Investigating managerial control measures in monitoring the unlawful expenditure in the department of Agriculture - North West

Abstract

Financial management in all three government spheres is regulated by Acts, and National and Provincial Governments are guided by the PFMA. In the local government sphere the MFMA helps managers to maintain a sustainable management of the financial management in all government spheres; to set up and apply treasury regulations and standards for all organisations. The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Act 1 of 1999 underlines the fact that the management must make sure that government institutions do comply with laws and regulations as well as all the financial policies designed by organisations. Ever since the approval of the PFMA, there are still challenges being encountered to effect compliance with the Act by government Departments. This study aimed to investigate managerial control measures in monitoring unlawful expenditure in the Department of Agriculture - North West. In trying to achieve the objectives of the study, two methods were used (qualitative and quantitative methods) in this study. Data was distributed and collected from 104 participants and interviewees. The data analysis process was done through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 23) followed by text derived from data obtained from the interviewees' actual responses. Findings were presented in the form of graphs and tables as well as narration with concomitant consideration of aspects. The study has revealed that there is low correspondence in the existing managerial controls to measure unlawful expenditure, which means that there are no existing managerial controls in place in the Department and also that there are high levels of expenditure that are unlawful and the Department is not doing anything to design or come up with the measures necessary to eliminate unlawful expenditure. The study also recommends that all employees within the Department must comply with the PFMA and financial policies to avoid and where necessary to curb unlawful expenditure.