SA Tourism has again come under fire in Parliament – this time for only achieving 89% of the 55 targets set for the fourth quarter of the 2024/25 financial year despite overspending its allocated full-year budget by more than R24 million (US$1.3 million).
SA Tourism’s fourth quarter performance report, presented to the Portfolio Committee on Tourism on July 15, highlights particular struggles within the entity’s corporate support programme with only 75% of targets met. The missed targets relate specifically to risk management and the implementation of recommendations from financial audit findings.
The entity failed to develop a 2024/25 risk management maturity assessment, which includes measures such as the development of operational risk registers, a risk management policy, and an anti-fraud and corruption policy.
Only 73% of the 39 recommendations made by the Auditor-General and internal audit were finalised by the close of the financial year on March 31 although this has subsequently risen to 95%, according to the performance report.
Within the leisure tourism marketing programme – which commands the largest chunk of SA Tourism’s budget – the entity was unable to provide a portfolio of evidence for the execution of its global brand campaign, due to the fact it was only launched on the final day of the financial year.
The organisation additionally fell short of its target to grade 5 000 tourism establishments, grading a total of 4 586 establishments.
According to the organisation’s financial statements, 105% overspend was recorded on the R1.2 billion (US$67 million) goods and services budget for the full 2024/25 financial year, driven by a 107% overspend in the leisure tourism marketing programme.
In contrast, only 83% of the allocated R231.5 million (US$12.9 million) budget for employee compensation was spent due to “vacancies that were expected to be filled but have only been advertised”.
Fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure totalled R28.4 million (US$1.38 million). The expenditure is linked to improper procurement processes and services rendered outside the scope of contracts.
Ronalda Nalumango, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Tourism, described the performance as “grossly unacceptable”, particularly in light of the fact that SA Tourism received more than half of the Department of Tourism’s budget.
“With the performance of SA Tourism for the period under review, it seems that the organisation does not fully appreciate the importance of the role it has to play in driving economic growth and creating job opportunities,” said Nalumango.
“Our overall conclusion is that SA Tourism still does not have effective internal controls to track financial and non-financial performance,” she added.
