Unauthorised government expenditure tops R2 billion

22 November 2018 9:44 AM

The Auditor-General says he hopes the Public Audit Amendment Act will give his office 'more teeth' to facilitate the investigations of audit irregularities and to issue binding remedial action.

Irregular expenditure totalled 2.5 billion rand in 2017/2018, while the Departments of Education, Health and Public Works received the poorest audit results, with 33% of these departments receiving qualified audit opinions.

Breakfast Show Host Bongani Bingwa asked Makwetu what the previous year's reports meant if they didn't automatically lead to investigations where wrongdoing was identified.

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Makwetu says in the past the auditor has only been required to alert government entities to irregularities.

And persuade you as best as they can to try and get you to do the right stuff, meaning that you must correct deficiencies and you must put in place proper controls to protect public funds.
— Kimi Makwetu,The Auditor-General

In the advent of the amendment to the Public Audit Act, we have required not only to do that but also to specifically find in those areas where there is a possibility of a financial loss to the system as a result of no proper accounting or as a result of levels of inappropriate expenditure.
— Kimi Makwetu,The Auditor-General

Listen below to the full interview:

Written by: Matshepo Sehloho