Evidence of large-scale misappropriation in the Nkandla construction project was hidden from the auditor general (AG), Beeld reported on Thursday.
That was why, over three years, the AG did not pick up on the R246m spent on so-called security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma's private Nkandla homestead in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
This was revealed by AG Kimi Makwetu on Wednesday in his response to a question at the release at Parliament of the latest audit outcomes for national and provincial departments.
"If you go back to our audit reports for the department of public works during these years you will see that we said we could not deliver an audit opinion because we could not get access to all the necessary documents," he was quoted as saying.
"It was not an easy task for us to do the audit because the documents were classified and it was not easy for us to do a normal audit."
Makwetu had been asked why the AG never raised the alarm over the Nkandla spending.
The public works department took steps against officials involved in the project only this year after the public protector and Special Investigating Unit found that rules and regulations were contravened and R155.3m was overspent.
- SAPA
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