Stephan Hofstatter
13 October 2008
Johannesburg — THE land affair department had already taken the necessary steps to address weaknesses in its financial controls that resulted in a qualified audit from the auditor-general for a string of irregularities, it said on Friday.
The audit tabled in Parliament recently could not find sufficient evidence to account for grant commitments of R455m, interest earnings of R13m, livestock of R14,5m and other assets worth R1,15bn disclosed in the department's financial statement for 2007-08.
This, together with the annual report of the Land Bank -- which exposed how poor lending practices, wasteful expenditure and fraud had resulted in massive losses and defection of farmers to commercial banks with loans worth more than R1bn -- prompted an agricultural union to demand the head of Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana. She has so far declined to comment on the matter.
The land affairs audit found an unexplained difference of R824m between amounts disclosed in its financial statement for buying land to be leased to land reform beneficiaries and the properties listed in its land assets register.
The purchases formed part of the department's proactive land acquisition programme. This is aimed at speeding up land reform by allowing provincial offices to buy large numbers of properties and lease them to newly settled black farmers, who would have the opportunity to take full ownership once screened for suitability.
Land affairs director-general Thozi Gwanya said in a statement on Friday that the discrepancies arose because time differences between the date of payment and date of registration on the land database had led to duplicated entries.
"The issue is therefore not the embezzlement of funds but reconciliation of land registers," Gwanya said.
On interest earnings, Gwanya said the auditor-general was not satisfied with the completeness or accuracy of figures reflected in a schedule of payments due from conveyancers. This did not mean funds were missing, but that financial controls were inadequate, he said.
"The department is presently following up on all interest monies owed by conveyancers and legal processes are followed where conveyancers did not pay interest due," he said.
The department had already completed an audit of grants due to beneficiaries and would address control weaknesses that had allowed inaccuracies to creep into spreadsheets listing payments. "Again, there was no abuse of funds."
The auditor-general had been unable to verify livestock worth R14,5m listed in the department's financial statement as there was no system in place to record births and deaths.
The department was developing a verification system that would enable it to account fully for these movements, Gwanya said.
It had also hired a consultancy to investigate allegations of corruption in its land restitution programme.
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WE HAVE PUT OUR FARM UP FOR SALE IN THE NORTH WEST PROVINCE TO THE GOVERMENT. WE PUT THE FARM UP LAST YEAR AUGUST. THERE ARE BENEFICIARIES THAT WANT THE FARM, THEY HAVE GIVING ALL THE NECESARY DOCUMENTATION IN AT LAND BANK. BETWEEN LAND BANK AND LAND AFFAIRS IN KLERKSDORP, THEY ARE SHUFFELING THE DEAL BETWEEN THEM, WITHOUT GETTING ANYTHING DONE. WHEN WE CONTACT THE RELEVENT PEOPLE THEY PUT THE BLAME ON THE OTHER, THEY HAVE NO MANNERS WHAT SO EVER WITH BLACK AND WHITE. WHO DO I CONTACT IN CONNECTION WITH THIS DEAL TO GET IT FINALISED. THE BENEFICIARIES… [Read Full Text]