By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
The North West MEC for Finance, Motlalepula Rosho said all provincial departments, provincial legislature and public entities with the exception of North West Transport Investment (NTI), managed to adhere to the legislated submission deadline of the Annual Financial Statement (AFS), as stipulated by Sections 40 (1)(b) and 55 (1)(b) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) (Act 1 of 1999).
Rosho said the submission of the statements is an accountability exercise that kickstarts the audit process by the Office of the Auditor-General for the 2023/24 financial year.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Rosho said that much gains in audit outcomes had been achieved in the past five years under the 6th administration and that all audits have been consistent in submission of AFS.
“A significant improvement has been made in audit outcomes over the past five years, whereby provincial treasury has implemented support measures that have increased the number of favourable outcomes in departments as well as public entities.
“It goes without saying that we still have to double our efforts in public entities like NTI, which have nearly collapsed due to mismanagement and inability to keep the entity afloat,” she said.
Rosho added that although they introduced the clean audit strategy in the past five years, not a single department has been able to achieve a clean audit. However, she said there has been a significant reduction in audit findings and only two public entities achieved clean audit in the previous year.
“Furthermore, we commend the accounting officers of departments and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of public entities for the sterling leadership and dedicated support they have provided to their organisations to enable the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and their respective officials to put in the long hours that were required to be able to finalise the AFS on time.
“The accounting officers and CEOs, as well as CFOs, were very optimistic that the information contained in the statements is credible and that the resultant audit outcome for the year under review would register a marked improvement,” said Rosho.
The Office of the Auditor-General’s Business Unit representative, Mthokozisi Sibisi said they are looking forward to a smooth audit process and the improvement of the audit outcomes of the province.
However, he expressed his concern over the failure of the NTI to submitting their AFS over the years.
“We will continue reaching out to the leadership there to have that sorted. It is important for leaders to be close to the audit process and raise any issue as soon as possible.
“Problems happen when leaders are not close to the process or continue supporting the process,” he said.
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of provincial department CFOs, Tabea Mooketsi said they put in a lot of work to ensure that they account appropriately on how departments spent public finances and resources. She also advocated for the implementation of a five point action plan to assist CFOs to execute their duties in a conducive environment.
“We send our gratitude towards support programme by provincial treasury. The department has equipped us with skills to prepare credible AFS and the measures aimed at strengthening of internal controls and the control environment in general,” said Mooketsi.
The Guardian 