Cabinet commends unqualified reports

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Pretoria - Cabinet has commended the positive increase in a number of unqualified opinions by the Auditor General in departments.

There has been an increase from 29 entities in 2007/2008 to 55 entities in 2008/9, signalling an improvement of the audit outcomes by national and provincial institutions, including the timeous tabling of their 2008/09 annual reports.

"Government is pleased with this development, which is a clear indication that we are making progress. However, it still remains concerned with the departments and entities with persistent poor audit outcomes," Cabinet said in a statement.

Cabinet, however, raised concerns with the number of departments and state entities with persistent poor audit reports.

This year, the Auditor General revealed that financial disclosure rules were often not complied with.

Further Cabinet said National Macro-Organisation of the State (NMOS) Project has achieved its objective of facilitating macro organisation in the new dispensation.

"From now on the various departments will finalise residual matters with the support from the Department of Public Service, National Treasury, and the Department of Public Works."

The Minister in the Presidency: Performance Monitoring and Evaluation on the other hand continue to provide guidance and oversight where necessary.

Meanwhile several key appointments were approved, including Nelisiwe Magubane who was appointed as Director General for the Department of Energy and MJ Diphofu was appointed Director General of the Public Service Commission.