The provincial Auditor-General has congratulated the Gauteng Provincial Government on improving its audit results. The province achieved eight clean audits and twenty-three unqualified audits for 2012/13, an impressive improvement on the previous years audit results. This takes Gauteng a step closer to achieving its target of 100% clean audits by 2014.
The following provincial departments received clean audits:
- Office of the Premier
- Provincial Legislature
- Provincial Treasury
- Social Development
- Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation
Three provincial entities also received clean audits:
- The Gauteng Partnership Fund
- The Gauteng Fund Project Office and
- The Gautrain Management Agency.
The improved audit results were achieved through a variety of interventions:
- Strengthening leadership and stabilising management in the province;
- Strengthening capacity in strategic planning, financial management and other key areas;
- Ensuring the implementation of robust accounting practices;
- Improving the quality of performance information and reporting against targets;
- Clamping down on overspending - no departments overspent in the 2012/2013 financial year;
- Quarterly interaction with Audit Committee chairpersons by MEC's;
- Implementing measures which resulted in a massive reduction in unauthorised expenditure, from R4,5 billion to R392 million in the year under review;
- Extensive reviews of departments' financial statements resulting in improvements in the quality of the financial statements, with no departments having material adjustments;
- A comprehensive review of Quarterly Interim Financial Statements and Annual Financial Statements of departments and entities in our endeavour to eliminate repeat audit findings;
- The deployment of graduates registered with the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) as interns in departments to improve the capacity in CFO’s offices; and
- Implementation and monitoring of Strategic Support Plans (SSP), which were developed following the results of the Financial Management Capability Model assessment survey. The SSPs addressed the identified weaknesses in various areas of financial management and areas which were included in the AG management reports.
Our Health Turnaround Strategy is beginning to yield positive results. We have successfully addressed leadership and management in the Department of Health. We have stabilised the department's finances and streamlined supply chain management. The department has come a long way from the disclaimer it received in 2010/11 and now has a qualification with reduced audit findings. This reduction is evidence of our efforts to turn around the department are having an impact.
The Auditor-General commended the department on the improved quality of their performance information, its alignment with planned programmes and adherence to what is known as the SMART principles. This indicates a clear path towards an unqualified audit and ultimately a clean audit. More work still needs to be done with the administrator appointed by the provincial government. It took bold leadership and homegrown solutions to bring the Department of Health to this improved state of affairs.
A total of three entities achieved clean audits and 16 achieved unqualified audits. More work will be done to build the capacity of our entities to sustain clean audits over time.
2013/14
The key focus area for the 2013/14 financial year is to consolidate our achievements and ensure that all our departments and entities achieve clean audits.
The provincial government will continue to reinforce the measures implemented and ensure that:
- a mutually beneficial relationship with the Office of the Auditor- General is sustained;
- a special emphasis is placed on the audit status of entities to ensure they achieve clean audits;
- departments implement Audit Action Plans to address findings;
- Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are assisted to improve financial management and controls through the production of regular interim financial statements that are audited by Internal Audit.
In conclusion, we congratulate MECs, HODs, CFOs and other departmental officials that made this achievement possible. We are pleased with our 2012/13 results and we are confident that we can do even better as we move towards the end of our term of office and achieve clean audits in 2014.
For more information contact:
Matlakala Motloung
Head of Communications in Gauteng Provincial Government
Cell: 082 787 9472
