{"id":881476,"date":"2026-10-27T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=881476"},"modified":"2026-10-27T08:10:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T06:10:35","slug":"ramaphosas-office-loses-clean-audit-status-by-buying-groceries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/881476\/ramaphosas-office-loses-clean-audit-status-by-buying-groceries\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa’s office loses clean audit status by buying groceries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African presidency lost its clean audit status for the 2026 financial year, moving to an unqualified opinion with a material finding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clean audit status was lost due to R1.7 million in irregular expenditure, which the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) said was not adequately prevented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“AGSA attributed the regression to recurring irregular expenditure and inadequate measures to prevent it,” the presidency meeting summary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The R1.7 million was spent on procuring groceries, which the AGSA said did not follow the correct process because simplified written quotations were used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Auditor General said that because the expenditure exceeded R1 million, an open, public tendering process was required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presidency was also flagged due to one of its tendered suppliers, which the AGSA said should have been excluded during evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was due to the appointed supplier having failed mandatory evaluation processes. However, the supplier was not allocated any work during the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the supplier was not allocated work, no irregular expenditure arose from the appointment, but the AGSA warned that it could arise in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“AGSA found that a supplier appointed to a panel had failed mandatory evaluation requirements and should have been excluded at the first evaluation phase,” the meeting report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No work was allocated to that supplier in 2025\/26, but AGSA warned that future payments following an allocation of work would result in irregular expenditure.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 2026 financial year, no new unauthorised expenditure was reported, with overspending from the prior year standing at R39.9 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Prior-year overspending of R39.9 million, mainly associated with unfunded mandates, awaited the parliamentary regularisation process,” the meeting report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A year-end bank overdraft of R39 million contributed to the department\u2019s net current liability and net liability positions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“AGSA assessed financial health as concerning but identified no going-concern uncertainties.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

80% of targets achieved<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The AGSA noted that the presidency achieved 80% of its annual targets, with 37 out of 46 performance indicators met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These annual targets were broken into individual departments within the presidency, with one accounting for all missed targets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Private office:<\/strong> 10 out of 10<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Office of the deputy presidency:<\/strong> 9 out of 9<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Cabinet branch:<\/strong> 5 out of 5<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Policy and research services:<\/strong> 4 out of 4<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Corporate management:<\/strong> 9 out of 18<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    “Corporate Management achieved nine of its 18 targets, or 50%, and accounted for all nine targets reported as unmet,” the meeting report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The unmet targets included failing to meet procurement targets from businesses owned by historically disadvantaged persons and failing to dispatch a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While irregular expenditure was approximately R1.7 million, the AGSA also flagged R41,000 in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The fruitless and wasteful expenditure was incurred due to officials failing to use booked travel arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “The travel matters had been referred to the Loss Control Committee, and investigations to establish responsibility were ongoing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For Operation Vulindlela, the AGSA found that 50% of planned reforms were on track in the operation’s second phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This operation is a joint effort between the presidency and the National Treasury, aimed at boosting economic reform and modernising infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The AGSA also found that the methods used by the presidency to track the implementation of reforms were effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “It confirmed that the Presidency had an effective dashboard and methodology for tracking implementation, used strategic interventions and escalation where necessary, and leveraged Cabinet and Forum of South African Directors-General structures,” the meeting report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “AGSA distinguished this assessment of coordination and progress from the measurement of economic impact, which would require a medium-to long-term monitoring, evaluation and learning framework.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Auditor General has downgraded the presidency’s audit opinion due to R1.7 million spent on groceries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":866268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2114969102296977529","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2250618309091901","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17993646246056973","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5521,1293,17255,20265],"class_list":["post-881476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-agsa","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-operation-vulindlela","tag-presidency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881476"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881505,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881476\/revisions\/881505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}