ICASA wastes R5.7m

The office of the Auditor General has revealed over R5.7 million in irregular expenditure and wasteful spending by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).

This was revealed in the regulator’s 2010/11 annual report – which also highlighted concerns with ICASA’s management of the National Revenue Fund (NRF).

According to the report, irregular expenditure of R 5 057,453, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure totalling R 707,413 was found by the Auditor General (AG).

“In relation to irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure the Authority has embarked on a process to strengthen polices, systems and processes in relation to procurement and supply chain to prevent a recurrence of these findings in future,” ICASA stated.

The AG also raised concerns with the valuation, existence and completeness of the National Revenue Fund (NRF) debtors and related NRF creditors – which could not be confirmed.

The regulator notes that over the years it has LS system which is a radio propagation modelling system for issuing frequency spectrum licences. Once the LS system has captured the licensing data, this has to be transferred to JD Edwards, a financial system, to capture and reflect financial information such as invoicing and payment details.

“A two-year turnaround strategy will be developed and implemented to ensure effective and efficient Revenue Management within the Authority… Measures are being introduced to improve the control environment. For example, the Administered Revenue Management Policy is being reviewed to address the shortcomings identified; amend legislation and licence fee regulations, and ensure that write-offs and the provision for doubtful debts are all aligned to accounting principles, including Treasury Regulations”.

ICASA notes that it is currently using only a few modules of the LS system, and intends to procure additional modules that would capture the frequency spectrum licensing information and translate this into financial information in the JDE system.