Irregular, Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure for Public Entities

The Auditor-General has repeatedly highlighted the growing level of unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure (UIFW) in public entities and municipalities, as shown in audit reports and annual reports. National Treasury’s pre-audit 2024-25 MFMA compliance report puts the municipal UIFW balance at R268.13 billion, up from R264.10 billion the year before, and Treasury has made clear that writing off UIFW without recovering losses or holding people to account is not acceptable. Treasury has gone as far as withholding equitable share transfers from municipalities that have not dealt with their UIFW balances and consequence management.

Many public entities and municipalities are still unsure how these categories of expenditure should be treated, which law applies to them, who has the power to act, and how each matter must be recorded and disclosed. The picture has also moved: National Treasury Instruction No. 4 of 2022/2023 changed how PFMA institutions determine, condone, and report irregular expenditure, and on 17 September 2026 the Constitutional Court declared the Public Procurement Act 28 of 2024 invalid, so procurement continues under the PFMA, the MFMA, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, and their regulations.

This two-day course gives participants a common, practical understanding of the process to follow. Day 1 covers the legal framework, the definitions, the roles of each office-bearer, and the full process from discovery to determination, investigation, recovery, and condonation. Day 2 covers registers and reporting, the high-risk areas where UIFW arises, the internal controls that prevent it, and what recent audit findings teach us, and closes with a practical workshop built around real-style cases and a UIFW register.