Briefing the media at Parliament, DA spokesman Eddie Trent said the party's annual review of the audit outcomes for 2006/07 indicated government failed to improve upon its performance in 2005/06. That year was the worst ever since the implementation of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
The audit outcomes for 2006/07 revealed, among other things, only three departments received clean reports (two in 2005/06), and 19 entities were subject to other matters and/or matters of emphasis highlighted by the auditor general (22 in 2005/06).
Eleven entities received qualified audit opinions on their
financials (10 in 2005/06). The analysis of the yet-to-be released report of the AG on the audit outcomes showed the chaotic home affairs department had displaced the
Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) as the only department to receive a disclaimer of opinion -- one of the worst audit findings the AG could make, Trent said.
The five worst-performing departments in terms of management of public finances since the national departments started to report in accordance with the PFMA six years ago, were:
-- home affairs, with four qualifications and two disclaimers of opinion;
-- water affairs and forestry, with three qualifications and two adverse opinions;
-- correctional services, with six consecutive qualified positions;
-- defence, with five consecutive qualified opinions; and,
-- health, with five qualified audit opinions.
Trent said of the five best-performing departments, only public enterprises managed to obtain clean audit reports consecutively. The only other department in the five best-run to have achieved a clean audit report was the Presidency.
The remaining three were the Public Service Commission, GCIS, and the environmental affairs and tourism department, none of which attained clean audit outcomes this year.
The most improved department was education, which achieved its first clean audit report in six years. Sport and recreation deteriorated the most, from receiving nine
easily-rectified matters of emphasis, to an audit report qualified on ten.
The ongoing problem of government's poor financial management would not be solved until those officials responsible were held to account. Greater focus had to be placed on financial management through legislative change, Trent said.
The PFMA should be amended so the AG submitted his audit reports on departments and public entities directly to Parliament as soon as they were ready, separate from the departmental annual reports.
An emergency task team for financial management problem cases also had to be instituted. In situations where the AG had expressed either a qualified and/or an adverse audit opinion three times in a row, a steering committee led
by the director general for the Office of the Public Service Commission should be established to assess the situation, such as had happened with home affairs, he said.
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