Stringent measures to achieve clean audit

The Auditor-General's (AG) report has been presented to the Executive Authority and both parties have expressed a commitment to take immediate action to remedy the current situation.

Government claims to be unswerving in promoting a clean administration, and it is against this backdrop that stricter control measures are being put in place to comply with the Public Finance Management Act. The national and provincial governments are committed to accelerating the good governance drive in the public sector by implementing key control measures that will ensure clean administration.

Acting CEO Phumla Williams said, "Government is implementing stringent measures aimed at addressing the shortfalls highlighted by the Auditor-General. For example, there are strategies that are in place and aimed at meeting the deadline of Operation Clean Audit 2014, which was pledged by all municipalities in the country in 2009."

However, the Sunday World reported that the Auditor-General, Terence Nombembe, allegedly said that people who are in Government are beyond the ability to be trained and most government officials lack appropriate competencies. See A-G Flunks SA's public servants.

In the report, Nombembe is quoted as saying: "People who are in government are beyond the ability to be trained and that is in the majority of the departments," he said.

"Skills are in short supply. There is no direct match of skills to the job.

"We are dealing with the basics that are known, important basic things that make people upset, basic things that result in lack of service delivery," he said.

"It is elementary knowledge that there is a lack of a culture of respecting the rule of law or of compliance to the rule of law in most government departments."

Williams said, "The fact that the AG made a finding of almost 74% of unqualified financial audit does not suggest that this is tantamount to being done by un-trainable public servants."

Government reiterates that there are consequences for those public servants who fail to do the work that is required to improve public administration.