Citizen's Special Report

5 CITIZEN’S REPORT I O ON THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF GOVERNMENT’S COVID-19 INITIATIVES Dear fellow citizen When the covid-19 pandemic reached South Africa in March 2020, government moved swiftly to provide social, health and economic relief for vulnerable citizens and businesses. A multi- billion rand emergency relief package was made available, to be spent urgently, using fast-tracked processes. Aware that this approach could save lives and livelihoods but expose public resources to the risk of misuse and abuse, government requested the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) to assist. We were given the task of monitoring the spending of government departments and agencies involved with covid-19 relief initiatives. We began our audit work in May 2020 and released our first special report on the financial management of government’s covid-19 initiatives in early September 2020, with a second special report following in December 2020. The tabling of the final special report in our covid-19 series is projected for 30 June 2021. Our real-time auditing means that we are able to ‘follow the money’ as it is spent and report any audit findings and observations to the accounting officers or authorities concerned so that they can respond to shortcomings immediately. In this citizen’s report, we summarise our key audit findings so far and explain what action has been taken in response to our findings. We also explain the next phase of our ongoing audit of government’s covid-19 initiatives, and outline what needs to be done in the longer term to ensure that public money is spent accountably – whether in a pandemic or under ‘normal’ circumstances. The active engagement of citizens in holding government to account is an important element of a well-functioning democracy. At the end of this report, we suggest some things you, as a South African citizen, can consider in ensuring that public resources are spent in the best interests of the people of South Africa. Yours sincerely The AGSA’s communication team WHAT THIS REPORT IS ABOUT