Yesterday, an Operation Clean Audits was launched at by Minister for Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Siceka at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg. The launch was a call by the Minister to actively commit to the attainment of clean audits by all municipalities and provincial governments by the year 2014. The aim of this initiative is to address all challenges faced by both municipalities and provincial government departments with regards to audit management especially audit findings and queries from the Auditor-General.
Although government has consistently placed service delivery high on its agenda since 1994, Auditor-General's reports have also consistently pointed to queries relating to ineffective institutions, ineffective structures (internal audit units and audit committees), poor performance or an absence of systems. Both provincial and local governments have been faced with challenges which such as:
* inadequate skills on planning, budgeting; public finance management, including expenditure management
* poor interface between financial and non-financial information (monitoring and quality annual reporting)
* inability to manage cash flow significantly
* inadequate skills on credit and debt management, including basic financial accounting and filling or record keeping in most instances
* duplication of payments in some instances and funds not accounted for
* lack of systems to manage audit queries and recommendations, in both internal and external auditing
* inadequate systems with regard to corporate governance (especially, conflict of interest and accountability frameworks, and effective integrated risk management system) within provincial departments and municipalities.
The event was graced by the presents of senior government officials, politicians from all spheres of government in the country, including The Presidency, national and provincial government departments as well as organisations like the Financial Intelligence Centre, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), the Auditor-General and other relevant industry bodies.
Representation for Business Unity South Africa, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), the Banking Association of South Africa, the Development Bank of South Africa, anti-corruption co-ordinating unit, South African Police Services and Parliament of the Republic South Africa are among the guests who attended this ground-breaking event.
Issued by: Department of Housing, Gauteng Provincial Government
17 July 2009
Source: Department of Housing, Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.housing.gpg.gov.za/)
