Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has submitted her audit findings for 2021/22. The bigger government departments are the biggest culprits when it comes to fraud and mismanagement, she says.
Motheo Khoaripe interviews South Africa’s Auditor-General, Tsakani Maluleke.
– The Auditor-General submitted her audit findings for 2021/22 to Parliament on Wednesday.
– While there has been a gradual improvement in the audit outcomes of national and provincial government departments, the bigger ones with the bigger budgets still tend to be mismanaged, she says.
The Office of the Auditor-General released its audit report for the 2021-2022 financial year on Wednesday.
The report rates the performance of national and provincial government departments.
It finds there has been a gradual improvement in their audit outcomes.
Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke said the increase in the number of clean audits every year is thanks to “significant effort and commitment” by the leadership, officials and governance structures of these auditees.
AG Tsakani Maluleke briefs members of the media on the 2021-22 PFMA audit outcomes #AGReport
Read the full report here:https://t.co/iGidKwiS9Y pic.twitter.com/inhO1I4Kb6
‘ Auditor-General SA (@AuditorGen_SA) November 23, 2022
30% of state departments obtained a clean audit.
However these departments account for only 6% of state expenditure Maluleke said.
“This improvement trend… doesn’t translate into the key service delivery departments.”
Motheo Khoaripe interviews the AG on The Money Show.
What we found is that the smaller departments and entities are doing well, at least in terms of meeting the clean audit definition – they can report on their finances appropriately, they can report on their performance in a way that allows for transparency and for accountability to happen…
Tsakani Maluleke, Auditor-General
…and they operate within the rule of law, especially in so far as procurement is concerned.
Tsakani Maluleke, Auditor-General
This is not the case however with the bigger departments which are those with the bigger budgets, Maluleke adds.
That’s a norm across most provinces, where you find that even if there are improvements in the number of clean audits, when you look at the quality of it you realise that a large part of the budget still sits in the hands of departments that cannot account appropriately for how they manage financial resources.
Tsakani Maluleke, Auditor-General
They’re not managing their performance appropriately, let alone report on it… and they also are still falling foul of the rule of law, especially in the area of procurement.
Tsakani Maluleke, Auditor-General
In some instances there is clearly an intention to defraud she says, and these are the matters that ultimately land up in the hands of the law enforcement agencies.
There are also others cases which involve a lack of skills and a lack of monitoring, Maluleke explains.
But then the environment “becomes susceptible to actually creating leakage.”
The AG has called on government to instill a culture of accountability in the public sector to improve service delivery to the citizenry.
Scroll to the top to listen to the in-depth interview with the AG
This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Instil a culture of accountability in public sector – AG’s appeal to govt
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