Cape town: Government has launched the Procurement Payments Dashboard to improve transparency and accountability in public procurement. This was announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana during the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in Parliament on Wednesday. The dashboard will use data pulled from government’s payments systems including the Basic Accounting System (BAS) as well as the supplier database, supplemented by contract data reported on the eTender Portal and supplier information from the Central Supplier Database.
According to South African Government News Agency, this dashboard, which is available on the National Treasury eTender website, shows the payments made to suppliers by most national and provincial government departments as captured on the payments system. This represents a step forward in procurement transparency. The dashboard will help identify inefficiencies, anomalies, and uncover opportunities for consolidation. It also enables analysis of procurement expenditure and the suppliers that do business with the state, giving citizens, academics, and civil society the ability to hold departments accountable supporting efforts to fight corruption and fraud.
An audit to identify ghost workers and payment irregularities across national and provincial departments has identified nearly 9000 high-risk cases requiring further verification. “We are.waging war on ghost workers in public service. We have heard calls from all political parties and civil society. National Treasury is working closely with the Department of Public Service Administration and Home Affairs on a data-driven approach that integrates systems across government,” the Minister said.
According to National Treasury, the verification process of the high-risk cases will begin in January followed by ‘appropriate legal action’. “The next phase of this project will use a single sign-on application being developed for public servants as well as improvements to the government payroll system to automate monitoring to prevent irregularities and improve spending efficiency,” the department said.