The Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, received her fifth clean audit award on behalf of the Department of Social Development from the office of the Auditor General.
Minister Dlamini was appointed as the Minister of Social Development in November 2010 and since the 2012/13 financial cycle, the Department has been achieving clean audit reports.
Assessment by the Auditor-General looked at performance of Social Development and its agencies - SASSA and NDA.
The audit report reveals that the best practices that earned the department its fifth consecutive award are: Effective leadership and Performance management, timely and effective consequence management, effective governance structures and implementation of action plans to respond to root causes of risk behaviour.
Mr Theunis Eloff, Senior Manager in the Office of the Auditor-General who has been responsible for auditing Social Development for the past five years acknowledged the clean audit as "an incredible accomplishment for the Department of Social Development as this audit also reflects on social grants being paid by SASSA. It shows that SASSA also has good internal controls to ensure that there is no mismanagement in the payment of grants." said Mr Eloff.
Responding to this accolade, the Minister of Social Development said she was humbled and elated.
"This award shows that the Department of Social Development understands the importance of accounting, good governance and working with the office of the Auditor General," she said.
She also thanked the Finance team in the Department of Social Development for its hard work in ensuring that the department operates ethically and within all financial prescripts of government.
Media inquiries may be forwarded to:
Ms Lumka Oliphant
Cell: 083 484 8067
E-mail: lumkao@dsd.gov.za
