BusinessLive reports that the Democratic Alliance (DA) has questioned the Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) decision to pay generous staff bonuses in the 2017/2018 fiscal year.  

The department failed to meet several of its targets and received a qualified audit from the auditor-general.  The department’s annual report, tabled in parliament last week, showed that it paid out R31.5m in bonuses in 2017/2018.  Yet its performance has limped along for the past five years, according to an analysis presented to parliament’s portfolio committee on water and sanitation on Tuesday by the Auditor-General’s office.  It received a qualified audit in four out of the five years under review, and racked up steadily increasing unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.  “I need to know who agreed to pay performance bonuses to officials with this kind of achievement.  If we don’t have money to deliver infrastructure to our people, surely we don’t have money to pay bonuses to people [who are] not achieving what was set out for them to achieve,” DA MP Leon Basson said.  The department’s Squire Mahlangu said no bonuses were paid to the director-general nor to deputy directors-general in charge of specific programmes.  A total of R25.35m was paid to staff up to level 12, and a further R3.09m to senior managers.

• Read this report by Tamar Kahn in full at BusinessLive

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