Finance, procurement and asset policies · 03
Irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure policy
Tells a public entity what to do the moment expenditure is identified as irregular, which is a different question from how it happened.
Tells a public entity what to do the moment expenditure is identified as irregular, which is a different question from how it happened.
Define each category in the statutory terms; require immediate recording in the register on identification; set the investigation and determination process; state who decides on recovery, condonation or write-off and on what authority; and set the reporting path to the accounting authority, the executive authority, the Auditor-General and National or Provincial Treasury.
Irregular expenditure is not automatically a loss and not automatically recoverable, and conflating the two paralyses the process. The register must be opened on identification rather than on conclusion of the investigation; a register written up at year end is the finding. Note also the material irregularity regime under the Public Audit Act: once the Auditor-General notifies one, the accounting officer’s response is time-bound.
The law it sits under
What governs this instrument.
Sections 51 and 55 of the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 place the duty on the accounting authority to prevent irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and to report it. The definitions matter: irregular expenditure is expenditure incurred in contravention of a legal requirement, which means most of it originates in a procurement step, not in the payment.
Related pages, tools and documents
Where this instrument sits in the wider set, and the engagement that produces it.
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