ECDOE
Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, says the precautionary suspension of the HOD of Education, Dr Naledi Mbude, will create the space needed to probe several issues plaguing the Department.
He said in a statement on Wednesday that her suspension emanated from among others, the delays in the delivery of stationery to schools, the delays in the processing of payments for educator assistants, and also the under expenditure of the infrastructure conditional grant leading to the return of R205 million to Provincial Treasury.
Mabuyane said the precautionary suspension of the HOD created the space for the government to investigate these matters. He set up a team led by a Deputy Director-General at the Provincial Treasury and comprising senior officials from the Office of the Premier and Treasury to conduct a further inquiry on these issues and submit a report to him within a month.
The Premier has also appointed Mahlubandile Qwase, a Deputy Director-General in the Office of the Premier as the Acting HOD for Education pending the finalisation of the investigation and any other related processes.
But, the Democratic Alliance in the Bhisho Legislature said Dr Mbude's suspension raises more questions than answers.
MPL Yusuf Cassim said Dr Mbude also informed the committee that the reason the infrastructure budget was underspent, was due to significant irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure that she had discovered in the infrastructure programme and that the Department was currently conducting a full audit of infrastructure projects.
"In her response, she revealed that audits for two districts had been completed. These had already uncovered several cases where there were huge discrepancies between what was paid for and what was actually delivered."
He said according to Dr Mbude the audit was being conducted because the Auditor-General had found that the Department did not have an asset register.
"Dr Mbude's responses to our questions earlier this week have given a glimpse into the extent of the rot inside the Department," Cassim said.
