The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies has noted the qualification received by the National Consumer Commission (NCC) from the Auditor-General. He says that this was mainly due to historical reasons over which the current leadership had no control of.
The background to these findings is that the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) together with the National Consumer Commission (NCC), commissioned an “as is” audit by a private forensic company on the affairs of the Commission. The Auditor-General’s findings are also in line with the “as is” audit report.
The Auditor-General findings on NNC amongst others are that there was insufficient audit evidence for R15.6 million in irregular expenditure. There had also been fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R3.58 million. Approximately R1.5 million related to fruitless and waste expenditure incurred in the 2011/12 financial year which was not previously disclosed.
Minister Davies says that arising from the findings of the Auditor-General and “as is” audit report, all on-going major contracts with service providers were amended and new service providers were engaged. He added that various systems have been put in place in order to enable due compliance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Treasury regulations.
He added that following the qualified report the National Consumer Commission has also improved its auditing.
“Internal Audit function which was non-existent has been outsourced and regular Audit Committee meetings are now held. We have also various policies that were non-existent have been drafted and implemented. Internal processes in finance and Supply Chain Management have been revised and implemented including debtor and creditor management; payments; asset management,” stated Davies.
According to Minister Davies, the National Consumer Commission was established to be the voice of the vulnerable consumer in the country and it is important that it works harder than ever before to ensure that its voice becomes louder.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe, Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Mobile: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
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