Parliament
14 October 2007
Auditor-General (AG) Terence Nombembe, will on Monday, 15 October 2007
present his institution's unqualified annual report to Parliament, his first
since he was appointed to lead South Africa's supreme audit institution on 1
December 2006.
As required by the Public Audit Act (PAA), the AG has tabled the annual
report which includes audited financial statements for the financial year ended
31 March 2007. The report incorporates performance information measured against
predetermined objectives on how the AG achieved on key areas such as public
sector auditing, Employment Equity, Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment,
leadership and reputation.
As the country's supreme audit institution, the AG is responsible for the
auditing of national and provincial state departments and administrations, all
municipalities and any other institution or accounting entity required by
national and provincial legislation to be audited by the AG. The AG's purpose
is to uphold and strengthen the country's democracy by enabling oversight,
accountability and governance in the public sector, thereby building public
confidence.
The AG is answerable only to Parliament. It is held accountable by a number
of parliamentary mechanisms including the Standing Committee on the
Auditor-General (SCoAG) which maintains oversight over the AG; an Audit
Committee which ensures the AG maintains a sound financial and risk management
and internal control system; and external auditors, BD0 Chartered Accountants,
are responsible for auditing the AG's financial statements and performance
information.
In granting the AG an unqualified audit opinion, the external auditors
stated in part: "in our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in
all material respects, the financial position of the Auditor-General as of 31
March 2007, and of its financial performance and its cash flows for the year
then ended in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, the
performance information presents fairly, in all material respects, the
performance of the AG against pre-determined objectives for the year in the
manner required by the Public Audit Act".
Says Nombembe: "We are pleased with the positive outcome of our report. As
an institution that is charged with scrutinising the performance of others, we
are constantly striving to lead by example when dealing with public finances.
We know there are still critical areas that we need to improve on and we have
put measures in place to better our performance in those identified areas.
The environment within which the AG functions is becoming more demanding and
requires ever-increasing levels of professionalism. We have embraced this
challenge and in the past year we have implemented a number of initiatives to
achieve appropriate standards of professionalism."
From 16 October, Nombembe will embark on a countrywide road show presenting
his overview of the 2006/07 national and provincial government audits to the
various legislatures. The emphasis will be on how government departments have
performed in the 2006/07 financial year. His overall findings on local
government will be presented during May 2008.
The AG's complete Annual Report is available on our website: http://www.agsa.co.za.
Enquiries:
Africa Boso
Media Liaison: Auditor-General of South Africa
Tel: 012 426 8273
Cell: 082 8899 527
E-mail: africab@agsa.co.za
Issued by: Auditor-General of South Africa
14 October 2007
