The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture is disputing Auditor-General findings that could add about R51 million to its irregular expenditure bill.
The Auditor-General’s office told Parliament on Tuesday, 27 October that the department has taken the findings to the National Treasury rather than accept them.
The office briefed the NCOP Select Committee on Education, Sciences and Creative Industries on the 2025-26 audit outcomes of the department and its entities.
It said the portfolio reported R67 million in irregular expenditure for the year, down slightly from R70 million the year before.
But it warned that figure was not the full picture.
“This irregular expenditure of R67 million is not complete, as there was irregular expenditure under assessment by the department of about R51 million,” the office said.
It said the R51 million came from audit findings on supply chain and contract management processes.
The department disputed them. “The non-compliance was then taken through to National Treasury to confirm whether indeed there was irregular expenditure or not,” the office said.
The Mandela Bay Theatre Complex and Robben Island Museum also had irregular expenditure that was not fully quantified, meaning the R67 million could rise further.
The Auditor-General said the portfolio’s total irregular expenditure balance now stands at R839 million.
Only about 5% of the irregular expenditure reported in the previous year was investigated or written off during 2025-26.
About 95% has not been dealt with. “This highlights the slow progress of the institutions in dealing with the irregular expenditure reported in the prior years,” the AGSA said.
Of R14 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure reported the year before, only about 2% was dealt with.
The Auditor-General said most of the irregular expenditure stemmed from breaches of Treasury procurement rules.
It found the department itself had material non-compliance in preventing irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
It also said it could not confirm that the department had adequate measures to monitor the money it transferred to beneficiaries.
The office named slow response by leadership in implementing its recommendations, and ineffective consequence management, among the root causes.
It recommended that accounting officers “enforce accountability by expediting the process of consequence management”.
The department did not get to respond in Parliament. Committee chairperson Makhi Feni shut down the meeting after Minister Gayton McKenzie, Deputy Minister Peace Mabe and Director-General Cynthia Khumalo all failed to attend.
Earlier this month, the Auditor-General told Parliament’s portfolio committee that some beneficiaries of departmental funding had submitted invalid bank details and manipulated proofs of payment.
DSAC had not responded to questions by the time of publication.
