https://www.engineeringnews.co.za
Africa|Business|Denel|Eskom|Financial
Africa|Business|Denel|Eskom|Financial
africa|business|denel|eskom|financial

'Absolutely no excuse': AG blasts major SOEs as just one gets clean audit

Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke

Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke

30th November 2023

By: News24Wire

  

Font size: - +

Only one of South Africa's 19 major State-owned enterprises received a clean audit in the past year, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has said.

Maluleke on Wednesday tabled the audit outcomes for national and provincial government for the year to end March 2023. 

She said that while there was a trend of improvement for smaller parastatals and some government departments, SA's key State-owned enterprises (SOEs) again underperformed. 

"Those auditees with the greatest impact on the lives of South Africans and on government finances, which we refer to as 'high-impact auditees', are lagging behind on financial and performance management disciplines," she said.

The AG said her office had also identified a trend of some accounting officers excluding embarrassing indicators from their reports for fear that she would make findings against them.  

For example, she said that four provincial education departments excluded the indicator of how many Grade 6 and 9 learners had received maths and English first additional language textbooks. This meant reduced transparency and accountability.

Sakhumzi Somyo, chair of the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General, said deliberately hiding embarrassing indicators from the AG should be classed as a criminal offence. 

Of the 19 major SOEs that are supposed to be run like businesses and make a profit, only one - the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) - received a clean audit. There was "absolutely no excuse" that no other major SOE had joined the DBSA on the clean audit list, said the AG. 

Ten received unqualified audits with findings, two received qualified audits with findings, and another two – the SABC and SA Post Office – received disclaimers. A disclaimed audit means the AG was provided with insufficient evidence to make an opinion. 

Four entities – Alexkor, Denel, SAA and Eskom – had outstanding audits as they did not submit the financial documents in time. 

While there was little to celebrate for SA’s major SOEs, the AG said smaller public entities and government departments did better.  

Of the 418 entities that her office audited (a handful are also audited by private sector), 147 received clean audits, compared to 126 in 2021/22. 

But these 147 auditees only manage 16% of the R3.1-trillion expenditure budget in national and provincial government, she noted. 

Irregular expenditure* disclosed in 2022/23, meanwhile, totalled R63.4-billion.

And Maluleke said the true amount may be higher.

"These amounts might be incomplete, as auditees no longer have to include irregular expenditure incurred in prior years or the closing balance of irregular expenditure in their financial statements," she said.

The AG also told MPs that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), which is at the centre of a R5-billion scandal, had not submitted financial statements, meaning she could not audit it. 

Last month, Business Unity SA called for the fund to be put under immediate administration due to "systemic dysfunction", corruption, and ineptitude threatening workers' benefits.

Among SA's provinces, meanwhile, the AG said her office had noted a clear, if slow, improvement in audit outcomes. 

The best performing was again the Western Cape, which received 18 clean audits. The North West was the worst-performing province, which only received a single clean audit. 

*According to the AG, irregular expenditure is expenditure that was not incurred in the manner prescribed by legislation, and does not necessarily mean that money was wasted or that fraud was committed.

Edited by News24Wire

Comments

Latest News

An image showing a cyber attack
CSIR Cybersecurity surveys reveal skills gap, lack of readiness
Updated 4 hours ago By: Tasneem Bulbulia

Showroom

John Thompson
John Thompson

John Thompson, the leader in energy and environmental solutions through value engineering and innovation, provides the following: design, engineer,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Universal Storage Systems (SA)
Universal Storage Systems (SA)

South African leader in Steel -Racking, -Shelving, and -Mezzanine flooring. Universal has innovated an approach which encompasses conceptualising,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Photo of Martin Creamer
On-The-Air (04/10/2024)
4th October 2024 By: Martin Creamer
Magazine round up | 04 October 2024
Magazine round up | 04 October 2024
4th October 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.093 0.157s - 195pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now