Gauteng shows auditor the door
CUT LINKS WITH KPMG, MCKINSEY ‘To do business with us, you have got to uphold ethics and integrity.’
The Gauteng government has cut all dealings with controversial audit firm KPMG and international consultancy firm McKinsey, while it is reviewing its contract with software group SAP, Premier David Makhura has revealed.
Makhura took advice from the ethics integrity promotion and anti-corruption advisory panel, that he had initiated as part of his clean governance programme.
The companies stand accused of irregular dealings with entities linked to the Gupta family and are facing criminal charges laid by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission.
Makhura, who spoke during the debate on his department’s budget vote in the provincial legislature yesterday, said the ethics and integrity panel had been engaging various sectors of society including professional bodies, trade unions, business organisations and senior public sector managers.
“The executive council has taken a firm decision to have no business relationship with KPMG and McKinsey from now henceforth.
“We are also reviewing the contract we have with SAP, working together with National Treasury. Through this decision, we are sending a strong message to all businesses that if you want to do business with us, you have got to uphold ethics and integrity,” Makhura said.
Makhura said his pet project, Tshepo 1Million, has been well received by the youth, who gave a positive feedback.
“They told me that they appreciate that, over the past three and half years, the ANC-led provincial government has empowered more than 470 000 young people with skills, access to decent employment, transitional jobs, bursaries and internships and business opportunities,” Makhura said.
He said in 2017-18 alone, the programme trained more than 73 000 people in skills demanded by the economy, of which 8 000 got decent permanent jobs while 5 400 were placed in temporary and transitional jobs. A total of 222 were assisted to start their own enterprises.
“We are succeeding in rehabilitating the dreams of our youth. There is no space for cynicism among the youth. They have great dreams and our task is to help them to realise their dreams.”
Makhura said he had met each of his MECs and heads of department to gauge progress on the “deliverology”. This is a governance methodology of improving the capacity to deliver on outcomes and targets set for all departments and entities that he introduced in October 2016.
The programme, a brainchild of international governance expert Sir Michael Barber, is also used in the DA-governed Western Cape province.
He said the process has seen improvements in responsiveness and accountability among senior government officials to citizens. “These two mechanisms have also introduced an objective measurement of the performance of departments, especially the performance of MECs and HODs. If you don’t do your work, you have nowhere to hide in our province. You will be exposed and get removed,” Makhura said.
Gauteng has significantly improved its audit outcomes over the past four years of his leadership. By last year, the situation changed dramatically to 65% clean audits and 100% unqualified reports against 56% of the departments and entities that received clean audits in 2014.
“We are determined to improve [to] clean audits,” he said.
We are determined to improve ethical standards