KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala has welcomed the latest report from the Auditor-General which points to marked improvement in audit outcomes for provincial government departments.
While the AG’s report has pointed to existing risks such as the payment of Izinduna and medical claims against the Department of Health, overall it is proof that the province is managing its funds well, Zikalala said.
This time last year, at the release of the 2018/2019 outcomes, the premier pledged to deliver a qualitatively better and improved AG result.
He said the improvements for the 2019/2020 financial year were the result of persistent and consistent work to ensure that all departments improve on their performance and drastically reduce irregular and fruitless expenditure.
According to the latest AG report, the improvements were due to decisive interventions by the leadership. This led to improvement in at least five departments notably that of COGTA which has obtained a clean audit.
“We undertook that all departments that fell short in 2018/2019 needed to work on detailed audit improvement strategies and had to report progress on implementation regularly,” Zikalala said.
“Operation Clean Audit has yielded results … We assure the citizens of KwaZulu-Natal that we will continue to stretch every muscle to ensure that we rebuild and stay on course to be a province that is characterised by clean audits and good governance.”
