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Johannesburg - The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) has received yet another clean audit report, reflecting a commitment to leading by example in the area of financial reporting, good governance and accountability within the public sector.
The AGSA tabled its annual report for the period 2009/10 in parliament on Friday.
Among other notable achievements in the year under review, the AGSA achieved a substantially improved financial result, moving from a deficit in 2008/09 to a surplus in its first year of implementation of its revised funding model.
The organisation also recorded an improvement in its labour turnover rates from 11% in 2008/09 down to 6.6%, and 100% in the retention of its qualified trainee auditors in the period under review. The organisation was also rated as one of the country's Preferred Employers in 2010 by Top Magazine.
The AGSA continued to support broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) in the auditing industry, spending R508m (R551m: 2009) towards private audit firms which participate in the public sector audit process on behalf of the AGSA. This goes a long way to bolster the development and growth of accounting and auditing skills in the country.
However, the inability of municipalities, and to a lesser extent provincial governments, to timeously pay for AGSA's auditing services resulted in a total outstanding debt hike from R293m (as at March 31 2009) to R357m (as at March 31 2010), with municipalities contributing 39% (2009: 36%) of the total debt outstanding.
Said deputy auditor-general Kimi Makwetu: "As an institution that is charged with scrutinising the financial performance of others, we are constantly striving to lead by example when dealing with public finances.
"We know there are still critical areas, such as debt collection, that we need to improve on and we have put measures in place to better our performance in those identified areas.
"In response to the confidence and trust bestowed upon us by parliament, we are inspired to continue to raise the bar on our
performance and become even more proficient in our operations."
