More national and provincial departments, including their entities have received clean audits for the 2013/14 financial year, Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu said on Wednesday.

The Auditor-General said this when briefing the media on the audit outcomes for national and provincial departments at the Imbizo Centre in Parliament.

He said this year’s outcomes reflected an improvement as more departments had scored better audits compared to the previous year.

“I am pleased to report that the audit outcomes this year show an improvement, with 119 (25%) of the 469 auditees attaining clean audit outcomes compared to 22% in the previous year,” he said.

This means that more departments and entities got clean audits or unqualified audits with no findings in the 2013/14 financial year compared to 22%, or 96, that achieved the same result in the 2012/13 financial year.

“The 40 departments and 79 public entities (provinces and nationally) in this category have control environments characterised by strong leadership control, good governance and financial and performance management controls that prevent or detect and correct errors and non-compliance,” the Auditor-General said.

Fifty-one per cent, or 238, departments and entities achieved unqualified audits with findings in 2013/14 compared to 56%, or 242, that achieved the same outcome in 2012/13.

Sixteen per cent, or 73, of the departments and entities achieved a qualified audit outcome and the number was the same for the previous financial year.

Auditees with an adverse or disclaimer audit outcome with findings dropped to 4%, or 18, in the year under review from 5%, or 21, in 2012/13.

Makwetu said what set apart the best performing departments and entities from the rest was the fact that they had managers and principals who understood their responsibilities and also carried out their duties in an ethical and effective manner.

Some R1 035-billion was allocated to national and provincial governments, including their entities, for 2013/14.

“Overall, this year’s audit outcomes reflect an improvement. We are seeing positive movements in all three of the following areas that we audit on an annual basis,” he said.

Makwetu also said based on these, an improvement has been a welcome development.

He said this year’s results are a useful and reliable measurement and they comply with key legislation governing financial matters.

National departments that received clean audits include Environmental Affairs, Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Enterprises, Social Development, Sport and Recreation, Statistics South Africa and Tourism.