within the short period of the leases should have been investigated to assess the extent to which the Honourable Members may be called upon to account for the resultant losses to Government in repair costs. 

## 38. Audit Inspection – National Assembly 

Following an audit inspection conducted at the National Assembly, I addressed the Accounting Officer drawing her attention to a number of unsatisfactory features amongst which were the following:- 

(a) As far back as 2014/15 the Department had placed an order for 7 porta cabins at a cost of P2 592 257, which were to be used as offices while the main Parliamentary building was undergoing refurbishment. Although the refurbishment had taken much longer than the planned 6 months, the porta cabins were not delivered until after 2 years, in November 2016, thus rendering them irrelevant in terms of the purpose for which they were procured. 

However, during the audit inspection which was conducted in 2018 it was noted that the porta cabins had still not been put to use, except for two which were used, one for the storage of files and the other for furniture. The rest remained vacant. In my review, in all the circumstances of the purchase of these porta cabins Government has not obtained value for the expenditure of P2 592 257. 

(b) When the order for the 7 porta cabins was placed in 2014/15 as noted above, the Department already had 4 caravans which had been on rental since 2000 to-date. Out of the 4 only 1 was in use as an office, while the rest were vacant and continue to attract rental payments. I am unable to appreciate the rationale for the continued retention of these facilities on rental basis if they cannot be justified by usage. 

(c) In 2015, a company was engaged for the upgrading of Hansard recording equipment in Parliament buildings, at a cost of P2 884 121. However, the upgrading project was never satisfactorily achieved with some equipment not even installed, which resulted in frequent maintenance visits by the contractors, at Government expense, which I considered was rather generous on the part of Government. 

In view of the persistent equipment malfunction, another company was engaged to finish off the project, at a cost of P1 973 138. The items of equipment that had not been installed 

