MBOMBELA – The premier Mr David Mabuza said last week that his administration had “dropped the ball” in its work while campaigning ahead of the general elections earlier this year. He was speaking at a meeting with the Auditor General (AG) Mr Kimi Makwethu last week.
The AG visited the province to announce his office’s audit findings on the provincial departments for the 2013/14 financial year. Mabuza said that as a province they were happy that not one entity received a disclaimer of opinion, yet more needed to be done.
“We know that we dropped the ball on our work during the campaigning period as the election took the political leadership away from strongly focusing on the government work. Most of our heads of department also had their contracts expiring.
“Nevertheless, these audit outcomes are improving our image as a provincial government. They help the public to have confidence in the ruling party and to know that their funds are at least managed correctly.”
According to the AG the management of assets, irregular expenditure and investment properties need attention in the provincial departments. Almost all the provincial government departments received no worse audit opinions with the exception of the Office of the Premier and the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison (DCSSL) which regressed from last year.
The AG announced his office’s findings during a meeting with Mabuza, finance MEC Mr Eric Kholwane, and co-operative governance MEC Ms Refilwe Mtsweni on Thursday last week. Makwethu said he was pleased with the level of improvement in the performance of the provincial government.
“We are grateful that you are not getting tired of us, we will find a way of not regressing but further improve on our work,” Mabuza said.
“We believe this is going to be a turbulent financial year for our provincial government as we have almost 50 per cent new people in leadership positions.”
• Five departments received unqualified with no findings audit outcomes. Finance, co-operative governance, social development, Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust and the gambling board were all able to provide financial statements free of material misstatements in a useful and reliable manner measured against the annual performance plan and complied with key legislation.
• The departments of education, human settlements, public works, culture, economic development, environmental affairs legislature, the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, and the Office of the Premier received unqualified with findings audit outcomes.
They were thus able to produce financial statements without misstatements but struggled to align their performance reports to the predetermined objectives they had committed themselves to delivering in their annual performance plans. They also struggled to report reliably on whether they achieved their performance targets.
• The departments of health, Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency, agriculture and DCSSL received qualified with findings audit opinions, meaning they also failed to produce credible and reliable financial statements and their financial statements contained material misstatements.
