North West Legislature SCOPA To Conduct Follow-up Visit on an Unfinished R71m Manyane Game Lodge Project in Mahikeng

On Monday, 27 November 2023, the North West Provincial Legislature Standing Committee on Provincial Public Accounts led by Hon. Job Dliso will conduct a follow-up oversight visit on an unfinished R71 million Manyane Game Lodge project. This follows an oversight visit at the project on Friday, 24 November 2023 where the Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism department confirmed that the project experienced several delays since 2016/17 where it was initially budgeted at R47 million and needs an additional R24 million for completion. The meeting will be held at the project site at 09h00.

During the oversight visit, the Committee noted with disappointment the lack of monitoring and evaluation on the project by both the department including the Department of Public Works which was the implementing department. “We are very concerned that the departments failed to also monitor the control systems in the supply chain management processes as money spent cannot be accounted for and there is no value for money. It is further worrying that the department will pay the additional funds without holding anyone accountable on the delays that have continued for over six financial years,” said Hon. Dliso.

The Provincial Public Accounts Committee also raised other concerns on the increasing irregular expenditure and the lack of accountability on assets missing at Manyane Game Lodge. “The audit outcome on the financial statements regressed from an unqualified audit opinion in the previous two financial years to a qualified audit opinion on the financial year under review. The financial qualification is also related to the Taung Skull Project transferred from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development but not adequately supported by substantiating documents. No valuation breakdown was submitted to support a payment transfer of R25 501 136 made to Taung skull project,” said Hon. Dliso.

The MEC for the Department, Virginia Tlhapi said that the matter of Manyane Game Lodge is currently under investigation and the department will submit a comprehensive report to the committee. “We have also developed a monitoring mechanism to assess progress and ongoing developments at the project. The project forms part of the unfinished and unaccounted projects that the department overtook in the recent years that contributed to the increasing irregular expenditure of R116 858 000 million, of which R17million was incurred in the current year,” said MEC Tlhapi.

Members of the Media who would like to attend the meeting and can contact Ms. Namhla Luhabe on 079 527 0628.

Ends

Issued by: North West Provincial Legislature: Media & Communications Unit on behalf of the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Provincial Public Accounts – Hon. Job Dliso.