Bhisho legislature gets clean audit

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The Auditor-General (A-G) had praised the Bhisho Legislature after it obtained a clean audit in 2010/2011, saying that as the ultimate oversight body this “sets a good example for the remainder of departments and public entities”.

In his general report on the outcomes of the 2010/11 audits, the A-G states that the clean audit “is the direct result of a strong management commitment to require adherence to basic financial and performance management practices and personal accountability backed up by regular monitoring thereof.

The A-G notes that it is the same “leadership commitment to basic disciplines and regular monitoring” that resulted in the Provincial Revenue Fund and ASGISA maintaining their clean audit status and underpinned the improvement in the Eastern Cape Arts Council and ECATU moving from qualified to under-qualified with findings.

The A-G also has praise for the Health Department while acknowledging that it still faces huge challenges.

He says the department moved from a long history of disclaimers to a qualified report which was also the result of the leadership’s commitment to a specific course of action, accompanied by regular discipline and constant monitoring.

The A-G reported that the East London IDZ and Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency, both of which were being audited by the A-G for the first time, received unqualified audits with other findings.

As far as Education is concerned, the A-G says that senior management is not committed to addressing basic control issues and instilling financial discipline.

The department received a disclaimer.

In general, the A-G said the province had made several commitments to improve the overall financial control, adding that to achieve this, key positions would have to be filled with personnel with the required skills.

Further, Provincial Treasury would have to play a coordinating role with national role players with the emphasis on issues such as supply chain management