POLOKWANE – The Auditor-General (AG) last week met with Members of the Legislature to discuss the 2016/17 financial audits.
The province achieved two clean audits obtained by Treasury and the Limpopo Gambling Board, and no disclaimers.
Read more: Limpopo pleased with two clean audits
Four entities received improved audits, 12 remained unchanged and three regressed.
You might also want to read: CDM receives satisfactory audit
Alice Muller, Corporate Executive in the office of the AG, was delegated to present the outcomes with Mohammed Essa, Deputy Business Executive of the Limpopo AG’s office and to discuss the outcomes with the members present.
Muller said the combined report will be presented in Parliament on 1 November.
She explained a clean audit was not the sole target, but the way the money is managed and value benefits, if a better world was built for the people, are very important.
She said auditees were still slow to respond and there was still a lack of consequences and she explained the pillars of plan, do, check and act, saying it all starts with planning, to which legislature must then provide finance to deal with outcomes of the planning.
“Internal controls must be strong, as must be supervision. The roles must be clear and the right people must be appointed in positions.” She said planning is the place to start looking if things fail.
Muller added senior management such as MECs, HODs, Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and portfolio committees have an important role to monitor these plans and actions throughout the year, not just before audits commence, to ensure matters can be rectified. She challenged senior managers to think what should be done in the foreseeable future and not try to fix challenges come March.
Essa said irregular expenditure, which has more than doubled, was worrisome and he identified the Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) as mostly responsible for adding to previous years’ irregular expenses. He added the Scopa resolutions had to be implemented, as these were of concern for the AG.
Muller concluded by saying strong controls regarding finances are needed to prevent overstepping the line. She said RAL did the right thing by reporting previous irregular expenditure and said it will improve next year. She added the crux is accountability, as persons responsible for corruption must be held accountable, as it creates an environment conducive for corruption if there is no accountability which results in poor audit outcomes.
