorities.

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Motswana urged the Office of Premierto focus on its core mandate of monitoring and evaluating the performance of provincial departments, entities and municipalities. 

“The department should fundamentally monitor matters such as forensic investigations in various departments and municipalities, and long outstanding implementation of those reports such as at Madibeng and Ditsobotla local municipalities dating back to 2009.

“The office should also coordinate those reports and ensure that transgressors are held accountable in respective departments and municipalities. 

"There is no monitoring of departments such as at Education, where there has been consistent renovations, purchase of temporary classes and instances where classes are reduced in schools, yet there is an increase in learner transport. 

“There have been irregular appointments of security companies in municipalities, yet there is no monitoring and evaluation by the department on ensuring that supply chain management processes are followed accordingly. 

"Departments such as Rural Development have also been implicated in land disputes with traditional authorities in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Bojanala and Ngaka Modiri Molema districts, yet the Office of the Premier has been silent on these important matters,” Motswana said.

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