Western Cape Department of Agriculture Tops List at SAIGA Awards

The Western Cape Department of Agriculture (DOA) made a clean sweep at SAIGA’s (Southern African Institute of Government Auditors) 12th annual Public Sector Reporting Awards. It received no less than three prestigious accolades at an awards ceremony held at Elsenburg recently.

The first award was for the best report of a provincial department/highest score achieved in the Western Cape. The second was for the best report in the country/highest score achieved nationally, out of 156 departments.

What made this achievement even more remarkable is that the score is the highest obtained by a department in the 12 years of the SAIGA Awards – 97,41%. On top of that, the department received a third award for the most consistent highest score over the last three years. It is the third time in a row that the department has been ranked as overall winner.

Professor Dieter Gloeck, Executive President of SAIGA and chairperson of the award committee congratulated the department on its excellent achievements and said it has set a commendable example.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Gerrit van Rensburg, thanked everyone for their hard work during the past few years and said that he is proud to be part of a winning team.

“Reporting back to the public and the agricultural community is my responsibility. I am confident and excited about the feedback Western Cape Agriculture will be able to give. The Western Cape Department of Agriculture has set the bar very high. We must now work at keeping it there.

In her speech, the Head of the Department, Ms Joyene Isaacs, praised her team, especially those in finance, for making sure “the right things are done at the right time for the right reasons.” She said that the department competes not so much with other departments, but are always looking internally to see where they can do better.

SAIGA introduced the awards 12 years ago to recognise the pursuit of excellence in annual reports published by all provincial and national departments. It has become a highly visible instrument and benchmark to monitor public accountability and transparency in all departments.