National Dialogue funding now under Auditor-General's radar

THE hundreds of millions of rands to be spent on the National Dialogue will now form part of Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke’s audit for the 2025/26 financial year.

- LOYISO SIDIMBA

According to the Auditor-General, material findings, if any, from the audit process will be incorporated into the respective audit reports of those institutions, where applicable.

This follows uMkhonto weSizwe Party MP Mzwanele Manyi’s request for the AG to set its sights on the National Dialogue.

Manyi had warned of an imminent and serious risk of irregular expenditure arising from the proposed financing of the National Dialogue through the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

“The proposed financing of the National Dialogue through PFMA Section 30(2)(d) is legally dubious, procedurally irregular, fiscally reckless, and politically imprudent.

“It establishes a dangerous precedent of ‘half-disclosed’ projects being slipped into the budget, eroding the integrity of the fiscal process and weakening parliamentary accountability,” he wrote.

Section 30(2)(d) of the PFMA states that a national adjustments budget may only provide for money to be appropriated for expenditure already announced by the Finance Minister during the tabling of the annual Budget.