Green light for move to empower auditor-general
The decision by the National Assembly to unanimously pass the Public Audit Amendment Bill will go a long way in strengthening confidence in state governance, says Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu.
The National Assembly passed the bill on Tuesday to give the office of the auditorgeneral more teeth.
The bill will now be referred to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.
This comes as Makwetu’s auditing teams continue to work in increasingly hostile conditions, with heightened threats to staff. Last week, Makwetu said that his office had to withdraw its audit team in eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality because of threats.
The legislation will give the office of the auditor-general the power to refer adverse findings to investigative bodies, as well as recover funds lost because of failure to comply with the Public Finance Management Act.
Makwetu said his office “knows that there are still other important legislative steps towards the finalisation of this review process [of the Public Audit Amendment Act], but we are encouraged by [the] … decision as it will go a long way towards strengthening confidence in our country’s public sector governance systems”.
In 2017, Parliament started a review of the Public Audit Act, the legislation that governs the operations of the office of the auditor-general.
The office explained that the amendments would – if approved through all the parliamentary and executive review processes – provide the audit office with the power to refer material irregularities to the authorities to investigate.
It would also provide a level of remedial power, including the mandate to recover money lost as a result of irregularities.
Material irregularities would include any noncompliance with legislation, fraud or theft, or breach of fiduciary duty that caused or was likely to cause a material financial loss, the misuse or loss of a material public resource, or substantial harm to a public sector institution.
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said the bill would go a long way in fighting corruption and holding accountable officials responsible for oversight of government spending.
Last week, following the publishing of the latest localgovernment audit findings, Makwetu suggested the introduction of the new law would help to halt the deterioration in municipal finances.
The report showed that only 33 of the country’s 257 municipalities received a clean audit in 2016-17, compared with 48 the year before.
Irregular spending rose 75% to R28.4bn in 2016-17.
Makwetu said repeated advice and warnings to accounting officers over the past five years had been ignored.
Not only were municipalities failing to take action on the auditor-general’s findings, but the environment in which auditing teams had to work had become steadily more hostile.
Last week, eThekwini Metro said it would be providing the auditor-general’s teams with municipal security after a staff member received death threats while auditing the city’s books.
REPEATED WARNINGS TO ACCOUNTING OFFICERS OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS HAD BEEN IGNORED