Mbombela - Mpumalanga's Department of Education has been grilled for paying R23 million in performance bonuses in the 2008/2009 financial year, even though the province produced a matric pass rate of just 51.8 percent.
Chairman of the Select Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) Fish Mahlalela recommended on Tuesday that the Auditor-General investigate the department's employee performance management system and payment of performance bonuses.
"We are not convinced that the performance bonuses were based on merit," he said. "In the event that there were people performing above average, it should have reflected on the general performance of the department, especially the matric results."
He said that to qualify for a performance bonus officials needed to be assessed quarterly, but the department was assessing them only once a year.
Mpumalanga received the lowest matric pass rate last year, at 47.9 percent. About 66 schools in the province obtained pass rates of below 20 percent, especially in the Bushbuckridge region.
A number of examination question papers were leaked during last year's exams, prompting the national Education Ministry to take over the function of examination administration in the province.
