Western Cape Departments Receive Full Marks from Auditor-General

For the second year running, every department of the Western Cape Government received an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General of South Africa. This was announced today by the province's Finance Minister, Alan Winde.

Three departments - Community Safety, Agriculture and Provincial Parliament - achieved clean audits (unqualified audit with no findings) for the second consecutive year.

Eleven departments achieved unqualified audit reports with findings. This opinion is received when the Auditor-General raises minor issues that must be corrected in the year ahead.

These results are slightly down on last year. In 2009/2010, seven departments achieved clean audits and six departments achieved unqualified audits with other matters.

All but one of the Western Cape's public entities achieved unqualified audit opinions.

Two entities, CapeNature and Cape Town Routes Unlimited, achieved clean reports for the second year in a row. CASIDRA received its third straight clean audit.

Nine entities received financially unqualified opinions with findings. These findings are minor, but must be corrected in the year ahead.

One entity, the Western Cape Housing Development Fund, received a disclaimer. For the 2010/2011 financial year, the entity was required to comply with Generally Recognised Accounting Practices that demanded the updating and valuation of its immoveable asset register. This was the first time that this accounting framework was adopted, and the task was not completed before the conclusion of the financial year due to its time-consuming and costly nature. The Auditor-General has raised this as a material concern.

These results of our public entities are slightly down on last year. In 2009/2010, six entities achieved clean audits and seven achieved unqualified audits with other matters.

I take full responsibility for the audit report card received by the departments and entities of the Western Cape Government. We take these results extremely seriously as they are the most reliable indicator of how we are managing the taxpayers money entrusted to us for service delivery.

In light of the decline in our results this year, each department will be required to compile a comprehensive action plan to address any unresolved matters raised by the Auditor-General.

I have also requested the Provincial Treasury to conduct an analysis of this year's audit report card, as well as the associated management reports, and provide me with a step-by-step plan to correct those issues affecting more than one department or entity.

We will also continue to hold departments and entities to account by monitoring their financial statements on an ongoing basis as part of our Financial Management Improvement Plan. All departments will be required to provide bi-annual progress reports against these action plans.

The Western Cape Government has set itself the target of becoming the best-run regional government in the world. Key to achieving this is not only eradicating corruption, irregular and wasteful expenditure, but also being able to account for every cent of taxpayers' money that we've spent. In line with this vision, we will do all that we can to assist departments and entities to further improve upon these financial management results.

Download the full Auditor-General's report card on Western Cape's public entities.