Two things grabbed my attention on News 24 today.
The one was that they have uncovered a scam in the Gauteng housing department with fraud totalling more than R133 million. People have been awarding themselves and their partners housing subsidies, even though they earn a decent salary etc. People that were dead according to Home Affairs, also received grants.
Very Nice!
When is our government going to live according to their own rules? When are we going to get independant yearly audits on these departments? When are we going to get controls in place to stop this type of fraud?
The second thing that grabbed my attention, was that all 21 municipalities in Mpumalanga decided to have inauguration parties for their new mayor ellects, costing more than R100,000 each. Some up to R300,000. In my book, that's enough to get him fired again. How many people can you provide for with that 2.1 million rand? Then there's one of them, that's budgeted R800,000 for a car! Buddy, you're in charge of a small town, not a big city! Same rules count here than in the corporate world, if you run a small company, you drive an affordable car, if you run a multi-million rand corporation, you've obviously proved yourself, and you get the expensive car. Maybe you should manage your town out of the debt they're in, and will then get the promotion to mayor of a big city, where you get the expensive car.
Even though each municipality is independantly managed, I think it's time that government put certain restrictions and controls in place, same as you would get in the corporate world. The manager of a branch office does not get the same perks as the area/national manager. Not even close! My opinion is, that if the country was run more like a company, with the correct strcutures and controls in place, we would have a much better country to live in.