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Pretoria - Government institutions will get help to achieve clean audits, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said on Tuesday.
He said the Auditor-General's 2011/12 national and provincial audit report was consistent with the findings of his department's Management Performance Assessment Tool released last year.
"The department of performance, monitoring and evaluation will work with National Treasury and the department of public service and administration to assist departments with the development of further improvement plans," said Chabane in a statement.
Terence Nombembe's report revealed that government institutions receiving clean financial audits had diminished in the 2011/12 report.
Only 117 of the 536 government institutions evaluated across South Africa achieved clean audits.
Presenting the consolidated 2011/12 national and provincial government audit outcomes, Nombembe said only 22% of the institutions managed to achieve clean audit opinions.
The results over a three-year period indicated a steady decline in entities receiving clean audits.
During 2009/10, some 31% of audited entities achieved clean audits. In 2010/11, the figure was 25%, and in 2011/12 only 22%.
However, he was encouraged by recent pronouncements by senior government officials on measures to bolster public sector governance.
According to the report, the AG’s office had observed "slow progress towards total clean audits" in the period under review.
The majority of entities audited were experiencing problems, with 297 (55%) receiving unqualified audit opinions with findings.
A total of 74 (14%) received qualified opinions, while adverse audit opinions were given to 17 (3%) entities.
The AG’s office said 6% of audits were outstanding, mainly due to non-submission of financial statements.
In accounting terms, a "clean", or unqualified opinion, is where the financial statements of an entity present a fair and accurate picture of the company and comply with generally accepted accounting principles.
