Johannesburg - The Auditor General (AG) has given the Gauteng Premier's Office a clean audit for the fourth financial year in a row.
“The improved audit results were achieved through a variety of interventions,” Premier Nomvula Mokonyane told reporters on Thursday.
Apart from her office, there were other seven departments and state entities that were also granted a clean audit by the AG. They are the Provincial Legislature, Social Development, Provincial Treasury, Arts and Culture, the Gauteng Partnership Fund, the Gautrain Management Agency and the Gauteng Fund Project Office.
Mokonyane said interventions that had led to the clean audits included strengthening leadership, stabilising management in the province and making sure there was planning and finance management capacity.
The audit results take Gauteng closer to achieving its target of 100% clean audit by 2014, Mokonyane said.
In what could be seen as a major development, the province managed to reduce unauthorised expenditure from R4.5 billion to R392 million. The premier also reported positive for results for the often beleaguered Health Department.
The provincial government had saved more than R2 million after clamping down on ‘ghost workers’ estimated to be close to 200 in the department.
“Our health turnaround strategy is beginning to yield positive results. We have successfully addressed leadership and management in the Department of Health…”said Mokonyane.
She attributed improvements in the department to “bold leadership and home-brewed solutions".
“We had to make the issue of health a collective responsibility in the province and both the premier and the [Health] MEC had to provide strategic leadership to see these improvements.” - SAnews.gov.za
