Civil Engineering October 2022 | Vol 30 No 9

Civil Engineering October 2022 7 Le t ter from the ed i tor T he Auditor General’s (AG) report assessed the audit out- comes of South Africa’s nine water boards – Rand Water, Bloem Water, Magalies Water Board, Mhlathuze Water Board, Lepelle Northern Water, Umgeni Water, Amatola Water, Overberg Water and Sedibeng Water – and their performance against key service delivery objectives as set out in the Water Service Act. Concerningly, just four out of the nine water boards achieved more than 80% of their planned targets. Moreover, only six of the water boards complied with the minimum requirements for safe drinking water, while the other three partially complied with certain specifications. The AG further found that that avoidable water losses totalled 74.7 million kℓ – amounting to R794 million lost revenue – largely as a result of ageing infrastructure that is not properly maintained. Water boards also do not define, measure and report on water interruptions consistently. “Water boards play an important role in providing water to all citizens, which makes it concerning that only two water boards were able to increase access to services to citizens, while five did not achieve on the targets they set themselves and the remaining two did not measure this at all,” revealed Auditor General Tsakani Maluleke. FINANCES Auditors identified material errors in the annual performance reports of five water boards. Material errors were also identified in the financial statements of six water boards, four of which were able to make corrections to their financial statements to achieve unqualified opinions. Encouragingly, Maluleke reports that the overall financial health of the water boards improved slightly in 2020/21. But al- though none of them reported any cash shortfalls at year-end, the AG is still concerned about the time it takes for them to collect the money they are owed and to pay their creditors. Water boards’ irregular expenditure decreased by 41%, from R3.2 billion in 2019/20 to R1.9 billion in 2020/21. Unfortunately, however, fruitless and wasteful expenditure increased by 12%, from R264 million in 2019/20 to R296 million in 2020/21. Sedibeng Water, Amatola Water, Umgeni Water and Lepelle Northern Water were responsible for 99.6% (R295 million) of this amount. RECOMMENDATIONS Maluleke made several recommendations to those charged with administration, governance and oversight, namely: Q Q For credible and consistent reporting, the Department of Water and Sanitation needs to create standard indicators and targets that should be included in corporate plans. This will ensure that all water boards are consistently working towards the priorities of government and that their performance can be monitored appropriately. Q Q To improve the quality of performance management, manage- ment and the accounting authority should implement internal controls that will enable useful and reliable performance reporting. This will ensure that the water board adequately performs its role in achieving the constitutional right of access to sufficient water for all citizens. Q Q Water boards must analyse the root causes of not achieving their targets and develop action plans to improve on these critical service delivery areas, as this directly affects the quality and availability of water. ACCOUNTABILITY While improved financial health and decreased irregular expend- iture are small steps in the right direction, they are overshadowed by the other concerning findings of the AG’s report. Clean and reliable water supply is not only a right but an im- perative. The fact that so many water boards did not achieve their targets is disheartening. If one were to add up the lost revenue due to avoidable water losses with irregular expenditure and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, the result is almost R3 billion which could have been spent towards providing and improving services. Maluleke called for accelerated accountability and the crea- tion of an “accountability ecosystem” consisting of a multitude of role players at different levels working together to enable a culture of accountability in sustainable and meaningful ways. While there are undoubtedly pockets of excellence in our gov- ernment institutions, without a culture of accountability we are unlikely to see much improvement in the operation and manage- ment of our failing state-owned enterprises and public entities. If we fail to impose consequences for wrongdoing, we perpetuate a culture of impunity that undermines the provision of services to the people of South Africa. We are now begin- ning to see action arising from the Zondo Commission reports. Perhaps this marks the first step to creating the account- ability ecosystem that will support a new culture of accountability. Danielle Petterson Editor Civil Engineering danielle@saice.org.za Towards an accountability ecosystem The 2022 Blue and Green Drop reports revealed an alarming decline in water quality and wastewater management, with 23% of water supply systems at critical risk and 39% of municipal wastewater systems in a critical state. The Auditor General’s recently released report on the country’s water boards shows that this poor management extends to South Africa’s bulk potable and wastewater service providers as well.