Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille on Monday announced that an amount of R35 million linked to irregular payments for services not rendered has been returned to the SA Tourism account.
The minister said several irregular payments were made for services not rendered by South African Tourism’s US and South Africa offices.
SA Tourism is the official tourism marketing agency of South Africa and an entity of the Department of Tourism.
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“I was recently informed by SA Tourism that there had been a number of irregular payments and invoices noted, which do not meet the definition of compliant and valid or internal control verification standards.
“A number of irregular invoices were created about three days before the previous financial year end, which ended on 31 March 2023 and processed piecemeal to override banking controls,” De Lille said in a statement.
Executives who are no longer working for the agency, the Minister disclosed, processed these payments, from the United States and South Africa offices of SA Tourism at the end of March 2023.
“This discovery was triggered by a review by SA Tourism, which confirmed that a significant portion received by a media agency during March 2023 and signed off by the then Acting Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer and the then Acting CEO were for services not yet rendered at the time of disbursement,” De Lille explained.
As part of its mandate, SA Tourism has hub offices in key source market countries around the world to enable officials to interact with partners in executing their duties of promoting and marketing South Africa as a top travel destination.
