The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture’s attempt to account for its controversial FIFA World Cup delegation collapsed in Parliament on Tuesday.
This after MPs rejected its long-awaited report, branding it “half-cooked”, “flimsy” and “clumsy” when officials conceded they still could not account for the full cost of the trip.
Instead of receiving the detailed financial account it had demanded, Members of Parliament were told the department was still reconciling expenditure and had not completed its financial statements.
This is despite weeks of public scrutiny over the estimated R31 million spent on sending a 151-member delegation to the tournament.
The admission triggered an extraordinary backlash from committee members across party lines, who accused the department of frustrating Parliament’s constitutional oversight role and concealing crucial financial information.
Director-General Cynthia Khumalo acknowledged that the financial report was missing.
“The report with the cost breakdown was in the process of being finalised,” Khumalo told the committee.
Chief Director Vincent Campbell said officials were still trying to reconcile the figures.
“We’re about to finalise all the expenditure. We don’t want to submit a half-done report. What we have is an overview report. We are just left with reconciliation of income statements. The entire financial statement needs to be reconciled,” said Campbell.
His explanation did little to calm MPs.
Committee member Motsho Mmolotsane immediately rejected the department’s justification.
“We are not going to accept that report. DSAC had enough time and they were supposed to give themselves enough time,” she said.
He said members had specifically requested details about who attended the World Cup and in what capacity, but those questions also went unanswered.
“For DSAC to say they are 80% done is just a lame excuse. We are not accepting that report. We are not going to sit here for a half-cooked report,” said Mmolotsane.
DA MP Leah Potgieter questioned the dramatic increase in costs and demanded to know exactly how the trip had been funded.
She said the department had claimed the money was taken from multiple programmes but had failed to identify where those funds had come from in the department’s budget.
“There’s been a ballooning of costs in this particular exercise,” said Potgieter.
She said Parliament still had no explanation for why a delegation of 151 people, including podcasters and chefshad attended the tournament.
“Exactly what were they doing there? What was the selection criteria? What benefit did we get from the podcasters and chefs that were there? This department’s role is not to promote tourism,” asked Potgieter.
She called on the committee to give the department seven days to submit a complete report.
ANC MP Gift Motaung accused the department of repeatedly frustrating parliamentary oversight.
“Whenever we deal with the department we always have these challenges,” complained Motaung.
He questioned how the department could claim not to have a report when Minister Gayton McKenzie had already publicly disclosed spending figures.
“The Minister himself posted on social media what was spent and now suddenly they don’t have the report. I think we need to summon them,” Motaung said.
Committee member Gaolatlhe Kgabo described the document as “flimsy” and “clumsy”, saying it completely failed to equip Parliament to perform its constitutional oversight function.
“This report doesn’t make sense and must be rejected,” he said.
He demanded that DSAC return within seven days with a comprehensive report detailing every expenditure, the budget votes affected, every sponsor involved and all agreements entered into.
“We need to know which budget vote was compromised, who the sponsors are and what the contents of those agreements are,” said Kgabo.
Committee chairperson Joe McGluwa agreed that members’ concerns had been fully ventilated before the committee resolved to require the department to return with a complete report.
Yet even as Parliament imposed its seven-day deadline, Khumalo indicated that the department’s financial work was still incomplete.
She told MPs the report would only be ready after 14 August.
