AG Report Shows Need for Urgent Implementation of NDP

The Annual Audit Results for 2011/12 by the Auditor-General, Terence Nombembe, confirms the lack of progress being made in delivering clean and accountable government to all South Africans. 

This must be a wake-up call to the ANC to get its act together and end disastrous policies which are fundamentally undermining quality governance. The National Development Plan must be the centre-piece of doing so.

These numerous problems being experienced are confirmed in the report. These include:

• The overall audit outcomes for national and provincial government regressed, with a decline in 16% of auditees, including 25 departments and 55 public entities
• Over the last three years, the number of clean audits have declined from 152 in 2009/10 to 132 in 2010/11 to 117 in the latest report
• There has been an increase in the number of annual financial statements that have received financially qualified opinions, with 25 regressions, including 12 departments and 13 public entities
• Unauthorised, irregular as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and procurement and contract management together accounted for 57% of all findings on compliance
• Contacts to the value of R438 million identified as 47 auditees were awarded to supplies in which employees of the auditee had an interest
• Contracts to the value of R141 million identified at 42 auditees were awarded to suppliers in which close family members of the auditee had an interest, which represents an increase from R136 million identified in the previous year
• Findings on unfair and uncompetitive bidding were raised at 50% of auditees - an increase from 42% in the previous year
• Findings on compliance relating to unauthorised, irregular as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure remained at same level as previous year 45% of auditees.
•  Some two thirds of auditees incurred one or more types of unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

The DA supports the recommendations in the NDP for clean and accountable government, in particular calling for:

• An accountability framework should be developed linking the liability of individual public servants to their responsibilities, in proportion to their seniority.
• Rules restricting the business interests of public servants should be made more specific and clearer
• The conduction of a study to investigate expanding existing regulations and improving the institutional processes and capacity to manage the rules
• Restraint-of-trade agreements should be considered for senior civil servants and politicians at all levels of government. Exit interviews and proper record-keeping would enable the restraint of trade agreements and prevent corrupt officials from moving around the public service.
• Corrupt officials should be made individually liable for losses
• Build a professional public service that serves government, but is sufficiently autonomous to be insulated from political patronage. This requires a clearer separation between the roles of the political principal and the administrative head.

The DA-led Western Cape Government continues to achieve the best audit results in the country. In 2011/12, 96% of departments and entities achieved unqualified audits, 42% of which were completely clean - the highest audit result possible. The Western Cape Government is working hard to promote good governance throughout the province to further improve these results.

Delivering freedom that all South Africans can use requires clean and accountable government and improved service delivery. This is not happening for the majority of South Africans. The time has come for less rhetoric and more action. The National Development Plan shows us the way to do so.

Statement issued by Dion George MP, DA Spokesperson on Standing Committee on Public Accounts, March 12 2013

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