The department appeared before the committee to account for its 2021/22 annual report and second and third quarter performance report for the 2022/23 financial year.

According to the committee chairperson, Gavin Edwards, the department also appeared to account for issues raised by Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke, about the stagnation in its compliance with legislation.   

The department is said to have failed to implement effective action plans to address significant internal control deficiencies relating to compliance with legislation.

Edwards said the most common areas of non-compliance include procurement and contract management, quality of financial statements as well as prevention of irregular, unauthorised and fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

“The committee witnessed a lot of issues mostly raised by the AG and we are disappointed that, what is on paper, does not translate to what is happening on the ground."

“Amongst other challenges, NPOs are not capacitated and do not have any valuable skills to perform their duties effectively.

“There are officials who are educated and qualified and are passionate about their duties but are not supported and end up giving up that which demoralises many households with social-ill challenges,” said Edwards.

The audit outcome of the department remained unchanged at an unqualified opinion. 

The committee requested the department to submit reports on all issues raised in the meeting within seven working days.

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