Pretoria - Cabinet has noted the Auditor General’s report of the 2011-12 audit outcomes of national and provincial government, Acting Cabinet spokesperson Phumla Williams said on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Auditor General Terence Nombembe released the Consolidated General Report on national and provincial audit outcomes 2011-2012, which showed that only 117 out of a total 536 audited government entities received a clean audit.
“Cabinet reaffirms its commitment to deal with all areas of governance through the Operation Clean Audit project. The project aims for unqualified audit opinions for all municipalities and government departments,” she explained.
Briefing reporters following Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting, Williams said Cabinet had noted the entities that have achieved clean audits and encouraged their good practices to be shared.
The report revealed that of the total 536 audited entities, only 22% had received clean audits, with 297 receiving financially unqualified audit options with findings. This was compared to 279 in the previous year.
Seventy-four received qualified opinions, while 17 received an adverse opinion or disclaimer. Thirty-one of the audits were outstanding due to non-submission of financial statements.
Cabinet appreciated that the audit was something that needs to be addressed. “There is an appreciation to do something about it. There is a much stronger commitment to do something,” said Williams.
At the release of the report, Nombembe said his office took comfort in the positive response from government in its willingness to improve the situation.
“The report does place a lot of emphasis on the fact that we do need to sustain the way in which we manage the administration of government. We are talking about a report that is showing a regression broadly of the audit outcomes when it comes to clean audits,” he said on Tuesday. - SAnews.gov.za
