AUDITOR-GENERAL OF SOUTH AFRICA’S CLARIFICATION

(Democratic Alliance’s request for an investigation into the “use of state resources by the Gupta family”)

PRETORIA - The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) can confirm that the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Member of Parliament (MP) Dianne Kohler Barnard had, on 2 May 2013, requested the AGSA to conduct an investigation into what she termed “the use of state resources by Gupta family”.

After having assessed standard audit matters that the AGSA takes into account in considering whether or not it should take on an assignment, we duly advised Ms Kohler Barnard that the AGSA had noted from the media that various impacted government departments, including the Department of Defence, had already instituted their own internal investigations into the matter.

We assured Ms Kohler Barnard that although we would not be conducting a special investigation, the AGSA would study and report on the findings of these departmental investigations, if any, as part of our normal 2013-14 annual audit.