government departments
16 October 2007
Mmabatho: Auditor-General (AG) Terence Nombembe today briefed the North West
legislature on the province's audit outcomes and trends for the 2006/07
financial year and raised his concern over the level of financial management in
government departments. The purpose of the AG's analysis, a comprehensive
assessment of the state of financial and performance information in the public
sector, is to provide an overview of the audit outcomes at provincial
departments.
Nombembe has embarked on a countrywide road show presenting his overview of
the national and provincial government audits to the various legislatures and
the national Parliament. The emphasis will be on what underpins the audit
results of government departments in the 2006/07 financial year. According to
the information available at the time of the AG's analysis of the audit
results, the North West government comprised of 13 departments.
Overview of audit opinions
Of the 13 provincial departments, only three (23%) department received an
unqualified financial opinion without significant concerns on any other
matters. Eight (62%) departments received a qualified audit opinion, while the
reports of two (15%) departments that received an unqualified financial opinion
had concerns raised on "other matter". This situation remained largely the same
as reported in the previous financial year.
The provincial departments with financial qualifications are Agriculture,
Conservation and Environment, Local Government and Housing, Economic
Development and Tourism, Education, Health, Public Works, Social Development
and Transport, Roads and Community Safety. On the other hand the two
departments that were unqualified financially, but had concerns in areas of
internal control, governance and legislative non-compliance are Finance; and
Sport, Arts and Culture.
The three departments that had neither financial qualifications nor
significant other matters (clean unqualified opinion) are the Office of the
Premier; the Provincial Legislature; and the Contingency Reserve.
Says Nombembe: "We have tailor-made our audit reports and systems to track
and identify root causes of problem areas in all departments. We also make
recommendations of how departments can improve their governance and financial
control systems. We have embarked on these legislature briefings with the
belief that our analyses will help guide both the legislators and management to
improve their internal control weaknesses.
"Most of these problems are basic internal control compliance issues that
require effective monitoring by the leadership so that they could be solved
immediately, while management is sorting out structural internal control issues
that seem to be confined provincially to asset management and a few departments
that have challenges beyond asset management.
"The critical message we are leaving with the legislators and the executive
during our briefings is that it is possible to obtain an unqualified audit
report if the basics in control systems are in place and constantly monitored
by the leadership." Nombembe will present his overall findings on local
government during May 2008.
Enquiries:
Africa Boso
Media Liaison: Auditor-General of South Africa
Tel: 012 426 8273
Cell: 082 889 9527
E-mail: africab@agsa.co.za
Issued by: Auditor-General of South Africa
16 October 2007
