The Presidency has lost office furniture and computer equipment worth R5,8-million in seven years and incurred irregular expenditure of R939 000.

"The assets amounting to R5,8-million, which have been written off, date as far back as 2002 up to last year," the Presidency said in a statement on Monday.

"These assets relate to office furniture and information technology equipment. They were written off because they could not be located or accounted for over the years."

The R939 000 in irregular expenditure was owing to "emergency situations" where officials were expected to procure services before an official order could be generated.

"This practice is also being looked at to ensure that our system is able to generate orders even in emergency situations."

Beeld reported on Saturday that the Presidency further incurred unauthorised expenditure of R17-million.

The figures are contained in the Presidency's 2009/10 annual report.

The Presidency's audit did not, however, receive any disclaimers from the Auditor-General.

It had put in place systems to rectify the "weaknesses" and ensure there was "proper and improved financial accountability". It had implemented an asset management system to make sure office equipment was properly accounted for.

"These anomalies are identified through our internal controls and voluntarily disclosed to auditors. In this manner, we are entrenching a culture of accountability and the ability to detect problems and solve them in our financial management system.

"We have introduced the correct approach and it is bound to work,'' said Minister in the Presidency responsible for administration, Collins Chabane.

In general, the Presidency was pleased with the annual report, which was tabled in Parliament at the end of September.