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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is disappointed that the defence department received a qualified audit, for the eighth year in a row, because of the complete mismanagement of tangible assets by the Defence Force.

The Minister of Defence of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, promised that if the department did not get an unqualified audit this year "there would not be enough towels to wipe the blood off the floor". But despite the minister's threats, the defence department received a qualified audit for 2009/2010 from the Auditor General.

The Auditor-General's report on the defence department's financial statements for 2009/2010 was qualified because of mismanagement of the defence force's asset register. The Auditor-General found that the defence department "did not maintain a proper asset register and supported by documentation". The fact is the section of the Auditor-General's report dealing with the disclosure of tangible assets is seven blank pages.

Moreover, the Auditor-General found that there was more than R1 billion in irregular expenditure by the defence department. The irregular expenditure, which is under investigation by the department, includes R920 million in housing allowances, R37million related to the Airbus A400M and R161 million relating to the Aero Manpower Group.

However, despite the poor Auditor-General report, there are signs that under the leadership of the Secretary of Defence, Mpumi Mpofu, "Operation Clean Audit" is beginning to take effect as the number of defence department audit qualifications was reduced from six in 2009 to one in 2010.

It is imperative that the defence department must get its house in order and reverse the qualified audit trend. The DA will therefore be asking some hard questions about the management of assets and irregular expenditure next week when the defence department appears before the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans at Parliament.