Only 26% of national departments received unqualified audit opinions with no findings in the 2015\/16 financial year, the auditor general\u2019s report on national and provincial government showed.<\/p>\n
The office of the auditor general briefed Parliament\u2019s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday, saying that the audit outcomes of departments are slow to improve. The percentage of departments with clean audits declined from 29% in the previous financial year to 26%.<\/p>\n
According to the report, 53% of departments received unqualified audits with findings, 17% received qualified audits with findings, 1% received adverse audit opinions with findings and 1% had disclaimed audit opinions with findings.<\/p>\n
These results are the same as in the previous financial year, which showed no improvement. In addition, 2% of departments\u2019 audits for the 2015\/16 financial year were outstanding.<\/p>\n
The number of clean audits at public entities improved slightly in the latest financial year \u2013 from 29% to 34%. The number of disclaimed audit opinions, however, have gone up by one percentage point to 7%, while the number of public entities with outstanding audits also increased from 2% (five) to 7% (23).<\/p>\n
\u201cState-owned entities\u2019 operation and audit outcomes were affected by instability, ineffective leadership practices and poor monitoring and oversight,\u201d the auditor general\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
At a provincial level the departments of health, education and public works \u2013 which receive close to 37% of the budget \u2013 had the poorest audit outcomes of all the departments. Altogether 40% of provincial health, education and public works departments received qualified or disclaimed audit opinions, compared to 13% of other departments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe poor audit outcomes of these key sector departments require urgent attention to ensure accountability and service delivery,\u201d the auditor general said in the report.<\/p>\n