President Jacob Zuma's legal fees came to roughly R5-million in the year
before he was elected, his office told Parliament's Public Accounts
Committee (Scopa) on Tuesday.
"There were unavoidable legal fees of R5-million, approximately, for the
current president," Jessie Duarte, the chief operations officer in the
presidency, told MPs who grilled presidential staff over the office's
qualified audit for 2008/09.
The fees form part of unauthorised expenditure of R14.5-million in the
presidency, which was also accumulated R24.5-million in irregular
expenditure in the same year.
The presidency's chief financial officer, Bahumi Matebisi, said she could
not give a breakdown of the legal fees. It is believed to have covered the
cost of lawyers who acted for Zuma while he battled fraud and corruption
charges.
"I don't have the reconciliation for the total amount," she said.
Charges against Zuma relating in part to the country's multi-billion-rand
arms deal were reinstated in December 2007 and dropped on the eve of the
April 2009 elections, paving the way for him to become president.
Scopa chairperson Themba Godi requested the presidency to supply the
breakdown of Zuma's legal costs to the committee within a week.
The presidency's annual report reflected legal costs of R10.1-million for
the last financial year, compared to R445 000 for 2007/08.
Duarte said the rest of the amount related to other law suits, including
those brought by an Italian company involved in mining in Limpopo and by
farmers who fell victim to stock theft on the Lesotho border.
In both cases the president was named as first respondent as this has become
"a trend".
Duarte said apart from legal fees, the presidency's overspending ranged from
funding for former president Thabo Mbeki's mediation in Zimbabwe to
gratuities paid to former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and
presidency minister Essop Pahad to catering at short notice without getting
the requisite three quotes.
Irregular expenditure of R24.5-million occurred when the presidency paid
this allocation to the now defunct National Youth Commission before it had
submitted its strategic plan.
Deputy head of policy co-ordination in the presidency Alan Hirsch said the
presidency funded the youth commission without the requisite plan because it
would have folded otherwise.
He said the money was paid in quarterly tranches and by the end of the year
the plan was in place.
MPs were sceptical however and Godi said the presidency had allowed itself
to be "blackmailed" by the body.
Duarte in this and other instances appeared to shift blame to the Mbeki
administration, saying the payment was made at the orders of the "previous
accounting officer".
She added that no officials had faced sanction over the incident.
"Unfortunately, we have to say nothing happened."
Duarte also conceded that "principles of normal accounting were not
followed" in compiling a record of assets in the presidency and that as a
result the presidency "had to appoint a company to do asset registration for
us".
Auditor General Terence Nombembe noted in his report that the presidency
failed to furnish him with supporting documents for adjustments to the asset
register with a combined worth of R9.4-million.
Duarte said no action had been taken against staff for their failure to
register assets and said she believed they had since been taught to do the
job properly.
Godi criticised the presidency for calling in an outside company to do its
staff's work and for failing to take steps against under-performing staff.
He said it pointed to a trend in state departments to "let people get away
with murder".
ANC MP Mandla Mbili scoffed at assurances by Duarte and Minister for
Performance Monitoring Collins Chabane that they were satisfied with
improved levels of financial management.
"The end product of your satisfaction resulted in a qualified audit report,"
he said. - Sapa
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With acknowledgements to Sapa and Cape Times.
Altogether Zuma's legal bills paid by the
public are much higher than R5 million.