Date: 25/08/2003
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: Shilowa: Improvements in Gauteng's financial management


STATEMENT BY PREMIER MBHAZIMA SHILOWA ON IMPROVEMENTS MADE BY THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT ON FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

In February this year, at the opening of the Provincial Legislature we reiterated the commitment by the Gauteng Provincial Government to prudent financial management, clean governance and accountability.

We reported on the remarkable improvement that all the departments have made in managing public finances and in ensuring their proper usage to benefit the people of Gauteng.

During the debates on departmental programmes and budgets, the honourable members have acknowledged that there has indeed been major improvement in our financial management systems. We made these improvements because we took note of the comments and suggestions made by the Auditor-General and the Legislature in the previous years.

We have put in place proper systems to ensure that every cent that we receive is properly accounted for. As members would have noted when the annual reports for the financial year 2001/2002 were tabled in the House last year, not one department received a disclaimer from the Auditor-General on its financial statement.

This was indeed a remarkable improvement from the previous years when the Auditor-General, due to a variety of reasons, was unable to make an opinion on the financial statements of some of our departments. While there was remarkable improvement, the Auditor-General gave qualified opinions on some of the departments. This meant that there were still some things about our finances, which the Auditor-General felt needed tightening.

We agreed with the Auditor-General and the Legislature that more could be done to improve the management and accountability for our finances. True to our commitment to clean governance and accountability and to fully comply with the PFMA, we made a promise that we would ensure that at the end of the current financial year, 2003/2004, all Gauteng Provincial Government departments would receive a clean bill of health from the Auditor-General.

I am very proud to report that the Gauteng Provincial Government has received a clean bill of health from the Auditor General. All of our 12 departments as well as the Legislature have received unqualified opinion from the Auditor-General on their financial statements for the financial year 2002/2003. We have fulfilled our promise, and we did it a year ahead of the target that we had set.

Gauteng remains the leading province in implementing the Public Finance Management Act. This has gone a long way in enabling the establishment of measurable objectives and outcomes, with a focus on outputs as opposed to inputs.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank MECs, Heads of Departments, Chief Financial Officers and other senior managers for having implemented all the measures we put in place to improve our financial management systems. Well done and keep up the good work.

Our challenge now is to maintain the high performance standards that we have set for ourselves and spend all the money in accordance with the programmes that we have developed to improve the lives of the people of Gauteng.

For more information contact Thabo Masebe on (011) 355 6036 / 082 410 8087
Issued by Gauteng Provincial Government
25 August 2003