Irregular expenditure and poor management taking its toll on SANDF’s budget

[Nat Quinn]

Reports state that the South African Defense Force (SANDF) is bleeding funds with irregular expenditure and poor management taking its toll on the defence budget.

SANDF in financial crisis

According to the Democratic Alliance (DA), a recent presentation from the National Treasury has painted a bleak picture of the state of affairs within the Defence Force.

The DA said that the national army is in deep financial crisis in terms of its financial constraints spurred on by irregular expenditure over the past five years.

Notably, the party pointed the fact that the SANDF spent R1.5 billion travelling both domestically and internationally.

“Treasury warned that unless steps are taken to cut back on travel costs, the army will struggle to stabilise its finance,” said the DA.

Army’s recent visit to Russia questioned

The DA heavily criticised the recent actions of Lieutenant-General Lawrence Mbatha’s foreign trip to Russia during the war in Ukraine.

The party said that Treasury further raised concern over a yearly Compensation of Employees (CEO) overspend of R2.9 billion on personnel costs not budgeted for, despite a drop in headcount within the SANDF.

The SANDF’s financial status has been a point of concern for years. In November last year, Cyril Xaba, the chair of the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans, said that funding in the SANDF remains a crisis which could spell disaster for the safety and security of the country.

Through mismanagement and budget cuts, the SANDF has been unable to upkeep critical army infrastructure and vehicles.

A breakdown in overall administration has also led to certain assets going untracked, with authorities not knowing where certain movable assets or goods are located across the country.

source:https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/irregular-expenditure-and-poor-management-taking-its-toll-on-sandfs-budget-18-may-2023/

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