Minister of Public Works & Infrastructure Patricia de Lille is taking action against senior officials in her department for failing to submit an audit report to her for almost a year.

The report found that refurbishment projects, running in Parliament and other precincts, were over-budgeted and not being delivered on time, reports News24.

De Lille had appointed an external auditing company, BDO, to make an independent assessment on the projects, which included renovations in the NCOP building, parliamentary precinct and villages.

According to the department, the parliamentary prestige projects amounted to R497m across 12 projects.

BDO submitted its draft report on its assessment on 19 October 2020 for the department's comment. The final report was then submitted to the department's management on 20 November 2020.

‘Unfortunately, this report was not submitted to me, as the executive authority of the department, who commissioned the independent assessment. This audit report was only submitted to me on Friday, 17 September 2021, almost a year after the department received it and only after I requested it,’ De Lille said.

Among other things, BDO's report found that half the projects reviewed were over budget and all the projects were delivered late; as well as irregular spending and quality issues.

The Minister said she would be writing to the department's acting DG to institute consequence management processes against the senior officials, who had ‘hid the report’ from her.

She said this was a gross violation of their duties.

She plans to ask to President Cyril Ramaphosa to issue a proclamation for the SIU to further investigate the projects.

Full News24 report