1. Hon. JM Mkhatshwa, ANC, to ask the Hon. Premier the Auditor-General visited Mpumalanga on Thursday, 9 October 2014 on a road show to communicate the Provincial Government’s audit outcomes for the 2013/14 financial year.
i. What are the major successes and progress the province has made on financial governance as outlined in the Auditors Report?
Response:
Overall, provincial departments have seen significant progress in enhancing drivers of internal controls. There has been notable progress made in leadership and governance, financial management and performance management.
This suggests that departments have progressively improved in the following areas:
- provision of effective leadership;
- exercise of oversight responsibility,
- effective human resource management, policies and procedures;
- proper record keeping;
- implementation of internal controls;
- monitoring of compliance; as well as
- the preparation of accurate financial and performance reports
ii. Which departments in the province got clean audit outcomes and what positive lessons can be drawn from the departments that got unqualified reports with no findings?
Response:
The Departments of Finance, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Social Development received clean audit outcomes for the 2013/14 financial year.
The important lesson learned is that managers must focus on the key daily and monthly duties of processing, monitoring and reporting. This must be coupled with proper record keeping.
For other departments to receive clean audit outcomes, it is important to focus on the following areas:
- Improving financial management;
- Improving the quality of financial statements;
- Strengthening supply chain management processes and controls;
- Enhancing human resources practices, including compliance with policies and regulations; as well as,
- Ensuring effective information and communication technology (ICT) governance systems and processes
iii. What strong measures will be taken to deal with departments, which are still lagging behind in terms meeting clean audit target?
Response:
Poor audit outcomes are a consequence of poor leadership and management performance. As a result, the Provincial Treasury has been tasked to provide comprehensive support to all Departments to ensure that they all achieve clean audit outcomes.
Among other key measures, we will focus on:
- Improving internal controls
- Ensuring that there are consequences for poor performance and transgressions at all levels of senior management.
- Holding all Accounting Officers liable for poor performance where poor audit outcomes result from the dereliction of duty by Accounting Officers Financial management is a key performance area of Accounting Officers.
- Disciplinary measures will be implemented when there is no improvement after all the support efforts we have put in place.
2. Hon.VV Windvoël, ANC, to ask Hon. Premier Our Provincial Government have indeed done a lot to promote safety on our roads as well as create awareness and inform motorists of any outstanding traffic infringement:
i. With the introduction of the new automated number-plate system in Mpumalanga, how will it improve traffic safety?
Response:
One of the contributing factors for drivers not to obey the rules on the roads is that there has been no effective follow-up for those who break the law. Many drivers would break the law with impunity.
Where summons are issued, they are ignored until they expire. The Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison did not have a system to track down these drivers. The introduction of the new automated system will assist the Department with the identification of all those who were issued with summons and did not respond to them.
This system will also help the department to ensure that drivers know that when they break the law, they will in one way or another be found. This will also discourage drivers from breaking the law, since they would be found one day and tickets will never be ignored again in the province.
Full speech [PDF]
