The Department of Basic Education (DBE) today demonstrated its sustained commitment to clean governance, institutional accountability, and fiscal discipline following its fifth consecutive unqualified audit outcome for the 2024/25 financial year.
The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) presented these findings to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, where the Department’s leadership led by Minister Siviwe Gwarube, Deputy Minister Dr Reginah Mhaule, and Director-General Mathanzima Mweli engaged the Committee on the DBE’s ongoing reforms and performance trajectory.
Minister Gwarube welcomed the AGSA’s audit opinion as both validation and motivation for continued reform, noting that clean audits are not merely procedural achievements but indicators of institutional maturity.
“This outcome affirms that the Department continues to build as a high-performance public institution underpinned by integrity, accountability, and disciplined financial management,” said Minister Gwarube. “An unqualified audit is not the destination, but the evidence of systems that function, oversight that tightens, and a culture of accountability that deepens.”
Audit strengths and performance gains
The DBE reported a 93% reduction in irregular expenditure over the past two years from R955 million in 2022/23 to R68.2 million in 2024/25 reflecting the impact of sustained interventions in procurement integrity, consequence management, and compliance monitoring at both national and provincial levels.
The Internal Audit Unit completed 19 risk-based audits and 11 management-requested reviews, resolving 70 percent of prior AGSA findings, with the remainder under active remediation. The residual issues primarily relate to legacy projects involving Implementing Agents (IAs) and ASIDI infrastructure portfolios, where historical non-compliance continues to be systematically addressed.
Institutional reforms and strengthened oversight
The Department has already implemented targeted corrective measures in response to the Auditor-General’s matters of emphasis, including:
- Rectifying procurement anomalies where Implementing Agents awarded contracts to non-compliant bidders;
- Enhancing data integrity and quality assurance of reported performance information;
- Expanding Strategic Planning and Reporting capacity to improve timeliness and precision in sector performance reporting; and
- Enforcing penalty clauses, performance guarantees, and consequence management mechanisms in all IA contracts to safeguard public funds.
These interventions are operationalised through a comprehensive DBE Audit Action Plan, which is integrated into branch performance compacts and tracked quarterly by both the Audit Committee and the Director-General.
Advancing a proactive and accountable organisation
The DBE’s risk-maturity index has improved from 3.7 (2022/23) to 4.2 (2024/25), indicating an evolution from reactive to anticipatory risk management, supported by stronger evidence-based decision-making.
“We are institutionalising accountability not as a compliance exercise, but as a defining feature of public service ethics,” Minister Gwarube emphasised. “Our pursuit of a clean audit is anchored in the principle that every rand must translate into value in classrooms and tangible educational outcomes for learners.”
The Minister further noted that transparency and scrutiny remain foundational to institutional growth:
“We welcome oversight because it refines our systems. External scrutiny, combined with internal self-assessment, creates durable institutions capable of delivering public value,” she concluded.
Towards a model of financial governance in education
The Department expressed appreciation to the Auditor-General of South Africa and the DBE Audit Committee for their sustained oversight and technical rigour, which have strengthened accountability architecture across the sector.
The five-year record of unqualified audits shows that the DBE is on a sustained path of fiscal prudence and good governance. DBE is demonstrating that a developmental education system can simultaneously pursue quality learning outcomes and institutional integrity.
Enquiries:
Terence Khala
Media Relations Specialist
Cell: 081 758 1546
Lukhanyo Vangqa
Media Liaison Officer
Cell: 066 302 1533
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