KwaZulu-Natal provincial government poised for blanket clean administration if leadership continues

The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government is on the verge of immediately eliminating its remaining administrative hurdles that caused the province to stumble and register slightly regressed audit outcomes in 2011-12 compared to its impressive record last year.

Auditor-General (AG) Terence Nombembe says that while it is disappointing that the provincial administration’s audit results showed a regression, it is encouraging that the province is already hard at work implementing measures that will ensure long-term, sustainable accountability and a firm internal control environment.
The AG says that with the enthusiasm and commitment shown by the provincial leadership to improve its audit results, he is convinced that the province’s 26 (67%) unqualified reports (with findings) can be converted to clean audits.

Of further encouragement is that the province has continuously registered a move away from the undesirable audit categories (qualified, adverse and disclaimed); these have reduced by 17% in the past five years since the 2007-08 financial year.

Removing the few obstacles standing between the province and blanket clean administration

Among the few notable obstacles that are standing between the provincial government and wholesale clean administration is the leadership not having implemented the remaining commitments made in the prior year. These largely relate to the stability of the human resource capacity and the credibility of reported information.

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