North West Province puts risk management under spotlight
Employees of the province’s Finance department must continuously assess the provincial government’s level of compliance and come up with measures that will assist provincial departments, municipalities and state-owned entities to mitigate against risks.
This was expressed by Premier of the North West Province, Supra Mahumapelo while addressing the third annual Provincial Risk Management Indaba held at Christiana, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality. The two-day Indaba started yesterday.
“We need to unapologetically demonstrate that our energies are on implementing the fifth administration’s programmes, and that our focus is on introducing different and better ways of doing things in government”, emphasised Premier Mahumapelo.
Mahumapelo also made use of this platform to thoroughly explain to delegates the five concretes adopted by the fifth administration in the quest to rebrand, reposition and renew the province, and the implications of managing risks in the context of these concretes.
Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development MEC, Wendy Nelson said the province is hosting this Indaba with the intention to give feedback and progress from the previous year's Indaba, saying at the centre of this session is to put emphasis on the importance of compliance to risk management processes in the province.
She stressed that the Indaba should not be seen as a talk-shop, but as a momentous gathering that must enhance the effectiveness of the province’s risk management strategy.
“The inputs of this two-day Indaba must not be under-estimated, because it will never be business as usual.
We must not only implement the resolutions moving forward, but we must also ensure that we closely monitor progress of the implementation”, said MEC Nelson, adding that where there are no proper actions, consequence management will apply.
MEC Nelson encouraged officials to always be proactive in identifying risks and managing them, saying this will go a long way in helping the provincial government to effectively and efficiently use allocated resources to improve the people’s lives.
Senior Manager in the Office of the Auditor General, Petro Van Zyl urged delegates not to tolerate non-compliance to the set rules.
“In order to have a clean financial audit, there must be actions taken against officials who do not comply with the strategies put in place for mitigation against risks. To get things right, avoid mistakes of the past years and never tolerate non-compliance,” he advised.
Van Zyl said departments must ensure at all times that risks are identified, assessed, rated properly and well managed.
The Indada was attended among others by Mayors, Municipal Managers, Heads of Departments, Chief Financial Officers and Risk Managers in the province, and was held under the theme “Risk Management, a catalyst towards fast tracking service delivery to better the lives of Bokone Bophirima citizenry".
For enquiries, contact:
Brian Setswambung
Cell: 076 012 4501
E-mail: bsetswambung@nwpg.gov.za
