The Citizen reports that the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has revealed that five officials have been dismissed as a result of irregular expenditure incurred by the commission.

The IEC was presenting its annual report and financial statements for the year 2019/2020 to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday. During the virtual meeting, IEC chair Glen Mashinini told the committee that the IEC had incurred over R20 million in irregular expenditure, a 513% decrease from the previous financial year, when the commission had incurred over R130 million. “We can also confirmed that there has been five dismissals relating to irregular expenditure that has been incurred. It has also been found in the reporting period that there was no material findings by the office of the AGSA [auditor-general of South Africa]. They only identified 2% of what is reported of the R21 million [irregular expenditure],” she advised. Mashinini further told the committee that 98% of the fruitless and wasteful expenditure related to petrol card fraud, which has been reported to the authorities. Last month, the IEC revealed that R1.9 billion has been budgeted to cover the cost of the 2021 local government elections. The commission said it was confident it could deliver free and fair polls, with 31% being invested in new generation voting management devices.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Molefe Seeletsa at The Citizen

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