The North West department of agriculture and rural development says it has finally scored the unqualified audit report its officials have strived for after five consecutive years of qualified audits.
The department announced yesterday that it has received the good news from the auditor-general of South Africa, for the financial year ending 31 March 2022.
In a press statement released yesterday (Thursday, 18 August 2022), the department said, “An unqualified audit opinion is essentially a clean report. This outcome indicates that the auditor-general is satisfied with the organisation’s financial reporting. This is a set target for every public institution. At the core of this target, is a quest to give taxpayers confidence in the management of the public purse.”
‘Action plan was our secret’
In response to this audit outcome, MEC Desbo Mohono said that this was a significant improvement on the financial reports that the department had received over the past financial years. “The department prides itself on its achievement to obtain the unqualified report for the first time since the financial year 2015-16.”
She believes the report serves as an indication that the department is well on track towards achieving its goal of establishing credible financial control systems. “This improvement could be attributed to improved oversight and stringent internal review processes, initiated by head of department Thupi Mokhatla and the appointed chief financial officer, Dedricks Mompei, resulting in improved record keeping.”
She also credited this positive outcome to the staff in general who had worked “tirelessly with a winning formula”.
“Our secret was to identify loopholes and work on them,” Mohono said, who added that the office of the auditor-general has commended the management of the department for implementing audit action plans.
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