A government entity fighting one of society’s ills is pointing an accusatory finger at its department for allowing millions to be unknowingly spent on its account.
The Central Drug Authority (CDA) gave a presentation to the Select Committee on Social Services on Tuesday, focusing on its drug rehabilitation and prevention programmes.
In explaining the financial performance of the entity, the CDA stated that expenditure unrelated to its operations was authorised at the discretion of the Department of Social Development (DSD).
Money spent ‘without consultation’
The CDA recorded expenditure for the last financial year of R7.2 million, R3.1 million over its baseline budget.
However, the CDA executive claims that the majority of the expenditure had little to do with the entity’s work.
Mystery expenditure items include almost R70 000 for travel agency fees, R343 000 for accommodation, R124 000 for car rental, and R854 000 for air travel.
“We are not entirely sure what that accommodation is because the CDA holds virtual meetings. The car rental? We have not been travelling.
“Air transport? We have not flown. We are not flying, we are in the office, and we do virtual interactions,” said CDA governance chairperson Nomathemba Kela.
The entity does not have an independent budget, but is a funded entity under the DSD, with the unexplained costs “sanctioned by DSD at its discretion without consultation with the CDA”.
Larger items the CDA were not sure of included R1.01 million spent on shuttle services and R1.7 million on venue and facility hire.
“It is important to note that the CDA has no clue as to the service providers procured for what purpose and at what cost to the CDA, and can therefore not account for any of this expenditure,” the CDA presentation stated.
No answers provided
The governance head added that the CDA had requested reports from DSD over the items, but had not received an explanation.
The DSD was contacted by The Citizen on Wednesday for comment, and the department’s response will be added once received.
The CDA complained about a lack of financial transparency and recommended that it be given financial control of its budget to improve accountability and its overall function.
Kela said cost-cutting measures had been instituted to ensure budget for core activities.
The DA’s Nicola du Plessis questioned whether one of those activities – the annual drug survey – had not been done since 2023 due to a lack of resources or a lack of planning.
“Regardless of all the fantastic-sounding progress of the drug master plan, there has been no real on-the-ground impact. Why is there no accurate data post 2023-24?” asked Du Plessis.
Members declined to adopt the reports given on Wednesday until DSD officials returned to the committee to explain the situation highlighted by the CDA.
Treatment figures
A sample of the figures given by the CDA on drug demand reduction shows 3 564 people were treated for co-morbid substance use disorders (SUD) in KwaZulu-Natal, with the province seeing 4 910 new state-supported SUD clients in the last financial year.
Gauteng saw the state-funded mental health and SUD screening of 2.2 million people, with a further 6.7 million people reached through some form of awareness campaign.
In the Western Cape, 13 989 people received DSD-funded SUD services, and 4 809 people were enrolled in early intervention programmes.
While substance abuse was an issue, the CDA explained that alcohol, gender-based violence and mental health were the “nexus” of its treatment programmes.
“Alcohol remains the single greatest cross-cutting driver identified by provinces, strongly linked to GBV, mental health pressures and broader substance use harms,” the CDA concluded.
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