On Tuesday, 02 June 2015, the North West Provincil Legislature’s Standing Committee on Provincial Public Accounts (SCOPA) rescheduled a meeting with the North West Provincial Council on Aids over technicalities on responses sent to the Committee regarding the Audit outcomes.
The Committee held a public hearing with the provincial entity on Public Finance Management Act audit outcomes of the financial year 2013/14.
SCOPA Chairperson, Hon. Mahlakeng Mahlakeng said the Committee could not interrogate the entities’ responses because they did not form part of the questions sent.
“SCOPA is highly specialised Legislature Committee that deals with finances of municipalities, provincial departments and entities and it needs well written responses regarding the audit report. This practice of reading responses separately from questions is also not legal as these documents are also seen by members of the public. We cannot also accept a report that is badly written as it compromises accountability processes,” said Hon. Mahlakeng.
The Council received a qualified audit opinion with findings in the 2013/14 financial year which remained unchanged from the 2012/13 financial year. This was mainly caused by the entity’s lack of implementation of appropriate internal financial control systems and instability in key management positions which include vacant position of the Chief Financial Officer for more than 12 months. The Auditor-General’s report further stated that effective and appropriate disciplinary steps were not taken against officials who made and permitted irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure including those who could not comply with supply chain management policies.
The committee gave the Council seven (7) working days to correct the report. “We can only engage with the entity once the report is in a required state or format,” said Hon. Mahlakeng.
For more information contact:
Namhla Luhabe
Cell: 079 527 0628
E-mail: namhla@nwpl.org.za
